Chemosensory function of Varroa gnathosoma: transcriptomic and proteomic analyses.

In this study, we evaluated the role of the gnathosoma (mouthparts) in chemosensing of the most devastating honey bee parasite, Varroa destructor mite. Through transcriptomic analysis, we compared the expression of putative chemosensory genes between the body parts containing the main chemosensory organs (the forelegs), gnathosoma and the rest of the body devoid of these two body parts. Furthermore, we checked the presence of chemosensory-related transcripts in the proteome of the gnathosoma.

Short-wavelength-sensitive 1 () opsin gene duplications and parallel visual pigment tuning support ultraviolet communication in damselfishes (Pomacentridae).

Damselfishes (Pomacentridae) are one of the most behaviourally diverse, colourful and species-rich reef fish families. One remarkable characteristic of damselfishes is their communication in ultraviolet (UV) light. Not only are they sensitive to UV, they are also prone to have UV-reflective colours and patterns enabling social signalling.

Symbiont type and environmental factors affect transcriptome-wide gene expression in the coral .

Reef-building corals may harbor genetically distinct lineages of endosymbiotic dinoflagellates in the genus , which have been shown to affect important colony properties, including growth rates and resilience against environmental stress. However, the molecular processes underlying these differences are not well understood. In this study, we used whole transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) to assess gene expression differences between 27 samples of the coral predominantly hosting two different types in clades C and D.

Phylogenomic analyses data of the avian phylogenomics project.

Background: Determining the evolutionary relationships among the major lineages of extant birds has been one of the biggest challenges in systematic biology. To address this challenge, we assembled or collected the genomes of 48 avian species spanning most orders of birds, including all Neognathae and two of the five Palaeognathae orders. We used these genomes to construct a genome-scale avian phylogenetic tree and perform comparative genomic analyses.

Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds.

To better determine the history of modern birds, we performed a genome-scale phylogenetic analysis of 48 species representing all orders of Neoaves using phylogenomic methods created to handle genome-scale data. We recovered a highly resolved tree that confirms previously controversial sister or close relationships. We identified the first divergence in Neoaves, two groups we named Passerea and Columbea, representing independent lineages of diverse and convergently evolved land and water bird species.

Do rational numbers play a role in selection for stochasticity?

When a given tissue must, to be able to perform its various functions, consist of different cell types, each fairly evenly distributed and with specific probabilities, then there are at least two quite different developmental mechanisms which might achieve the desired result. Let us begin with the case of two cell types, and first imagine that the proportion of numbers of cells of these types should be 1:3. Clearly, a regular structure composed of repeating units of four cells, three of which are of the dominant type, will easily satisfy the requirements, and a deterministic mechanism may lend itself to the task.

Dendritic diameters affect the spatial variability of intracellular calcium dynamics in computer models.

There is growing interest in understanding calcium dynamics in dendrites, both experimentally and computationally. Many processes influence these dynamics, but in dendrites there is a strong contribution of morphology because the peak calcium levels are strongly determined by the surface to volume ratio (SVR) of each branch, which is inversely related to branch diameter. In this study we explore the predicted variance of dendritic calcium concentrations due to local changes in dendrite diameter and how this is affected by the modeling approach used.

Efficient calculation of the quasi-static electrical potential on a tetrahedral mesh and its implementation in STEPS.

We describe a novel method for calculating the quasi-static electrical potential on tetrahedral meshes, which we call E-Field. The E-Field method is implemented in STEPS, which performs stochastic spatial reaction-diffusion computations in tetrahedral-based cellular geometry reconstructions. This provides a level of integration between electrical excitability and spatial molecular dynamics in realistic cellular morphology not previously achievable.

Evaluation of linearly solvable Markov decision process with dynamic model learning in a mobile robot navigation task.

Linearly solvable Markov Decision Process (LMDP) is a class of optimal control problem in which the Bellman's equation can be converted into a linear equation by an exponential transformation of the state value function (Todorov, 2009b). In an LMDP, the optimal value function and the corresponding control policy are obtained by solving an eigenvalue problem in a discrete state space or an eigenfunction problem in a continuous state using the knowledge of the system dynamics and the action, state, and terminal cost functions. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of the LMDP framework in real robot control, in which the dynamics of the body and the environment have to be learned from experience.

An inverse approach for elucidating dendritic function.

We outline an inverse approach for investigating dendritic function-structure relationships by optimizing dendritic trees for a priori chosen computational functions. The inverse approach can be applied in two different ways. First, we can use it as a "hypothesis generator" in which we optimize dendrites for a function of general interest.