Expanding the CRISPR imaging toolset with Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 for simultaneous imaging of multiple genomic loci.

In order to elucidate the functional organization of the genome, it is vital to directly visualize the interactions between genomic elements in living cells. For this purpose, we engineered the Cas9 protein from Staphylococcus aureus (SaCas9) for the imaging of endogenous genomic loci, which showed a similar robustness and efficiency as previously reported for Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9). Imaging readouts allowed us to characterize the DNA-binding activity of SaCas9 and to optimize its sgRNA scaffold.

Complete Genome Sequence of Streptomyces sp. Strain CCM_MD2014, Isolated from Topsoil in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Here, we present the complete genome sequence of Streptomyces sp. strain CCM_MD2014 (phylum Actinobacteria), isolated from surface soil in Woods Hole, MA. Its single linear chromosome of 8,274,043 bp in length has a 72.

Complete Genome Sequence of Curtobacterium sp. Strain MR_MD2014, Isolated from Topsoil in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Here, we present the 3,443,800-bp complete genome sequence of Curtobacterium sp. strain MR_MD2014 (phylum Actinobacteria). This strain was isolated from soil in Woods Hole, MA, as part of the 2014 Microbial Diversity Summer Program at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA.

Nef Proteins from HIV-1 Elite Controllers Are Inefficient at Preventing Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity.

Unlabelled: Impairment of Nef function, including reduced CD4 downregulation, was described in a subset of HIV-1-infected individuals that control viral replication without antiretroviral treatment (elite controllers [EC]). Elimination of HIV-1-infected cells by antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) requires the presence of envelope glycoproteins (Env) in the CD4-bound conformation, raising the possibility that accumulating CD4 at the surface of virus-infected cells in EC could interact with Env and thereby sensitize these cells to ADCC. We observed a significant increase in the exposure of Env epitopes targeted by ADCC-mediating antibodies at the surface of cells expressing Nef isolates from EC; this correlated with enhanced susceptibility to ADCC.

Concise Review: Patient-Specific Stem Cells to Interrogate Inherited Eye Disease.

Whether we are driving to work or spending time with loved ones, we depend on our sense of vision to interact with the world around us. Therefore, it is understandable why blindness for many is feared above death itself. Heritable diseases of the retina, such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and retinitis pigmentosa, are major causes of blindness worldwide.

An essential cell cycle regulation gene causes hybrid inviability in Drosophila.

Speciation, the process by which new biological species arise, involves the evolution of reproductive barriers, such as hybrid sterility or inviability between populations. However, identifying hybrid incompatibility genes remains a key obstacle in understanding the molecular basis of reproductive isolation. We devised a genomic screen, which identified a cell cycle-regulation gene as the cause of male inviability in hybrids resulting from a cross between Drosophila melanogaster and D.

Large-scale targeted sequencing comparison highlights extreme genetic heterogeneity in nephronophthisis-related ciliopathies.

Background: The term nephronophthisis-related ciliopathies (NPHP-RC) describes a group of rare autosomal-recessive cystic kidney diseases, characterised by broad genetic and clinical heterogeneity. NPHP-RC is frequently associated with extrarenal manifestations and accounts for the majority of genetically caused chronic kidney disease (CKD) during childhood and adolescence. Generation of a molecular diagnosis has been impaired by this broad genetic heterogeneity.

The Pfam protein families database: towards a more sustainable future.

In the last two years the Pfam database (http://pfam.xfam.org) has undergone a substantial reorganisation to reduce the effort involved in making a release, thereby permitting more frequent releases.

HIV-1 Antibody Neutralization Breadth Is Associated with Enhanced HIV-Specific CD4+ T Cell Responses.

Unlabelled: Antigen-specific CD4(+) T helper cell responses have long been recognized to be a critical component of effective vaccine immunity. CD4(+) T cells are necessary to generate and maintain humoral immune responses by providing help to antigen-specific B cells for the production of antibodies. In HIV infection, CD4(+) T cells are thought to be necessary for the induction of Env-specific broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Temperature and population density determine reservoir regions of seasonal persistence in highland malaria.

A better understanding of malaria persistence in highly seasonal environments such as highlands and desert fringes requires identifying the factors behind the spatial reservoir of the pathogen in the low season. In these 'unstable' malaria regions, such reservoirs play a critical role by allowing persistence during the low transmission season and therefore, between seasonal outbreaks. In the highlands of East Africa, the most populated epidemic regions in Africa, temperature is expected to be intimately connected to where in space the disease is able to persist because of pronounced altitudinal gradients.

Brg1 coordinates multiple processes during retinogenesis and is a tumor suppressor in retinoblastoma.

Retinal development requires precise temporal and spatial coordination of cell cycle exit, cell fate specification, cell migration and differentiation. When this process is disrupted, retinoblastoma, a developmental tumor of the retina, can form. Epigenetic modulators are central to precisely coordinating developmental events, and many epigenetic processes have been implicated in cancer.

MERAV: a tool for comparing gene expression across human tissues and cell types.

The oncogenic transformation of normal cells into malignant, rapidly proliferating cells requires major alterations in cell physiology. For example, the transformed cells remodel their metabolic processes to supply the additional demand for cellular building blocks. We have recently demonstrated essential metabolic processes in tumor progression through the development of a methodological analysis of gene expression.

The UCSC Genome Browser database: 2016 update.

For the past 15 years, the UCSC Genome Browser (http://genome.ucsc.edu/) has served the international research community by offering an integrated platform for viewing and analyzing information from a large database of genome assemblies and their associated annotations.

Estimate of within population incremental selection through branch imbalance in lineage trees.

Incremental selection within a population, defined as limited fitness changes following mutation, is an important aspect of many evolutionary processes. Strongly advantageous or deleterious mutations are detected using the synonymous to non-synonymous mutations ratio. However, there are currently no precise methods to estimate incremental selection.

Nonparadoxical evolutionary stability of the recombination initiation landscape in yeast.

The nonrandom distribution of meiotic recombination shapes heredity and genetic diversification. Theoretically, hotspots--favored sites of recombination initiation--either evolve rapidly toward extinction or are conserved, especially if they are chromosomal features under selective constraint, such as promoters. We tested these theories by comparing genome-wide recombination initiation maps from widely divergent Saccharomyces species.

Structural basis for leucine sensing by the Sestrin2-mTORC1 pathway.

Eukaryotic cells coordinate growth with the availability of nutrients through the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), a master growth regulator. Leucine is of particular importance and activates mTORC1 via the Rag guanosine triphosphatases and their regulators GATOR1 and GATOR2. Sestrin2 interacts with GATOR2 and is a leucine sensor.

High-speed recording of neural spikes in awake mice and flies with a fluorescent voltage sensor.

Genetically encoded voltage indicators (GEVIs) are a promising technology for fluorescence readout of millisecond-scale neuronal dynamics. Previous GEVIs had insufficient signaling speed and dynamic range to resolve action potentials in live animals. We coupled fast voltage-sensing domains from a rhodopsin protein to bright fluorophores through resonance energy transfer.

Oscillatory stress stimulation uncovers an Achilles' heel of the yeast MAPK signaling network.

Cells must interpret environmental information that often changes over time. In our experiment, we systematically monitored the growth of yeast cells under various frequencies of oscillating osmotic stress. Growth was severely inhibited at a particular resonance frequency, at which cells show hyperactivated transcriptional stress responses.

The Complete Genome Sequence of the Emerging Pathogen Mycobacterium haemophilum Explains Its Unique Culture Requirements.

Unlabelled: Mycobacterium haemophilum is an emerging pathogen associated with a variety of clinical syndromes, most commonly skin infections in immunocompromised individuals. M. haemophilum exhibits a unique requirement for iron supplementation to support its growth in culture, but the basis for this property and how it may shape pathogenesis is unclear.

Dynamics of CRISPR-Cas9 genome interrogation in living cells.

The RNA-guided CRISPR-associated protein Cas9 is used for genome editing, transcriptional modulation, and live-cell imaging. Cas9-guide RNA complexes recognize and cleave double-stranded DNA sequences on the basis of 20-nucleotide RNA-DNA complementarity, but the mechanism of target searching in mammalian cells is unknown. Here, we use single-particle tracking to visualize diffusion and chromatin binding of Cas9 in living cells.

Virtual typing by people with tetraplegia using a self-calibrating intracortical brain-computer interface.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) promise to restore independence for people with severe motor disabilities by translating decoded neural activity directly into the control of a computer. However, recorded neural signals are not stationary (that is, can change over time), degrading the quality of decoding. Requiring users to pause what they are doing whenever signals change to perform decoder recalibration routines is time-consuming and impractical for everyday use of BCIs.

Brain evolution by brain pathway duplication.

Understanding the mechanisms of evolution of brain pathways for complex behaviours is still in its infancy. Making further advances requires a deeper understanding of brain homologies, novelties and analogies. It also requires an understanding of how adaptive genetic modifications lead to restructuring of the brain.

Multiplex pairwise assembly of array-derived DNA oligonucleotides.

While the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped by five orders of magnitude in the past decade, DNA synthesis remains expensive for many applications. Although DNA microarrays have decreased the cost of oligonucleotide synthesis, the use of array-synthesized oligos in practice is limited by short synthesis lengths, high synthesis error rates, low yield and the challenges of assembling long constructs from complex pools. Toward addressing these issues, we developed a protocol for multiplex pairwise assembly of oligos from array-synthesized oligonucleotide pools.

The auxin-inducible degradation (AID) system enables versatile conditional protein depletion in C. elegans.

Experimental manipulation of protein abundance in living cells or organisms is an essential strategy for investigation of biological regulatory mechanisms. Whereas powerful techniques for protein expression have been developed in Caenorhabditis elegans, existing tools for conditional disruption of protein function are far more limited. To address this, we have adapted the auxin-inducible degradation (AID) system discovered in plants to enable conditional protein depletion in C.

Single-particle cryo-EM data acquisition by using direct electron detection camera.

Recent advances in single-particle electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) were largely facilitated by the application of direct electron detection cameras. These cameras feature not only a significant improvement in detective quantum efficiency but also a high frame rate that enables images to be acquired as 'movies' made of stacks of many frames. In this review, we discuss how the applications of direct electron detection cameras in cryo-EM have changed the way the data are acquired.