1. Both population abundances and chemical tracers are useful tools for studying consumer-resource interactions. Food web models parameterized with abundances are often used to understand how interactions structure communities and to inform management decisions of complex ecological systems. Unfortunately, collecting abundance data to parameterize these models is often expensive and time-consuming. Another approach is to use chemical tracers to estimate the proportional diets of consumers by relating the tracers in their tissues to those found...

Inflammation or dysbacteriosis-derived lipopolysaccharides (LPS) adversely influence the embryonic development of respiratory system. However, the precise pathological mechanisms still remain to be elucidated. In this study, we demonstrated that LPS exposure caused lung maldevelopment in chick embryos, including higher embryo mortality, increased thickness of alveolar gas exchange zone, and accumulation of PAS+ immature pulmonary cells, accompanied with reduced expression of alveolar epithelial cell markers and lamellar body count. Upon LPS exposure, pulmonary cell proliferation was...

Inflammation or dysbacteriosis-derived lipopolysaccharides (LPS) adversely influence the embryonic development of respiratory system. However, the precise pathological mechanisms still remain to be elucidated. In this study, we demonstrated that LPS exposure caused lung maldevelopment in chick embryos, including higher embryo mortality, increased thickness of alveolar gas exchange zone, and accumulation of PAS+ immature pulmonary cells, accompanied with reduced expression of alveolar epithelial cell markers and lamellar body count. Upon LPS exposure, pulmonary cell proliferation was...

Figure S1. Expression pattern of ULK1 in a cohort of PDA patients in TCGA and cell lines. Figure S2. PVT1 regulates ULK1 expression in a posttranscriptional manner. Figure S3. Cellular location of PVT1 and miR-20a-5p in PDA cells. Figure S4. miR-20a-5p suppressed PVT1 function. Table S1. Clinicopathological information of 68 PDA patients in detail. Table S2. The PCR primer sequence to detect the target genes. Table S3. The sequence of the shRNAs to diminish the...

Compared to other primates, humans are exceptional long-distance runners, a feature that emerged in genus Homo ~2 million years ago (mya) and is classically attributed to anatomical and physiological adaptations such as an enlarged gluteus maximus and improved heat dissipation. However, no underlying genetic changes have currently been defined. Two-three mya, an exon deletion in the CMP-Neu5Ac Hydroxylase (CMAH) gene also became fixed in our ancestral lineage. Cmah loss in mice exacerbates disease severity in...

Molecular phylogenies suggest some major radiations of open-ocean fish clades occurred roughly coincident with the K/Pg boundary, however the timing and nature of this diversification is poorly constrained. Here we investigate evolutionary patterns in ray-finned fishes across the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K/Pg) Mass Extinction 66 million years ago (Ma), using microfossils (isolated teeth) preserved in a South Pacific sediment core spanning 72-43 Ma. Our record does not show significant turnover of fish tooth morphotypes at the K/Pg...

Extinction risk assessments of marine invertebrate species remain scarce, which hinders effective management of marine biodiversity in the face of anthropogenic impacts. In order to close this information gap, we developed a metric of relative extinction risk that combines paleontological data, in the form of extinction rates calculated from the fossil record, with two known correlates of risk in the modern day: geographic range size and realized thermal niche. We test the performance of this...

Evolutionary innovations are often achieved by repurposing existing genes to perform new functions; however, the mechanisms enabling the transition from old to new remain controversial. We identified mutations in bacteriophage λ’s host-recognition gene J that confer enhanced adsorption to λ’s native receptor, LamB, and the ability to access a new receptor, OmpF. The mutations destabilize particles and cause conformational bistability of J, which yields progeny of multiple phenotypic forms, each proficient at different receptors. This...

Microglia are a major cellular component of gliomas, and abundant in the centre of the tumour and at the infiltrative margins. While glioma is a notoriously infiltrative disease, the dynamics of microglia and glioma migratory patterns have not been well characterized. To investigate the migratory behaviour of microglia and glioma cells at the infiltrative edge, we performed two-colour time-lapse fluorescence microscopy of brain slices generated from a platelet-derived growth factor-B (PDGFB)-driven rat model of glioma,...

Predicting the stability of crystals is one of the central problems in materials science. Today, density functional theory (DFT) calculations remain comparatively expensive and scale poorly with system size. Here we show that deep neural networks utilizing just two descriptors—the Pauling electronegativity and ionic radii—can predict the DFT formation energies of C3A2D3O12 garnets and ABO3 perovskites with low mean absolute errors (MAEs) of 7–10 meV atom−1 and 20–34 meV atom−1, respectively, well within the limits...

Differential maternal provisioning of offspring in response to environmental conditions has been argued as ‘the missing link’ in plant life histories. Although empirical evidence suggests that maternal provisioning responses to abiotic conditions are common, there is little understanding of how differences in maternal provisioning manifest in response to competition. Frequency manipulations are commonly employed in ecological studies to assess the strength of interspecific competition, relative to intraspecific competition, and we used frequency manipulations to test...

Corals and humans represent two extremely disparate metazoan lineages and are therefore useful for comparative evolutionary studies. Two lipid-based molecules that are central to human immunity, platelet activating factor (PAF) and Lyso-PAF were recently identified in scleractinian corals. To identify processes in corals that involve these molecules, PAF and Lyso-PAF biosynthesis was quantified in conditions known to stimulate PAF production in mammals (tissue growth and exposure to elevated levels of ultraviolet light) and in conditions...

The behavioural composition of a group and the dynamics of social interactions can both influence how social animals work collectively. For example, individuals exhibiting certain behavioural tendencies may have a disproportionately large impact on the group, and so are referred to as keystone individuals, while interactions between individuals can facilitate information transmission about resources. Despite the potential impact of both behavioural composition and interactions on collective behaviour, the relationship between consistent behaviours, also known as...

There is an increased recognition in the field of toxicology of the value of medium-to-high-throughput screening methods using in vitro and alternative animal models. We have previously introduced the asexual freshwater planarian Dugesia japonica as a new alternative animal model and proposed that it is particularly well-suited for the study of developmental neurotoxicology. In this paper, we discuss how we have expanded and automated our screening methodology to allow for fast screening of multiple behavioral...

The gold standard for a definitive diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the pathologic finding of aggregated alpha-synuclein into Lewy bodies and for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) aggregated amyloid into plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau into tangles. Implicit in this clinico-pathologic-based nosology is the assumption that pathological protein aggregation at autopsy reflect pathogenesis at disease onset. While these aggregates may in exceptional cases be on a causal pathway in humans (e.g., aggregated alpha-synuclein in SNCA gene multiplication...

Contract variances complicate academic medical center accounts receivables because they are one driver of ambiguity when calculating future free cash flows FFCF [1]. UC Health provides leadership and strategic direction for UC’s five academic medical centers and 18 health professional schools. Contract variations within 1 (one) medical center has a multiplier effect in the consolidated annual financial reporting. In December 2017 we created an internal project charter [2] to consolidate contracts financial accounts receivables activity...

A well-designed data story is a launch point for revenue cycle professionals using analytics to manage accounts receivable according to portfolio principles. In the last 100 (one hundred) days before the close of a fiscal year, holding accounts receivables too long poses an inordinate risk on the perceived value of UCSD Health's trial balance inventory. In April 2018, we started to design a Tableau dashboard that would more accurately forecast two things First Future free...

We identified a homozygous missense alteration (c.75C>A, p.D25E) in CLCC1, encoding a presumptive intracellular chloride channel highly expressed in the retina, associated with autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (arRP) in eight consanguineous families of Pakistani descent. The p.D25E alteration decreased CLCC1 channel function accompanied by accumulation of mutant protein in granules within the ER lumen, while siRNA knockdown of CLCC1 mRNA induced apoptosis in cultured ARPE-19 cells. TALEN KO in zebrafish was lethal 11 days post...

Environmental change can result in substantial shifts in community composition. The associated immigration and extinction events are likely constrained by the spatial distribution of species. Still, studies on environmental change typically quantify biotic responses at single spatial (time series within a single plot) or temporal (spatial beta-diversity at single time points) scales, ignoring their potential interdependence. Here, we use data from a global network of grassland experiments to determine how turnover responses to two major...

The diversification of parasite groups often occurs at the same time as the diversification of their hosts. However, most studies demonstrating this concordance only examine single host-parasite groups. Multiple diverse lineages of ectoparasitic lice occur across both birds and mammals. Here we describe the evolutionary history of lice based on analyses of 1,107 single copy orthologous genes from sequenced genomes of 46 species of lice. We identify three major diverse groups of lice: one exclusively...

Neisseria gonorrhoeae causes the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea exclusively in humans and uses multiple strategies to infect, including acquisition of host sialic acids that cap and mask lipooligosaccharide termini, while restricting complement activation. We hypothesized that gonococci selectively target human anti-inflammatory sialic acid-recognizing Siglec receptors on innate immune cells to blunt host responses, and that pro-inflammatory Siglecs and SIGLEC pseudogene polymorphisms represent host evolutionary adaptions to counteract this interaction. N. gonorrhoeae can indeed engage multiple...

Uncovering how and why animals explore their environment is fundamental for understanding population dynamics, the spread of invasive species, species interactions, etc. In social animals, individuals within a group can vary in their exploratory behavior, and the behavioral composition of the group can determine its collective success. Workers of the invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) exhibit individual variation in exploratory behavior, which affects the colony’s collective nest selection behavior. Here, we examine the mechanisms underlying...

Theory suggests that the direct transmission of endosymbionts from parents to offspring (vertical transmission) in animal hosts is advantageous and evolutionarily stable, yet many host species instead acquire their symbionts from the environment (horizontal acquisition). An outstanding question in marine biology is why some scleractinian corals do not provision their eggs and larvae with the endosymbiotic dinoflagellates that are necessary for a juvenile’s ultimate survival. We tested whether the acquisition of photosynthetic endosymbionts (family Symbiodiniaceae)...

Social interactions can facilitate transmission of microbes between individuals, reducing variation in gut communities within social groups. Thus, the evolution of social behaviors and symbiont community composition have the potential to be tightly linked. We explored this connection by characterizing the diversity of bacteria associated with both eusocial and solitary bee species within the behaviorally variable family Halictidae using 16S amplicon sequencing. Contrary to expectations, we found few differences in bacterial abundance or variation between...

The giant clam Tridacna crocea, native to Indo-Pacific coral reefs, is noted for its unique ability to bore fully into coral rock and is a major agent of reef bioerosion. However, T. crocea’s mechanism of boring has remained a mystery despite decades of research. By exploiting a new, two-dimensional pH-sensing technology and manipulating clams to press their presumptive boring tissue (the pedal mantle) against pH-sensing foils, we show that this tissue lowers the pH of...