The effect of shielding the parietal eye of Podarcis muralis on behavioral thermoregulation

1. 1. Body temperatures (T_bs) and thermoregulatory precision of 7 sham shielded and 7 parietal eye shielded Podarcis muralis were measured in a linear thigmothermal gradient over a 24 h period.

2. 2. Shielding the parietal eye did not alter the mean T_b selected over the 24 h period.

3. 3. Both groups selected T_bs that did not differ between photophase and scotophase.

4. 4. Shielding the parietal eye did not influence thermoregulatory precision when measured over the 12 h of photophase, but from 0600–1200 h EST parietal eye shielded lizards thermoregulated more precisely than sham shielded lizards.

     

面向药物发现和精准医疗的基因表达谱分析

作为功能基因组学中重要的组成部分,基因表达谱在生物学、医学和药物研发等多个领域发挥着重要作用.特别是随着精准医疗概念的提出,整合多组学数据用于个性化医疗是未来的发展趋势.本文从基因表达谱的基本概念出发,重点介绍面向药物发现的基因表达谱分析方法,即基于关联图谱的方法、基于基因调控网络的方法和基于多组学数据整合的方法.系统整理了各种方法的研究进展,特别是在抗癌药物研发领域的最新进展,为利用基因表达谱数据进行药物研发提供方法借鉴.     

Oligonucleotide‐directed mutagenesis for precision gene editing

Differences in gene sequences, many of which are single nucleotide polymorphisms, underlie some of the most important traits in plants. With humanity facing significant challenges to increase global agricultural productivity, there is an urgent need to accelerate the development of these traits in plants. oligonucleotide‐directed mutagenesis (ODM), one of the many tools of Cibus’ Rapid Trait Development System ( RTDS ^?) technology, offers a rapid, precise and non‐transgenic breeding alternative for trait improvement in agriculture to address this urgent need. This review explores the application of ODM as a precision genome editing technology, with emphasis on using oligonucleotides to make targeted edits in plasmid, episomal and chromosomal DNA of bacterial, fungal, mammalian and plant systems. The process of employing ODM by way of RTDS technology has been improved in many ways by utilizing a fluorescence conversion system wherein a blue fluorescent protein (BFP) can be changed to a green fluorescent protein (GFP) by editing a single nucleotide of the BFP gene (CAC→TAC; H66 to Y66). For example, dependent on oligonucleotide length, applying oligonucleotide‐mediated technology to target the BFP transgene in Arabidopsis thaliana protoplasts resulted in up to 0.05% precisely edited GFP loci. Here, the development of traits in commercially relevant plant varieties to improve crop performance by genome editing technologies such as ODM, and by extension RTDS , is reviewed.     

Clinical proteomics-driven precision medicine for targeted cancer therapy: current overview and future perspectives

Cancer is a common disease that is a leading cause of death worldwide. Currently, early detection and novel therapeutic strategies are urgently needed for more effective management of cancer. Importantly, protein profiling using clinical proteomic strategies, with spectacular sensitivity and precision, offer excellent promise for the identification of potential biomarkers that would direct the development of targeted therapeutic anticancer drugs for precision medicine. In particular, clinical sample sources, including tumor tissues and body fluids (blood, feces, urine and saliva), have been widely investigated using modern high-throughput mass spectrometry-based proteomic approaches combined with bioinformatic analysis, to pursue the possibilities of precision medicine for targeted cancer therapy. Discussed in this review are the current advantages and limitations of clinical proteomics, the available strategies of clinical proteomics for the management of precision medicine, as well as the challenges and future perspectives of clinical proteomics-driven precision medicine for targeted cancer therapy.     

Abandoning personalization to get to precision in the pharmacotherapy of depression

Effectiveness studies and analyses of naturalistic cohorts demonstrate that many patients with major depressive disorder do not experience symptomatic remission with antidepressant treatments. In an effort to better match patients with effective treatments, numerous investigations of predictors or moderators of treatment response have been reported over the past five decades, including clinical features as well as biological measures. However, none of these have entered routine clinical practice; instead, clinicians typically personalize treatment on the basis of patient preferences as well as their own. Here, we review the reasons why it has been challenging to identify and deploy treatment‐specific predictors of response, and suggest strategies that may be required to achieve true precision in the pharmacotherapy of depression. We emphasize the need for changes in how depression care is delivered, measured, and used to inform future practice.     

Estimating processing time of stream benthic samples

Multiple regression analysis was used to generate equations relating time required to sort and tabulate benthic invertebrates to size characteristics of benthic samples collected from a 5th-order river and a 3rd-order woodland stream. Number of invertebrates in a sample was the primary determinant of sample sorting time. Amount of detritus, occurrence of filamentous algae (Cladophora) and source stream contributed significant but minor additional variability to estimates (cumulativeR ² = 0.95). When number of animals was excluded as a variable, amount of detritus and presence/absence ofCladophora alone could be used to predict sorting time (R ² = 0.81). A typical sample containingCladophora required 29% longer to sort than samples containing equivalent amounts of organic material but noCladophora. The influence of sampler size and subsampling on processing and sorting time are considered. A general equation was derived to provide guidelines for selecting a size of stream sampler that subsequently minimizes total processing time required to estimate density of benthos with acceptable, constant precision. Overall sample processing and sorting time are reduced by using a smaller sampler or by subsampling only if benthic densities of animals are high. Use of regression equations to anticipate processing and sorting time required for a particular sampling program permits development of more efficient designs.     

Effects of sample size and intraspecific variation in phylogenetic comparative studies: a meta‐analytic review

Comparative analyses aim to explain interspecific variation in phenotype among taxa. In this context, phylogenetic approaches are generally applied to control for similarity due to common descent, because such phylogenetic relationships can produce spurious similarity in phenotypes (known as phylogenetic inertia or bias). On the other hand, these analyses largely ignore potential biases due to within‐species variation. Phylogenetic comparative studies inherently assume that species‐specific means from intraspecific samples of modest sample size are biologically meaningful. However, within‐species variation is often significant, because measurement errors, within‐ and between‐individual variation, seasonal fluctuations, and differences among populations can all reduce the repeatability of a trait. Although simulations revealed that low repeatability can increase the type I error in a phylogenetic study, researchers only exercise great care in accounting for similarity in phenotype due to common phylogenetic descent, while problems posed by intraspecific variation are usually neglected. A meta‐analysis of 194 comparative analyses all adjusting for similarity due to common phylogenetic descent revealed that only a few studies reported intraspecific repeatabilities, and hardly any considered or partially dealt with errors arising from intraspecific variation. This is intriguing, because the meta‐analytic data suggest that the effect of heterogeneous sampling can be as important as phylogenetic bias, and thus they should be equally controlled in comparative studies. We provide recommendations about how to handle such effects of heterogeneous sampling.     

Learning of a Mimic Odor within Beehives Improves Pollination Service Efficiency in a Commercial Crop

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