Articles in 2019

Venkatesan and Coskun propose the use of digital posters instead of paper posters for disseminating progress reports in scientific meetings. These digital frames are capable of uploading multiple display items via wireless network and changing the interactive display with wave of a hand over an attached motion sensor.

Brett Sansbury et al. show that a CRISPR-Cas complex that provides double-stranded cleavage combined with a mammalian cell-free extract can enhance non-homologous end joining and homology-directed repair. They use the system to show the range of genetic outcomes of gene-editing.

Sharon Wismer et al. report the effects of coral loss on the Great Barrier Reef on coral-dependent fish populations. They show that despite huge losses in coral cover, both adult and young fishes persisted by using a range of alternative reef habitats.

Henning Höfig et al. present a brightness-gated two-color coincidence detection method that overcomes the limitations of confocal detection. The method adds a selection criterion for the brightness of single fluorescence bursts, substantially improving the counting accuracy for single fluorophores.

Chun Gui et al. identify CytA, a reductase involved in C-7 reduction during the biosynthesis of cytorhodin, as an anthracycline antibiotic. This study suggests that CytA may protect its producer bacteria by inactivating anthracycline drugs.

Justin Doritchamou et al. study VAR2CSA, a protein from Plasmodium falciparum currently in use in two vaccines to prevent placental malaria. They identify atypical extracellular structures that impact antigen reactivity and function, potentially impacting the design of VAR2CSA-based vaccines.

Alicia Montesinos-Navarro et al. analyze rewiring patterns in plant-fungal interactions across 15 habitat fragments in southeastern Spain to test whether network rewiring is phylogenetically constrained. They find that the rewiring of fungal interactions is constrained to close relatives of preferred hosts, but despite the phylogenetic constraint, rewiring increases community robustness.

Dellinger et al. report the characterization of different pollinator selection regimes on 3D flower models. They show that pollinators selected for functional floral modules, and that this modularity allowed certain species to overcome morphological constraints by increased evolutionary rates in other flower parts.

Nancy Adam et al present a pipeline to analyze interphase telomeres in 3D using wide-field microscopy and image analysis. Illustrating the utility of the workflow, they detect differences in telomere length and clustering in Hs68 fibroblasts depending on whether or not cells are immortalized through hTERT expression.

Abhishek Bhattacherjee et al. investigate the functional differences between human and mouse CD33, an immunomodulatory receptor linked to Alzheimer’s disease. They find that loss of mouse CD33 does not affect cargo uptake in macrophages in contrast to human CD33, which represses phagocytosis when expressed in cells or mice.

Van Egroo, Narbutas, Chylinski et al. report cortical excitability dynamics during prolonged wakefulness as a sensitive marker of age-related alterations in sleep-wake regulation in older individuals. They show that preserved wake-dependent cortical excitability dynamics are associated with better cognitive performance.

David Golonka et al. report the epitopes in Arabidopsis phytochrome-interacting factors (PIF) that underlie light-dependent interactions with phytochrome B. They identify compact PIF variants that enable light-activated gene expression and membrane recruitment with reduced basal activity and enhanced regulatory response.

Robert de Moya et al. use comparative genomics of avian lice to reconstruct the phylogeny of these parasites. They show that feather lice diversified on the common ancestor of waterfowl and landfowl, and then radiated onto other avian lineages through host-switching.

Ai et al. report that endogenous formaldehyde bidirectionally modulates cognition via the NMDA-R receptor, with both insufficiency and overabundance resulting in cognitive defects. The target site of formaldehyde enhancing NMDA-currents is cysteine C232 residue in amino terminal domain sequence of the NR2B subunit of NMDA-R and excessive formaldehyde suppresses NMDA-R activity by cross-linking NR1 to NR2B residues.

Bargelloni et al. assemble the genome of the icefish Chionodraco myersi and use comparative analysis to examine the basis of adaptation to extreme Southern Ocean conditions. They show evidence for the evolutionary loss of globin genes and the peculiar regulation of genes involved in mitochondrial function.

Windels et al. present a method that effectively enriches persisters by separating cells tolerant to cephalexin, an antibiotic that induces filamentation of susceptible cells. This study suggests that persisters can be monitored at the single-cell level with a microfluidic device in a high-throughput manner.

Kaneko et al. model recovery dynamics of thymocytes and thymic epithelial cells following irradiation. They find that CD4+CD8+ double-positive thymocytes temporarily increase their proliferation rate to compensate for a reduction in population size.

Justin Cruite et al. present a high-resolution crystal structure of the master virulence activator ToxT of Vibrio cholerae in the presence and absence of an inhibitor. They show that release of the inhibitor increases flexibility, leading to the active conformation needed for dimerization and DNA binding.

Gerrit Angst et al. report the function of earthworms as biochemical reactors in soil by converting labile plant-derived carbon into stabilized microbial-derived carbon. They show that earthworms increase the resilience of carbon in soil to natural and anthropogenic disturbances.

Hanzhuang Liu et al. present new BODIPY dyes that undergo a reversible pH-dependent switch upon acidification from the colorless leuco-form to red fluorescent BODIPY. They use these probes to directly image organelle acidification associated with autophagy in real time.