Neocortex has the largest volume, while cerebellar cortex houses most neurons of the mammalian brain, underscoring paramount functions for interactions between them. Neocortex projects to the cerebellum via both the mossy fibre and climbing fibre system; whereas the mossy fibres find their origin in the pons, the climbing fibres are relayed via the subnuclei of […]
Active microbial communities and their extrachromosomal elements link organic matter degradation to methane cycling in anoxic sediments
Anaerobic carbon transformation in freshwater sediments drives substantial methane emissions globally, yet the microbial taxa linking complex carbon degradation to methane production remain poorly characterized. Here, we combined metagenomics with the first metatranscriptomic dataset from the anoxic sediments of meromictic Lake Cadagno (Swiss Alps) to identify the active microbial clades, metabolic pathways, and extrachromosomal elements […]
Morphological and functional characterization of the ptychocyte, a stingless stinging cell
Cnidocytes (stinging cells), unique to cnidarians (corals, anemones, jellyfish), have diversified into distinct types with variable forms and functions. Nematocytes, cnidocytes found in all cnidarians, are used for prey capture and defense. When triggered, a pressurized capsule inside the nematocyte releases a harpoon-like structure attached to a hollow tubule that pierces prey and delivers venom. […]
The Genomic Legacy of the Norman Conquest in Rural England
The Norman Conquest of 1066 CE reshaped the political and cultural landscape of England, yet its demographic consequences remain poorly understood, particularly outside elite and urban contexts where historical evidence is concentrated. Here, we investigate the population history of a rural English community spanning the Conquest using genome-wide ancient DNA from the Priory Orchard site, […]
The Temporal Constraints of the Cerebellum’s Timekeeping
The cerebellum plays a central role in generating temporal predictions from past sensory regularities, yet the temporal boundaries of this predictive capacity remain unclear. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated somatosensory and cerebellar responses to omissions within rhythmic somatosensory stimulation trains across six inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) ranging from 0.5 to 5.5 seconds. We hypothesised that cerebellar […]
Systematic CRISPRi screening reveals genetic modulators of E. coli isoprenoid production
Isoprenoid biosynthesis in E. coli is a promising source of high-value natural products. However, isoprenoid production imposes a substantial metabolic burden on cellular carbon and cofactor metabolism. Optimizing yields thus requires rebalancing gene expression throughout metabolism. To systematically identify the genes in E. coli central metabolism shaping isoprenoid yield, we established a high-throughput CRISPR interference […]
Lineage-Specific Venom Gene Expression Shapes Chemical Diversity in Cephalopods
Animal venoms represent a major source of chemical novelty, yet how venom compounds originate, diversify, and are maintained across deep evolutionary timescales remains poorly understood. This gap is especially pronounced in cephalopods, which evolved venom systems used in predation, defense, and sexual competition, but whose venom genetic architectures, secretory cell types, and venom-producing glands remain […]
Computing coalescence rates for complex demographies and sampling configurations
Inference of population history from genetic data relies, implicitly or explicitly, on the distribution of coalescence times, because population size changes, migration, and admixture all leave characteristic signatures in genealogies. The distribution of pairwise coalescent rates in particular has emerged as a popular target for demographic inference methods. However, pairwise coalescent rates have limited power […]
A Joint Promoterome-Proteome Atlas Highlights the Molecular Diversity of Human Skeletal Muscles
More than 600 distinct skeletal muscles constitute up to 40% of the total mass of the human body. Human skeletal muscles differ in anatomical position, morphology, origin, and function, but the diversity of their molecular phenotypes, the gene expression and protein abundance profiles, remains poorly explored. Here, we report the large-scale CAGE-Seq promoterome profiling of […]
Neurophysiological correlates of processing Agreement and Tense in Arabic
Most syntactic approaches converge on the fact that Tense and Agreement are two different functional categories, although there is less agreement on their exact representation and relative hierarchical order. Cross-linguistic agrammatic data seems to support the difference between Tense and Agreement, with patterns of dissociation reported from agrammatism between them, in which Tense is generally […]
Intrinsic disorder in elicitin-like effectors: Molecular shields in the arms race of biotrophic pathogens
Plant pathogens establish colonization through effector secretion to modulate host immune responses. Within bacterial effectors intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) contribute to diverse functions and pathogenicity, but their role in effectors of phytopathogenic oomycetes remains poorly understood. Here, analysis of oomycete secretomes across lifestyles reveal widespread intrinsic disorder in secreted proteins, particularly in apoplastic elicitin and […]
Kinematics-based assessment of reaching and grasping movements in LRN ablated animals identifies a role for the LRN in endpoint stabilization and reach timing.
The lateral reticular nucleus (LRN) is thought to contribute to skilled forelimb control but its specific contributions to reaching and grasping remain unclear. In this paper, we examine skilled reaching in intact adult female Long-Evans rats after bilateral LRN ablation through single-pellet reaching tasks. Tasks were analyzed using sensitive quantitative kinematic analyses and qualitative behavioral […]