Bacteriophage therapy offers a potential route to treat antibiotic-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae infections, but its use is limited by the narrow specificity of phage-host interactions. In Klebsiella, adsorption is largely determined by receptor-binding proteins (RBPs) that recognize bacterial capsular polysaccharides, yet current machine learning approaches often represent whole phages rather than the individual proteins that mediate […]

The addictive properties of opioids are due in part to these drugs ability to alter ventral tegmental area (VTA) activity via activation of mu opioid receptors (MORs) on local and distal inputs. Prior studies have identified numerous possible opioid-modulated afferents to the VTA, but the degree to which they express these receptors is not known. […]

The symbiosis between algae and animals represents a relatively recent evolutionary innovation, and exemplified by species in the Cnidaria phylum. Cnidaria can harbor algae within a modified cellular organelle called the symbiosome in a process called endosymbiosis. This animal-algal symbiosis can be facultative or obligate. Algae acquisition occurs either by horizontal transmission, where free-swimming planula […]

Ligand binding to intrinsically disordered proteins resists description in terms of conventional binding pockets, yet it can be analysed as a dynamic process in which ligands move across transient surface interaction sites. Here we characterise a pathway-based representation in which ligand binding is described as a sequence of transitions between residue-defined microstates, enabling ligand-specific effects […]

We conducted field surveys over two consecutive years (2022 and 2023) of freshwater habitats in the Rio De La Concepcion (several tributaries and sites) and one site in the Rio Santa Cruz (tributary of the Gila River) in the state of Sonora, Mexico. Our primary goal was to detect the presence of the Rio Concepcion […]

Cortical activity is inherently dynamic, with ongoing fluctuations introducing variability into sensory-to-motor transformations. During movement initiation, neural variability in the motor cortex is sharply reduced, or ‘quenched’, a general phenomenon thought to ensure reliable population responses across cortical areas. However, the synaptic and circuit-level basis for this reduction in neural variability remains unclear. Here, we […]

Stable variation in public-good production can generate biological division of labor. Two key drivers are the size of interacting groups and the degree of assortment (relatedness) among individuals with similar investment levels. Here we extend adaptive-dynamic models of continuous public-goods investment by allowing assortment in group formation. We show that increasing group size typically enlarges […]

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses from clade 2.3.4.4 have caused recurrent outbreaks in poultry since 2014. In the Republic of Korea, clade 2.3.4.4b viruses have driven five epidemic waves, yet the factors underlying HPAI introduction and farm-to-farm spread remain poorly understood. We compiled hemagglutinin gene sequences of clade 2.3.4.4b viruses from wild birds and […]

With the development of microfluidics, it has now become possible to assess the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics at the single-cell level instead of relying on population measurements. Such studies are particularly relevant when the growth of bacterial population in the presence of antibiotics is heterogeneous. Here, we build a model to describe such a […]

The heart needs to adapt its output to the metabolic demands of the organism. Phosphorylation of the myosin motors by cardiac myosin light chain kinase (cMLCK) increases heart muscle contractile function, yet its regulation and mechanism of action have remained unclear. Here, we show that cMLCK undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation and forms biomolecular condensates associated […]

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are the primary vectors for dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya and zika virus transmission, posing significant public health risks. In Kenya, these viruses drive disease outbreaks especially, dengue and chikungunya with coastal Kenya being the most affected. Low-level circulation of the Zika virus has been reported in parts of the Kenyan coast, with […]

In-depth understanding of the 3D organization of the genome and its role in the regulation of gene expression requires techniques to measure complex chromosome conformations at single alleles at high resolution. Here, we present multi-way Micro-Capture-C (mwMCC), a method to detect concurrent interactions between multiple chromatin regions at single alleles at sub-nucleosome resolution. mwMCC resolves […]