The gut microbiota is essential for maintaining host homeostasis through its influence on metabolism, immunity, and neural signalling. Disruption of this microbial balance, known as gut dysbiosis, can alter gut-brain communication and has been associated with cognitive decline, with impairments in learning and memory. However, the cellular and molecular factors that lead to cognitive decline are not well understood. In this study we used an antibiotic-induced gut dysbiosis model.

The interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health drives emerging threats, such as antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. The widespread use of the same antimicrobials in both human and livestock may play a role in interspecies bacterial transmission by disrupting natural microbial communities and creating an environment favouring resistant bacteria. Pigs and poultry receive high levels of antimicrobials and are reservoirs of multidrug-resistant bacteria, including Streptococcus suis, a zoonotic pig pathogen. S. suis detection in non-porcine hosts, particularly poultry, raises a critical question: is this due to transient spillover or does it represent sustained host jumps and adaptation?

Based on the climate change and more extreme temperature events in the past 30 years, heat stress (HS) has become one of the most detrimental abiotic stresses that affect crop growth and development, limit their geographical distribution, and reduce yield. As a typical chimonophilous crop, wheat is very sensitive to high temperature. Deciphering the molecular mechanism of the wheat response to high temperature will help in the development of cultivars that perform better under HS.

Nictation is a dispersal behavior in nematodes, aiding movement and host-finding under stress. This review explores its diversity, genetic and neuronal basis, regulation, and ecological relevance. Nictation involves sensory integration, plasticity, and inter-organismal communication. Though its neural circuitry and molecular pathways remain partly understood, recent findings highlight roles for dauer signaling, neurotransmitters, and neuropeptides. Advances in scoring methods and genetic tools, including of parasitic species, now enable deeper study of its environmental triggers, evolutionary context, and impact on nematode virulence, with key knowledge gaps identified for future research.

Accurate prediction of anticancer drug responses remains a significant challenge due to the intricate interplay between genomic features and pharmacological mechanisms. We present Matrix Completion with Low-rank Regularization and Principal Component Analysis (MCLRP), a multimodal framework that synergistically integrates low-rank matrix completion with transcriptomic principal component analysis through dual-stream feature interaction. This innovative architecture not only leverages the similarities among drugs and mutation patterns in cell lines via matrix completion but also preserves gene-level interpretability of response patterns by incorporating gene expression data into the model.

Anthropogenic forces have resulted in staggering losses of biodiversity and population declines in many species over the past two centuries. Associated with these declines are potential adverse effects linked to small population sizes, including loss of genetic diversity and increased levels of inbreeding. Here, we leverage DNA sequencing from museum specimens to examine genetic variation between historic and contemporary populations of four species of warblers (Aves, Setophaga) that vary with respect to degree of population changes over this period. To explore the genetic impacts of varying population declines, we gathered polymorphism data at 157 PCR-amplified loci in 341 individuals sampled in two time periods-historic (1789-1955) vs contemporary (2001-2020).

The black soldier fly (BSF, Hermetia illucens) is widely used for waste bioconversion and sustainable protein production. However, domestication and prolonged captive rearing can rapidly alter genetic diversity and population structure. This study investigated how selective breeding, genetic drift, and relaxed selection have shaped genomic variation and effective population size in multiple BSF populations. Using genome-wide restriction site-associated DNA sequencing, we analysed population structure, heterozygosity, and selection signatures across 11 BSF populations, including 1 long-term domesticated line, 5 selectively bred lines (Line A to Line E), 3 wild-derived populations, and 2 commercial strains.

Organelle genome fragmentation is a drastic large-scale chromosomal mutation. Why and how organelle genomes become fragmented is still poorly understood. Two previous studies based on whole genome comparison between human louse and fruit fly proposed that the loss of mtSSB gene (for mitochondrial single-stranded DNA-binding protein) might be associated with mitochondrial (mt) genome fragmentation. Whether this association is valid has not been investigated due to the lack of mt genome fragmentation data.

Nutrition during early life often has lasting consequences for adult physiology. However, it remains unclear how developmental diet shapes both the initial energetic state and subsequent change of energy stores. To address this, we systematically varied yeast and sugar concentrations in the developmental diet of Drosophila melanogaster and quantified energy reserves (in joules, derived from fat, glycogen, trehalose, and glucose) at eclosion and after 10 days of adulthood on a standardized diet. Comparing these time points allowed estimation of net change in energy reserves. Additionally, we examined how these effects depend on sex, population, and reproductive status.

The nervous system senses microbial signals to influence host defense. Pain-sensing nociceptor neurons are key regulators of the host response to infection, but how they perceive infections is not well understood. Using Caenorhabditis elegans as a tractable model host that shares many features with mammalian systems, we investigated the effects of infection on nociceptor function in vivo.

As populations age, the number of people with age-related chronic diseases increases, causing significant social, economic and health problems. Natural variation in lifespan depends on multiple interacting genes and environmental exposures. Its short generation time and many resources make Drosophila melanogaster an advantageous model to uncover the genetic architecture that underlies variation in lifespan.

Recent studies focus on the genetic and physiological characteristics of the plains Han, plateau Han, and Tibetan populations. However, systematic studies on the differences in metabolic and microbial communities in high-altitude environments remain limited.

Evidence suggests a link between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the gut microbiome in humans. Dogs are a valuable model for ADHD research, as their gut microbiome more closely resembles the human gut microbiome in composition and functional overlap compared to rodent models. This study investigated potential associations between dogs' ADHD-related traits and gut microbiome composition/diversity. We assessed inattention, Hyperactivity, impulsivity, and related functional impairments of 164 family dogs using the validated Dog ADHD and Functional Rating Scale, and analysed bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences from their faecal samples to assess the gut microbiome composition.

In the in vitro expansion of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), replicative or stress-induced senescence poses a significant challenge, leading to the loss of their cellular properties and therapeutic functions. Currently, there is a lack of efficient strategies to address this issue.

Accurate prediction of drug-target interactions (DTIs) is essential for advancing drug discovery. Although numerous computational methods have been proposed, many exhibit limited generalization, particularly when dealing with unseen drugs or targets.

While nuclear genome segregation is well characterized, mechanisms underlying mitochondrial partitioning remain partially obscure, even though its failure can cause developmental arrest or harmful mutations. This knowledge gap invokes the need for new, more suitable model systems to study such mechanisms. Doubly Uniparental Inheritance (DUI) of mitochondria in bivalves is a useful system for such studies. In DUI, sperm mitochondria in male embryos are actively transported across cell divisions to precursors of the germline, and this male-specific pattern depends on maternal factors stored in eggs. The presence of distinct mitochondrial segregation patterns in male and female embryos offers a unique opportunity to investigate the molecular bases of this process.

Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes utilize host blood to support egg maturation by digesting, absorbing, and metabolizing its components. Among these, amino acids are essential as both signaling molecules and building blocks for yolk proteins. While their overall importance is established, the individual dynamics and regulation of each amino acid remain insufficiently understood.

Animal personalities are characterized by within-individual consistency linked to among-individual variability. Personality expression is often dependent on major life history events such as mating and the onset of reproduction. Here, we hypothesized that in facultatively polyandrous animals, multiple mating increases the females' assets (i.e., residual reproductive value - RRV), due to direct and/or indirect benefits. Based on the predictions of the asset protection principle, higher RRV should promote behaviors that reduce the risk of fitness loss and hence mediate behavioral repeatability displayed in groups.

Endogenous secretory peptides (ESPs) play crucial roles in amphibian skin, yet their identification remains challenging in species lacking genomic data. This study developed an innovative pipeline integrating transcriptomics and peptidomics to identify ESPs in the skin of Odorrana grahami. This approach enhances endogenous secretory protein prediction accuracy by rescuing candidates erroneously discarded during SignalP-based screening. Such false negatives typically result from inaccurate annotation of N-terminal start sites within 5'-UTRs by protein prediction tools like TransDecoder.

Genome spatial organization plays a fundamental role in biological function across all domains of life. While the principles of nuclear architecture have been well-characterized in animals and plants, their functional relevance in filamentous fungi remains largely uncharacterized. The wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici presents a unique model for genome evolution, with a compartmentalized genome comprising conserved core and highly variable accessory chromosomes linked to genome plasticity. Here, we present the first 3D genome analysis of a eukaryotic organism with an extensive set of accessory chromosomes, revealing a hierarchical genome architecture integrating core and accessory regions.