Current Biology最新文献

{"title":"Detection and neural encoding of whisker-generated sounds in mice.","authors":"Ben Efron, Athanasios Ntelezos, Yonatan Katz, Ilan Lampl","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.061","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The vibrissa system of mice and other rodents enables active sensing via whisker movements and is traditionally considered a purely tactile system. Here, we ask whether whisking against objects produces audible sounds and whether mice are capable of perceiving these sounds. We found that whisking by head-fixed mice against objects produces audible sounds well within their hearing range. We recorded neural activity in the auditory cortex of mice in which we had abolished vibrissae tactile sensation and found that the firing rate of auditory neurons was strongly modulated by whisking against objects. Furthermore, the object's identity could be reliably decoded from the population's neuronal activity and closely matched the decoding patterns derived from sounds that were recorded simultaneously, suggesting that neuronal activity reflects acoustic information. Lastly, trained mice, in which vibrissae tactile sensation was abolished, were able to accurately identify objects solely based on the sounds produced during whisking. Our results suggest that, beyond its traditional role as a tactile sensory system, the vibrissa system of rodents engages both tactile and auditory modalities in a multimodal manner during active exploration.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143467301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Global to local influences on temporal expectation in marmosets and humans.","authors":"Tudor Dragoi, Hiroki Sugihara, Nhat Minh Le, Elie Adam, Jitendra Sharma, Guoping Feng, Robert Desimone, Mriganka Sur","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.052","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Marmosets are emerging rapidly as experimental models for studying the neural bases of cognition and, importantly, for modeling disorders of human cognition, but many aspects of their mental attributes remain to be characterized. When judging elapsed time, humans implicitly use prior information to predict upcoming events and reduce perceptual and decision-making uncertainty. An influential model of temporal expectation is the hazard rate model, which posits the likelihood of an event occurring in the future, provided it has not occurred already. Here, we report that marmosets trained on a reaction time task acquire the hazard rate model of expectation, consistent with the global task structure. The model emerges progressively with learning but unexpectedly continues to be modified by local contingencies, as demonstrated by a serial effect of trial duration on responses. The combined effects of global and local task structure are well described by a multiple regression model and computationally by Bayesian updating of the hazard function. Parallel experiments in human subjects similarly demonstrate global followed by local influences on reaction times and temporal expectation. Thus, in both marmosets and humans, task history and local structure continuously update task-specific responses, surprisingly at the expense of optimal responses after the competent acquisition of an internal model.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Compositionally unique mitochondria in filopodia support cellular migration.","authors":"Madeleine Marlar-Pavey, Daniel Tapias-Gomez, Marcel Mettlen, Jonathan R Friedman","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.062","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Local metabolic demand within cells varies widely, and the extent to which individual mitochondria can be specialized to meet these functional needs is unclear. We examined the subcellular distribution of the mitochondrial contact site and cristae organizing system (MICOS) complex, a spatial and functional organizer of mitochondria, and discovered that it dynamically enriches at the tip of a minor population of mitochondria in the cell periphery. Based on their appearance, we term these mitochondria \"METEORs\". METEORs have a unique composition, and MICOS enrichment sites are depleted of mtDNA and matrix proteins and contain high levels of the Ca²⁺ uniporter MCU, suggesting a functional specialization. METEORs are also enriched for the myosin MYO19, which promotes their trafficking to a small subset of filopodia. We identify a positive correlation between the length of filopodia and the presence of METEORs and show that elimination of mitochondria from filopodia impairs cellular motility. Our data reveal a novel type of mitochondrial heterogeneity and suggest compositionally specialized mitochondria support cell migration.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143467299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Centromeres are stress-induced fragile sites.","authors":"Daniel Kolbin, Maëlle Locatelli, John Stanton, Katie Kesselman, Aryan Kokkanti, Jinghan Li, Elaine Yeh, Kerry Bloom","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.055","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Centromeres are unique loci on eukaryotic chromosomes and are complexed with centromere-specific histone H3 molecules (CENP-A in mammals, Cse4 in yeast). The centromere provides the binding site for the kinetochore that captures microtubules and provides the mechanical linkage required for chromosome segregation. Centromeres encounter fluctuations in force as chromosomes jockey for position on the metaphase spindle. We have developed biological assays to examine the response of centromeres to high force. Torsional stress is induced on covalently closed DNA circles from supercoiling. Plasmid-borne centromeres with single-nucleotide inactivating mutations exhibit a high conversion frequency to plasmid dimer species. Conversion to dimers is dependent on the activity of the Rad1 single-strand endonuclease, indicative of unwinding a region of the centromere sequence in the absence of a functional kinetochore. To determine the region of unwinding, we used conditionally functional dicentric chromosomes to exert tension. Centromere DNA is exquisitely sensitive to cleavage following activation of the dicentric chromosome. Cleavage is dependent on the action of Rad1, highlighting the propensity of centromeres to unwind in response to supercoiling or mechanical stress. These studies provide mechanistic insights into the evolution of AT-rich pericentromere DNA throughout phylogeny and suggest a mechanism for stress-induced error correction at the centromere.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Attention to memory content enhances single-unit spike sequence fidelity in the human anterior temporal lobe.","authors":"Kelsey K Sundby, Alex P Vaz, John H Wittig, Samantha N Jackson, Sara K Inati, Kareem A Zaghloul","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.048","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Attention aids in prioritizing information relevant to our present goals. For example, attention may augment sensory processing by modulating neural activity for low-level features of the attended items. Attention can also prioritize the contents of memory, facilitating our ability to remember some pieces of information while ignoring others. Here, we examine how using attention to modulate the contents of memory affects temporally organized sequences of neuronal spiking in the human anterior temporal lobe. These spike sequences represent higher-level semantic information and occur repeatedly and consistently as participants process and encode words into memory. Our results demonstrate that attention deployed to prioritize words for memory increases the consistency of these spike sequences. Further, retroactively cueing words elicits the replay of these sequences. Our data, therefore, suggest that paying attention to prioritizing semantic content for memory may improve the temporal organization of neural spiking representations of semantic information in the anterior temporal lobe.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143448534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rho/Rok-dependent regulation of actomyosin contractility at tricellular junctions restricts epithelial permeability in Drosophila.","authors":"Thea Jacobs, Jone Isasti Sanchez, Steven Reger, Stefan Luschnig","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.043","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cell contacts in epithelia are remodeled to regulate paracellular permeability and to control the passage of migrating cells, but how barrier function is modulated while preserving epithelial integrity is not clear. In the follicular epithelium of Drosophila ovaries, tricellular junctions (TCJs) open transiently in a process termed patency to allow passage of externally produced yolk proteins for uptake by the oocyte. Here, we show that modulation of actomyosin contractility at cell vertices controls TCJ permeability. Before patency, circumferential actomyosin bundles are anchored at apical follicle cell vertices, where tension-sensing junctional proteins, Rho-associated kinase (Rok), and active myosin II accumulate and maintain vertices closed. TCJ opening is initiated by redistribution of myosin II from circumferential bundles to the medial zone, accompanied by decreasing tension on vertices. This transition requires activation of Cofilin-dependent filamentous actin (F-actin) disassembly by the phosphatase Slingshot and myosin II inactivation by myosin light-chain phosphatase and is counteracted by Rok. Accordingly, constitutive activation of myosin or of Rho signaling prevents vertex opening, whereas reduced myosin II or Rok activity causes excessive vertex opening. Thus, the opening of intercellular gaps in the follicular epithelium relies on relaxation of actomyosin contractility rather than active actomyosin-based pulling forces. Conversely, F-actin assembly is required for closing intercellular gaps after patency. Our findings are consistent with a force transduction model in which TCJ integrity is maintained by vertex-anchored contractile actomyosin. We propose that the cell-type-specific organization of actomyosin at cell vertices determines the mode of contractility-dependent regulation of epithelial permeability.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143448537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Force-activated zyxin assemblies coordinate actin nucleation and crosslinking to orchestrate stress fiber repair.","authors":"Donovan Y Z Phua, Xiaoyu Sun, Gregory M Alushin","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.042","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.042","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>As the cytoskeleton sustains cell and tissue forces, it incurs physical damage that must be repaired to maintain mechanical homeostasis. The LIN-11, Isl-1, and Mec-3 (LIM)-domain protein zyxin detects force-induced ruptures in actin-myosin stress fibers, coordinating downstream repair factors to restore stress fiber integrity through unclear mechanisms. Here, we reconstitute stress fiber repair with purified proteins, uncovering detailed links between zyxin's force-regulated binding interactions and cytoskeletal dynamics. In addition to binding individual tensed actin filaments (F-actin), zyxin's LIM domains form force-dependent assemblies that bridge broken filament fragments. Zyxin assemblies engage repair factors through multivalent interactions, coordinating nucleation of new F-actin by VASP and its crosslinking into aligned bundles by ɑ-actinin. Through these combined activities, stress fiber repair initiates within the cores of micron-scale damage sites in cells, explaining how these F-actin-depleted regions are rapidly restored. Thus, zyxin's force-dependent organization of actin repair machinery inherently operates at the network scale to maintain cytoskeletal integrity.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143425114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Phylogenomics of coral-infecting corallicolids reveal multiple independent losses of chlorophyll biosynthesis in apicomplexan parasites.","authors":"Victoria K L Jacko-Reynolds, Waldan K Kwong, Samuel J Livingston, Morelia Trznadel, Anthony M Bonacolta, Gordon Lax, Jade Shivak, Nicholas A T Irwin, Mark J A Vermeij, Javier Del Campo, Patrick J Keeling","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.028","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The transition from free-living to parasitic lifestyles induces major shifts in evolution, and nowhere is this more acute than in apicomplexans-obligate intracellular parasites of animals that evolved from photosynthetic algae.¹ In other cases where photosynthesis has been lost, including most apicomplexans, chlorophyll is also absent, but in coral-infecting apicomplexans (corallicolids), chlorophyll biosynthesis genes are retained in the plastid genome despite their lack of photosystems.² This suggests that the loss of photosynthesis and chlorophyll were decoupled in this lineage, but because these observations are only based on plastid genomes, two fundamental questions remain unclear. First, how this impacted apicomplexan evolution as a whole is unclear because there are conflicting phylogenetic positions for corallicolids: plastid gene phylogenies place them at the base of the apicomplexans, whereas nuclear rRNA places them with late-branching coccidians (suborder Eimeriorina).²^,³ Second, it is unclear if chlorophyll or a metabolic intermediate is synthesized, as most chlorophyll biosynthesis enzymes are encoded in the nucleus. To address these questions, we have sequenced transcriptomes from two corallicolids, infecting Parazoanthus swiftii and Madracis mirabilis hosts. Phylogenomic data strongly support a late-branching relationship closer with coccidians, specifically with the protococcidians and the newly discovered ichthyocolids. We also find evidence for the expression of nucleus-encoded enzymes involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis in corallicolids and protococcidians. Overall, we conclude that chlorophyll synthesis was likely retained through the early evolution of the group and then lost approximately 10 times independently, emphasizing the impact of parallel evolutionary changes in parasitic transitions.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143457142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adaptive evolution of CENP-T modulates centromere binding.","authors":"Damian Dudka, Alexandra L Nguyen, Katelyn G Boese, Océane Marescal, R Brian Akins, Ben E Black, Iain M Cheeseman, Michael A Lampson","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.017","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.017","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Centromeric DNA and proteins evolve rapidly despite conserved function in mediating kinetochore-microtubule attachments during cell division. This paradox is explained by selfish DNA sequences preferentially binding centromeric proteins to disrupt attachments and bias their segregation into the egg (drive) during female meiosis. Adaptive centromeric protein evolution is predicted to prevent preferential binding to these sequences and suppress drive. Here, we test this prediction by defining the impact of adaptive evolution of the DNA-binding histone fold domain of CENP-T, a major link between centromeric DNA and microtubules. We reversed adaptive changes by creating chimeric variants of mouse CENP-T with the histone fold domain from closely related species, expressed exogenously in mouse oocytes or in a transgenic mouse model. We show that adaptive evolution of mouse CENP-T reduced centromere binding, which supports robust female gametogenesis. However, this innovation is independent of the centromeric DNA sequence, as shown by comparing the binding of divergent CENP-T variants to distinct centromere satellite arrays in mouse oocytes and in somatic cells from other species. Overall, our findings support a model in which selfish sequences drive to fixation, disrupting attachments of all centromeres to the spindle. DNA sequence-specific innovations are not needed to mitigate fitness costs in this model, so centromeric proteins adapt by modulating their binding to all centromeres in the aftermath of drive.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143413200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Climate-induced shifts in crocodile body temperature impact behavior and performance.","authors":"Kaitlin E Barham, Céline H Frère, Ross G Dwyer, Cameron J Baker, Hamish A Campbell, Terri R Irwin, Craig E Franklin","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The increase of energy in the climate system caused by anthropogenic climate change is expected to disrupt predictable weather patterns and result in greater temperature extremes.¹^,² As a result of these climate shifts, El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which drives predictable periods of hot/dry and cool/wet across the Pacific, is expected to increase in variability and magnitude.³ These changes will significantly impact ectotherms, whose performance across a range of behaviors is dependent on local environmental temperatures.⁴ As such, we must understand the way individuals experience climate conditions and how changes in their body temperature (T_b), whether through climate or modification of their thermoregulatory mechanisms,⁵ affect their performance. Laboratory studies have shown that estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) diving and swimming performance is reduced above 32°C-33°C,⁶^,⁷^,⁸ temperatures commonly exceeded across their natural range. By monitoring T_b and diving activity in 203 free-ranging estuarine crocodiles over 15 years, we show that the T_b of crocodiles has increased alongside rising air temperatures since 2008, reflecting the climatic shifts caused by the ENSO cycle. As ambient temperatures rose, crocodiles experienced more days close to critical thermal limits (32°C-33°C), at which temperatures the duration of dives was reduced and the prevalence of active cooling behavior was elevated. This study demonstrates that crocodiles are susceptible to multi-year fluctuations in ambient temperature, which requires them to undertake concomitant changes in behavior. They are already close to their physiological thermal limit, but the impact of future predicted rises in temperature remains unknown.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143413240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}