Current Biology最新文献

{"title":"Dynamic control of Argonautes by a rapidly evolving immunological switch.","authors":"Chee Kiang Ewe, Guy Teichman, Shir Weiss, Maximilian M L Knott, Sarit Anava, Hila Gingold, Mario Bardan Sarmiento, Emily Troemel, Oded Rechavi","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.039","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.039","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Small RNAs (sRNAs), coupled with Argonaute proteins (AGOs), regulate diverse biological processes, including immunity against nucleic acid parasites. C. elegans possesses an expanded repertoire of at least 19 AGOs functioning in an intricate gene regulatory network (GRN). However, the regulation of AGOs and how their functions adapt to genetic or environmental perturbations remains incompletely understood. Here, we report that PALS-22, a member of an unusually expanded protein family in C. elegans, acts as a negative regulator of antiviral RNAi involving the RIG-I homolog. Loss of pals-22 enhances the silencing of transgenes and endogenous double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). We found that PALS-22 normally suppresses the expression of two AGOs, VSRA-1 and SAGO-2, which are activated by the bZIP transcription factor ZIP-1. When pals-22 is eliminated, vsra-1 and sago-2 are upregulated. These AGOs, in turn, play key roles in defense against foreign genetic elements and intracellular pathogens, respectively. Surprisingly, although immune genes functioning in the intracellular pathogen response (IPR) are upregulated in pals-22 mutants, removing SAGO-2 or the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase RRF-3 in these mutants downregulates these genes. This observation appears to contrast with the typical gene-silencing role of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Finally, the analysis of C. elegans wild isolates and lab reference strains reveals that PALS-22 regulates several germline AGOs, affecting germline mortality and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. In summary, PALS-22 is a key genetic node that balances the trade-off between immunity and germline health by modulating the functions of different AGOs, thereby shaping the outputs of the RNAi machinery and the dynamics of epigenetic inheritance.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"3076-3089.e5"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144265573","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":"Development: Sticky organizers for controlled patterning.","authors":"Taniya Mandal, Z Hadjivasiliou","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Organoid models are promising tools for the study of development and disease but have limited capacity for reproducibility and control. A new study has developed a method to deliver signaling centers in organoids with temporal and spatial precision.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":"35 13","pages":"R654-R656"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144590689","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":"An egg parasitoid assesses host egg quality from afar using oviposition-induced plant volatiles.","authors":"Zhiqiang Tian, Yuanyuan Wang, Tao Sun, Xiaoyun Hu, Wanting Hao, Te Zhao, Yanan Wang, Lei Zhang, Xingfu Jiang, Ted C J Turlings, Yunhe Li","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.066","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.066","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Parasitoids of herbivores exploit inducible plant volatiles to find plants with potential hosts from a distance, whereas at close range they typically use host-derived cues to pinpoint and identify suitable hosts. Here, we show, however, that the egg parasitoid Trichogramma japonicum assesses host egg quality far more efficiently by remotely using oviposition-induced plant volatiles (OIPVs). In olfactometer assays, female T. japonicum wasps showed a strong preference for the odor of rice plants carrying 2-day-old eggs of the rice leaf folder Cnaphalocrocis medinalis over the odor of plants with younger or older eggs, a preference that correlated with higher parasitism rates. In accordance with the preference-performance hypothesis, the offspring of T. japonicum showed superior performance in 2-day-old eggs, including shorter development times and higher eclosion rates. Volatile analysis revealed significantly increased emission of D-limonene and α-pinene from plants with 2-day-old eggs, and we found that synthetic versions of these two monoterpenes were highly attractive to the wasp. Knockout rice plants deficient in D-limonene and α-pinene synthesis lost their appeal to the wasps, but attraction could be restored by dispensing synthetic versions of the attractants alongside the knockouts. These findings reveal a novel and highly efficient host-assessment strategy in egg parasitoids, whereby plant-provided cues inform the wasps about host quality from afar. This discovery is illustrative of the clever strategies that have evolved out of plant-insect interactions and offers fresh ideas to optimally exploit plant traits for biocontrol approaches against C. medinalis, a major rice pest.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"3001-3010.e4"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144126810","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":"Tunicate metatranscriptomes reveal evidence of ancient co-divergence between viruses and their hosts.","authors":"Mary E Petrone, Joe Grove, Rhys H Parry, Kate Van Brussel, Jonathon C O Mifsud, Zuhairah Dindar, Shi-Qiang Mei, Mang Shi, Olivia M H Turnbull, Ezequiel M Marzinelli, Edward C Holmes","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.032","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Tunicates are a key transitional taxon in animal evolution as the closest extant invertebrate relatives of the vertebrates. Their RNA viruses may also reflect this transitional state, but this has not been tested. In particular, it is not known whether tunicate RNA viruses form a sister group to those found in vertebrates, indicative of virus-host co-divergence throughout the entire evolutionary history of the chordates. To address this key question in RNA virus evolution, we analyzed primary and publicly available RNA libraries to identify tunicate-associated RNA viruses and determine their phylogenetic relationships. Although the majority of the tunicate viruses identified were most closely related to those found in invertebrates or were not animal associated, others shared common ancestry with vertebrate influenza viruses, alphaviruses, and mononegaviruses, thereby extending the evolutionary timescales of these groups. We also showed that the recombination of glycoproteins between different orders of RNA viruses, including between positive- and negative-sense viruses, may have shaped the evolution of multiple lineages. Overall, our study reveals that some disease-causing RNA virus lineages have ancestries that date to the early chordates and highlights that the evolution of structural genes may be incongruent with that of the highly conserved RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"3035-3047.e4"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144233511","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":"Humans have nasal respiratory fingerprints.","authors":"Timna Soroka, Aharon Ravia, Kobi Snitz, Danielle Honigstein, Aharon Weissbrod, Lior Gorodisky, Tali Weiss, Ofer Perl, Noam Sobel","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Long-term respiratory patterns are generated by remarkably complex brain networks. Because brains are unique, we hypothesized that their dependent respiratory patterns may be similarly unique. To test this hypothesis, we developed a wearable device that precisely measures and logs nasal airflow in each nostril separately for up to 24-h periods. We found that we could identify members of a 97-participant cohort at a remarkable 96.8% accuracy from nasal airflow patterns alone. In other words, humans have individual nasal airflow fingerprints. Moreover, in test-retest experiments, we found that these individual fingerprints remain stable over extended periods of time, such that individual identification by nasal airflow fingerprints was on par with or better than voice recognition. Finally, we find that the high sensitivity of these fingerprints provides significant indications on both physiological states, such as levels of arousal and body-mass index, and cognitive traits, such as levels of anxiety, levels of depression, and behavioral tendencies. We conclude that long-term patterns of nasal airflow reflect the brain drivers of respiration, are individually unique, and have significant implications for health, emotion, and cognition.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"3011-3021.e3"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144293517","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":"Divergent synaptic dynamics originate parallel pathways for computation and behavior in an olfactory circuit.","authors":"Hyong S Kim, Gustavo Madeira Santana, Gizem Sancer, Thierry Emonet, James M Jeanne","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.051","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.051","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To enable diverse sensory processing and behavior, central circuits use divergent connectivity to create parallel pathways. However, linking synaptic and cellular mechanisms to the circuit-level segregation of computation has been challenging. Here, we investigate the generation of parallel processing pathways in the Drosophila olfactory system, where glomerular projection neurons (PNs) diverge onto many lateral horn neurons (LHNs). We compare the effects of a single PN's activity on two of its target LHNs. One LHN type generates sustained responses to odor and adapts divisively. The other generates transient responses and adapts subtractively. The distinct odor-coding dynamics originate from differences in the dynamics of PN synapses targeting each LHN type. Sustained LHN responses arise from synapses that recover from depression quickly enough to maintain ongoing transmission. Divisive adaptation is due to slow cellular gain control implemented by the Na⁺/K⁺ ATPase in the postsynaptic neuron. Transient LHN responses arise from synapses that recover from depression too slowly to maintain ongoing transmission but that also facilitate when PN spike rate increases. Interfering with facilitation via the calcium buffer EGTA or interfering with the presynaptic priming factor Unc13B diminishes the magnitude of initial transient responses. Subtractive adaptation is due to the nonlinearity imposed by the spike threshold in the postsynaptic neuron. Transient LHNs make corresponding transient contributions to behavioral odor attraction in walking flies, whereas sustained LHNs may make sustained, but nuanced, contributions. Subcellular presynaptic specialization is thus a compact and efficient way to originate parallel information streams for specialized computation and behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"3146-3162.e8"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12235717/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144336341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Convergent reduction of olfactory genes and olfactory bulb size in mammalian species at altitude.","authors":"Allie M Graham, Elysia Saputra, Bogdan Kirilenko, Jason S Presnell, Arianna Harrington, Chad Huff, Michael Hiller, Nathan Clark","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.061","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.061","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The invasion of specialized ecological niches can cause drastic changes to selection regimes, resulting in genomic and phenotypic transformation.¹ High-altitude habitats offer an excellent opportunity to investigate the genetic basis of local adaptation,²^,³ as the repeated specialization of multiple lineages for high altitude has produced striking examples of convergent evolution, adaptation, and changes in their underlying genes.⁴^,⁵^,⁶ Although enlightening, this focus on adaptation has left aspects of evolution in high-altitude locations understudied-including the role of gene loss and pseudogenization, maladaptation and trait loss, and physiological aspects outside of respiration and gas exchange. To characterize how mammals responded to high altitude in a new, unbiased way, we screened the genomes of 27 species living exclusively at high altitude (>1,000-1,500 m) and their lowland relatives for inactivated pseudogenes or lost genes.⁷ Genes that convergently lost function in high-altitude species were highly enriched for olfactory receptor (OR) genes, with an average reduction of ∼23% of OR repertoire in high-altitude species. No such trend was found for genes involved in pheromone detection and taste perception. In addition to OR loss, cranial endocasts show the brains of high-altitude species have on average ∼18% smaller olfactory bulbs relative to lowland relatives. Together, these repeated evolutionary outcomes suggest a general relaxation of constraint on olfaction at altitude, perhaps due to reduced odorant diversity in high-altitude environments or reduced effectiveness of mammalian olfactory physiology in thin, dry, or cold air.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"3269-3277.e4"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144495189","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":"Spatial constraints and cell surface molecule depletion structure a randomly connected learning circuit.","authors":"Emma M Thornton-Kolbe, Maria Ahmed, Finley R Gordon, Bogdan Sieriebriennikov, Donnell L Williams, Yerbol Z Kurmangaliyev, E Josephine Clowney","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.062","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.062","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The brain can represent almost limitless objects to \"categorize an unlabeled world\" (Edelman, 1989). This feat is supported by expansion-layer circuit architectures, in which neurons carrying information about discrete sensory channels make combinatorial connections to much larger postsynaptic populations. Combinatorial connections in expansion layers are modeled as randomized sets. The extent to which randomized wiring exists in vivo is debated, and how combinatorial connectivity patterns are generated during development is not understood. Non-deterministic wiring algorithms could program such connectivity using minimal genomic information. Here, we investigate anatomic and transcriptional patterns and perturb partner availability to ask how Kenyon cells, the expansion layer neurons of the insect mushroom body, obtain combinatorial input from olfactory projection neurons. Olfactory projection neurons form their presynaptic outputs in an orderly, predictable, and biased fashion. We find that Kenyon cells accept spatially co-located but molecularly heterogeneous inputs from this orderly map and ask how their cell surface molecule expression impacts partner choice. Cell surface immunoglobulins are broadly depleted in Kenyon cells, and we propose that this allows them to form connections with molecularly heterogeneous partners. This model can explain how developmentally identical neurons acquire diverse wiring identities.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"3191-3208.e10"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144511646","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":"Rethinking Darwin's coral reef paradox and the ubiquity of \"marine oases\".","authors":"Renato A Morais, Larissa Patricio-Valerio, Pauline Narvaez, Valeriano Parravicini, Simon J Brandl","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.033","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Coral reefs are frequently described as \"oases in marine deserts\" for thriving in nutrient-depleted oceans.¹^,²^,³^,⁴ This contrast is often termed \"Darwin's paradox,\"⁵^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸ which allegedly originates from Charles Darwin's coral reef work.⁹ Decades of research exploring these paradoxical dynamics led to groundbreaking findings in ecophysiology,⁵^,¹⁰ ecology,²^,¹¹ oceanography, and biogeochemistry.⁴^,¹²^,¹³ However, the historical foundations and scientific generality of the paradox remain unevaluated. Here, we demonstrate that Darwin's paradox is a misnomer. Indeed, the fundamental knowledge required to formulate this idea did not exist at the time of Darwin's 1842 coral reef treatise: its earliest references date, instead, to the 1940s-1950s. Given the frequent use of the term, and the \"marine oasis\" analogy, which implies high productivity despite nutrient-poor waters as a hallmark of reefs worldwide, we (1) compare reef productivity across ecosystems and (2) assess how globally widespread oligotrophic, low-nutrient reef conditions are. Our findings support earlier work placing coral reefs among the most productive ecosystems on Earth. However, relatively few coral reefs exist in oligotrophic waters; 80% of them occur in more productive mesotrophic and eutrophic conditions. Globally, median chlorophyll-a near reefs is 0.19 mg m^-3, twice the median for tropical oceans and double the upper oligotrophic threshold. Reefs range across the tropical ocean spectrum of phosphate, nitrate, iron, and silicate concentrations but are disproportionally common in moderate levels of these vital nutrients. Thus, coral reefs as oases in marine deserts are not the norm, highlighting the need to recognize environmental variability and both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways sustaining reef productivity.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"3241-3250.e6"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144246946","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":"Wild orangutans maintain sleep homeostasis through napping, counterbalancing socio-ecological factors that interfere with their sleep.","authors":"Alison M Ashbury, Francois Lamarque, Andrea L Permana, Tri Rahmaeti, David R Samson, Sri Suci Utami Atmoko, Margaret C Crofoot, Caroline Schuppli","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.053","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.053","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sleep is a vital physiological process that lab-based studies of model species, including humans, have shown is homeostatically regulated-i.e., pressure to sleep builds during wakefulness and dissipates during sleep. However, how wild animals maintain sleep homeostasis and how socio-ecological pressures interfere with their sleep remain understudied. Here, we investigated sleep homeostasis and the factors that influence sleep duration among wild Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii), leveraging a comprehensive long-term dataset of their behavior, sociality, and ecology. We quantified sleep in 53 adult individuals using the time that an individual spent in a sleeping nest-i.e., its sleep period-as an indicator of time spent sleeping. We found that, after shorter nighttime sleep periods, orangutans' next-day cumulative nap period duration was longer and that shorter nap periods were associated with a higher number of naps on the same day. We also found that orangutans had shorter sleep periods (night and day) when they associated with more conspecifics. Orangutans also had shorter nighttime sleep periods when they traveled farther the day before, and they had longer cumulative nap periods on days when (1) they ate fewer calories, (2) the ambient temperature was cooler, and (3) it rained. Our results suggest that multiple factors shape wild orangutans' sleep behavior and that orangutans compensate for lost sleep via daytime napping. This supports the hypothesis that social and ecological pressures interfere with sleep among wild animals and that they must balance the costs and benefits of sleep with those of other critical activities.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"3163-3173.e4"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144505103","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}