Current Biology最新文献

{"title":"Animal camouflage: Sculpting with light.","authors":"Daniel Osorio, Hannah E Smithson, Lucas Wilkins","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.067","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The three-dimensional nanostructure of butterfly and moth wing scales produces directional reflections that are impossible with an artist's brush. Here, we compare the visual effects used by a moth that masquerades as a dead leaf with those of computer graphics.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":"35 6","pages":"R221-R224"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143709233","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":"A new member of the dynamin superfamily modulates mitochondrial membrane branching in Trypanosoma brucei.","authors":"Chloé Alexandra Morel, Corinne Asencio, David Moreira, Corinne Blancard, Bénédicte Salin, Etienne Gontier, Stéphane Duvezin-Caubet, Manuel Rojo, Frédéric Bringaud, Emmanuel Tetaud","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.033","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Unlike most other eukaryotes, where mitochondria continuously fuse and divide, the mitochondrion of trypanosome cells forms a single and continuously interconnected network that divides only during cytokinesis. However, the machinery governing mitochondrial remodeling and interconnection of trypanosome mitochondrion remain largely unknown. We functionally characterize a new member of the dynamin superfamily protein (DSP) from T. brucei (TbMfnL), which shares similarity with a family of homologs present in various eukaryotic and prokaryotic phyla but not in opisthokonts like mammals and budding yeast. The sequence and domain organization of TbMfnL is distinct, and it is phylogenetically very distant from the yeast and mammalian dynamin-related proteins involved in mitochondrial fusion/fission dynamics, such as optic atrophy 1 (Opa1) and mitofusin (Mfn). TbMfnL localizes to the inner mitochondrial membrane facing the matrix and, upon overexpression, induces a strong increase in the interconnection and branching of mitochondrial filaments in a GTPase-dependent manner. TbMfnL is a component of a novel membrane remodeling machinery with an unprecedented matrix-side localization that is able to modulate the degree of inter-mitochondrial connections.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"1337-1352.e5"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143623854","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":"Asymmetric microtubule nucleation from Golgi stacks promotes opposite microtubule polarity in axons and dendrites.","authors":"Akila Yagoubat, Paul T Conduit","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.013","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.013","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The neuronal microtubule cytoskeleton is highly polarized, with most microtubules growing away from the soma in axons (plus-end-out), but many microtubules growing toward the soma in dendrites (minus-end-out). This differential microtubule polarity allows directional trafficking of specific organelles, vesicles, and molecules into either axons or dendrites, but how it is established and maintained remains unclear. We showed previously that microtubules are nucleated asymmetrically from Golgi stacks within the soma of Drosophila neurons, with their plus ends growing preferentially toward and into axons and away from dendrites. Here, we show that this microtubule nucleation asymmetry correlates with a cis-to-trans orientation of specific Golgi stacks toward the axon and depends on microtubule-nucleating γ-tubulin ring complexes (γ-TuRCs) at the cis-Golgi and the plus-end-stabilizing protein CLASP at the trans-Golgi. Depleting CLASP or reducing γ-TuRC localization to the Golgi by depleting the Golgin protein GMAP (Golgi microtubule-associated protein) perturbs asymmetric microtubule nucleation and growth within the soma and results in polarity changes in proximal axons and dendrites. We propose that the plus ends of microtubules nucleated by γ-TuRCs at the cis-Golgi are stabilized by CLASP at the trans-Golgi to promote the growth of microtubules along the cis-to-trans Golgi axis. This, coupled with oriented Golgi stacks, promotes microtubule growth toward and into axons and away from dendrites, helping promote plus-end-out microtubule polarity in axons and maintain minus-end-out microtubule polarity in dendrites.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"1311-1325.e4"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143556059","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":"Cohesinopathies: Is enhancer disruption to blame?","authors":"Thomas M Guérin, Frank Uhlmann","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.046","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cohesinopathies are debilitating human developmental disorders. New research pins down mechanisms by which the chromosomal cohesin complex controls the intricate transcriptional program that underlies healthy human growth and development.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":"35 6","pages":"R214-R216"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143709251","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":"Paleobiology: Drilling for the drivers of the Cambrian explosion.","authors":"Simon A F Darroch, Michelle C Casey","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.018","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Arms races between predators and prey drive ecosystem structure and the evolution of biodiversity. Drill holes preserved in enigmatic fossils from South Australia are suggesting that such arms races may have driven the Cambrian explosion.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":"35 6","pages":"R228-R230"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143709312","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":"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":"1197-1210.e4"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","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":"Dopamine and acetylcholine correlations in the nucleus accumbens depend on behavioral task states.","authors":"Kauê Machado Costa, Zhewei Zhang, Douglas Deutsch, Yizhou Zhuo, Guochuan Li, Yulong Li, Geoffrey Schoenbaum","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.064","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.064","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) changes quickly in response to errors in predicting events like reward delivery¹^,²^,³ but also slowly ramps up when animals are moving toward a goal.⁴^,⁵^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸^,⁹^,¹⁰ This ramping has attracted much recent attention, as there is controversy regarding its computational role⁵^,⁷^,⁹^,¹¹ and whether they are driven by dopamine neuron firing⁷^,⁸^,⁹ or local circuit mechanisms.⁵^,⁶ If the latter is true, cholinergic transmission would be a prime candidate mechanism,¹²^,¹³^,¹⁴ and acetylcholine and dopamine signals should be positively correlated during behavior, particularly during motivated approach. However, in the dorsal striatum, striatal cholinergic interneurons typically \"dip\" their activity when reward or associated cues are presented, in opposition to dopamine,¹⁵^,¹⁶^,¹⁷^,¹⁸ and acetylcholine and dopamine release is generally anti-correlated in vivo.¹⁹^,²⁰ Furthermore, acetylcholine and dopamine have opposing effects on downstream striatal projection neurons (SPNs),²¹^,²² which suggests that cholinergic dips create a permissive window for dopamine to drive plasticity.²³ These studies therefore suggest that dopamine and acetylcholine should be anti-correlated during behavior. We tested between these hypotheses by simultaneously recording accumbal dopamine and acetylcholine signals in rats executing a task involving motivated approach. We found that dopamine ramps were not coincidental with changes in acetylcholine. Instead, acetylcholine was positively, negatively, or uncorrelated with dopamine depending on the task phase. Our results suggest that accumbal dopamine and acetylcholine dynamics are largely independent but may combine to engage different postsynaptic mechanisms depending on task demands.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"1400-1407.e3"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143556063","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":"Ecophysical constraints on avian adaptation and diversification.","authors":"Ferran Sayol, Bouwe R Reijenga, Joseph A Tobias, Alex L Pigot","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.015","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.015","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The evolution of morphological diversity is ultimately governed by physical laws and ecological contexts, which together impose a range of ecophysical constraints. Substantial progress has been made in identifying how these constraints shape the form and function of producers (plants), but similar knowledge is lacking for consumers, in part because the requisite data have not been available at sufficient scale for animals. Using morphometric measurements for all birds, we demonstrate that observed variation is restricted-both for beak shape and body shape-to triangular regions of morphospace with clearly defined boundaries and vertices (corners). By combining morphometric data with information on ecological and behavioral functions, we provide evidence that the extent of avian morphospace reflects a trade-off between three fundamental physical tasks for feeding (crush, engulf, and reach) that characterize resource acquisition and processing by the beak and three physical tasks (fly, swim, and walk) that characterize avian lifestyles or locomotion. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that trajectories of morphological evolution trend toward the vertices, with lineages evolving from a core of functional generalists toward more specialized physical tasks. We further propose that expansion beyond the current boundaries of morphospace is constrained by the shorter evolutionary lifespan of functional specialists, although patterns of speciation rate and current extinction risk provide only weak support for this hypothesis. Overall, we show that the structure of avian morphospace follows relatively simple rules defined by ecophysical constraints and trade-offs, shedding light on the processes shaping modern animal diversity and responses to environmental change.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"1326-1336.e6"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143566069","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":"Cell-class-specific orofacial motor maps in mouse neocortex.","authors":"Keita Tamura, Pol Bech, Hidenobu Mizuno, Léa Veaute, Sylvain Crochet, Carl C H Petersen","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.056","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.056","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cortical motor maps represent fundamental organizing principles for voluntary motor control,¹ yet their underlying structure remains poorly understood, including regions of sensory²^,³ and parietal cortex,⁴ as well as the classical frontal motor cortex. To understand how anatomically distinct cortical areas are organized into functional units for controlling movements, here, we refined cortical motor maps by selectively stimulating genetically defined subpopulations of excitatory neurons. Surprisingly, we found spatially segregated modules in orofacial motor maps by optogenetically stimulating different classes of cortical excitatory neurons. The overall motor map for jaw opening revealed by stimulating all classes of excitatory neurons spanned the anterior lateral cortex broadly. By contrast, the jaw-opening motor maps of specific genetically defined cell classes were focalized either in primary motor, secondary motor, or primary somatosensory areas within the overall jaw-opening motor map of all excitatory neurons, demonstrating cell-class-specific motor map modules. Simultaneous wide-field calcium imaging revealed activity propagation from optically stimulated motor map modules to the primary motor area correlating with movement vigor. The motor map modules were largely stable across lick motor learning with important exceptions indicating cell-class-specific expansion into other module zones. Our data suggest that distinct cell-class-specific modules interacting across sensorimotor cortices might contribute to controlling orofacial movement.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"1382-1390.e5"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143523026","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":"Concerns about ancient DNA sequences reported from a Late Pleistocene individual from Southeast Asia.","authors":"Daniel Tabin, Nick Patterson, Matthew Mah, David Reich","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In a 2022 Current Biology paper, Zhang et al.¹ reported DNA sequences from an approximately 14-thousand-year-old female skeleton from Red Deer Cave referred to as 'Mengzi Ren' (MZR). MZR's data are the first DNA sequences reported from pre-Holocene Southeast Asia, revealing genetic affinities dissimilar to all previously published ancient DNA data. Here, we show extremely high error rates, an abnormal error distribution and evidence of contamination by modern human sequences in the published DNA sequences of MZR. Even ignoring these issues, we fail to replicate key population genetic findings of Zhang et al.¹, namely that Native Americans are equally related to MZR and ancient Northeast Asians. These results raise concerns regarding the paper's conclusions about population history, such as the claim that there was \"an express northward expansion of AMHs starting in southern East Asia through the coastal line of China … eventually crossing the Bering Strait and reaching the Americas,\" and also about the general usability of the published sequences.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":"35 6","pages":"R212-R213"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143709252","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}