Current Biology最新文献

{"title":"Associative learning of non-nestmate cues improves enemy recognition in ants.","authors":"Mélanie Bey, Rebecca Endermann, Christina Raudies, Jonas Steinle, Volker Nehring","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.054","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.054","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recognition protects biological systems at all scales, from cells to societies. Social insects recognize their nestmates by colony-specific olfactory labels that individuals store as neural templates in their memory. Throughout an ant's life, learning continuously shapes the nestmate recognition template to keep up with the constant changes in colony labels.¹^,²^,³^,⁴ Most explanations for template update rely on non-associative learning.⁵ Indeed, we know that ants become habituated to their colony's label: their reaction to the omnipresent chemical cues typical of their own nest fades.³^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸ However, non-associative habituation cannot explain the enormous variation in nestmate recognition behavior. For example, some ant species are more aggressive toward neighboring colonies than toward unfamiliar colonies (nasty neighbor effect⁹^,¹⁰^,¹¹^,¹²). Social insects can learn associatively, for example, by associating an odor cue with a food reward.¹³ A recent model proposes that associative learning of non-nestmate odors leads to variation in the recognition templates among individuals, which then improves recognition at the group level.¹⁴ Here, we test whether associative learning of non-nestmate colony odors is possible.¹¹ Our results show that associative learning plays a crucial role in the formation of both nestmate and non-nestmate recognition templates and that the aggression received by an ant acts as an unconditioned stimulus that the ant likely associates with the odor label of its enemy. This type of template learning can help explain different patterns of variation in nestmate recognition, from nasty neighbor effects to task- and age-specific variation in aggression.¹⁵^,¹⁶.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":"407-412.e3"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913913","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":"Probabilistically constrained vector summation of motion direction in the mouse superior colliculus.","authors":"Chuiwen Li, Victor J DePiero, Hui Chen, Seiji Tanabe, Jianhua Cang","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.029","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Visual motion is a crucial cue for the brain to track objects and take appropriate actions, enabling effective interactions with the environment. Here, we study how the superior colliculus (SC) integrates motion information using asymmetric plaids composed of drifting gratings of different directions and speeds. With both in vivo electrophysiology and two-photon calcium imaging, we find that mouse SC neurons integrate motion direction by performing vector summation of the component gratings. The computation is constrained probabilistically by the possible physical motions consistent with each grating. Excitatory and inhibitory SC neurons respond similarly to the plaid stimuli. Finally, the probabilistically constrained vector summation also guides optokinetic eye movements. Such a computation is fundamentally different from that in the visual cortex, where motion integration follows the intersection of the constraints. Our studies thus demonstrate a novel neural computation in motion processing and raise intriguing questions regarding its neuronal implementation and functional significance.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143022656","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":"Population genomics reveals strong impacts of genetic drift without purging and guides conservation of bull and giant kelp.","authors":"Jordan B Bemmels, Samuel Starko, Brooke L Weigel, Kaede Hirabayashi, Alex Pinch, Cassandra Elphinstone, Megan N Dethier, Loren H Rieseberg, Jonathan E Page, Christopher J Neufeld, Gregory L Owens","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Kelp forests are declining in many parts of the northeast Pacific.¹^,²^,³^,⁴ In small populations, genetic drift can reduce adaptive variation and increase fixation of recessive deleterious alleles,⁵^,⁶^,⁷ but natural selection may purge harmful variants.⁸^,⁹^,¹⁰ To understand evolutionary dynamics and inform restoration strategies, we investigated genetic structure and the outcomes of genetic drift and purging by sequencing the genomes of 429 bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) and 211 giant kelp (Macrocystis sp.) from the coastlines of British Columbia and Washington. We identified 6 to 7 geographically and genetically distinct clusters in each species. Low effective population size was associated with low genetic diversity and high inbreeding coefficients (including increased selfing rates), with extreme variation in these genetic health indices among bull kelp populations but more moderate variation in giant kelp. We found no evidence that natural selection is purging putative recessive deleterious alleles in either species. Instead, genetic drift has fixed many such alleles in small populations of bull kelp, leading us to predict (1) reduced within-population inbreeding depression in small populations, which may be associated with an observed shift toward increased selfing rate, and (2) hybrid vigor in crosses between small populations. Our genomic findings imply several strategies for optimal sourcing and crossing of populations for restoration and aquaculture, but these require experimental validation. Overall, our work reveals strong genetic structure and suggests that conservation strategies should consider the multiple health risks faced by small populations whose evolutionary dynamics are dominated by genetic drift.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143002058","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":"Polarized pectin accumulation regulates differential hypocotyl elongation at the dark-to-light transition.","authors":"He Zhang, Liang Xiao, Siying Qin, Miaomiao Wan, Feng Shen, Jiahe Zhao, Lei Li","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>As one of the most influential environmental factors, light fundamentally shapes plant physiology and growth traits.¹^,²^,³^,⁴^,⁵^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸^,⁹^,¹⁰ The hypocotyl is critical for the morphological establishment of the seedling, and its length displays remarkable plasticity upon perception of changes in the light conditions.⁴^,⁵^,⁸^,⁹^,¹⁰^,¹¹^,¹²^,¹³^,¹⁴^,¹⁵ Although remodeling of the primary cell walls is well-documented to play an important role in hypocotyl growth, how the hypocotyl elongation rate is swiftly repressed at the dark-to-light transition remains elusive.¹⁶^,¹⁷^,¹⁸^,¹⁹^,²⁰^,²¹^,²²^,²³^,²⁴^,²⁵ Here, we show that expression of an Arabidopsis microRNA, miR775, is quickly inhibited at the dark-to-light transition by ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5), an essential negative regulator of hypocotyl elongation that is degraded in the dark and accumulates in the light.²⁶ We found that this repression allows the miR775-targeted GALACTOSYLTRANSFERASE 9 (GALT9) to accumulate in the transverse walls of hypocotyl cells within 10 min of light exposure. Genetic analysis coupled with time-lapse photography demonstrates that GALT9 is both necessary and sufficient for controlling the differential hypocotyl growth rates at the dark-to-light transition. Immunohistochemical analysis and coherent Raman microscopy reveal that the polarized accumulation of GALT9 confers a rapid increase in the pectin content of the transverse walls. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) confirms that polarized pectin accumulation mediated by the HY5-miR775-GALT9 repression cascade correlates with rapid asymmetric increases in cell wall rigidity and hence decreases in cell elongation in the light. Together, these findings add new insights into the cellular mechanism governing differential hypocotyl growth at the dark-to-light transition and should also benefit the general understanding of polarized cell expansion in plants.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143002055","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":"Neural encoding of musical expectations in a non-human primate.","authors":"Roberta Bianco, Nathaniel J Zuk, Félix Bigand, Eros Quarta, Stefano Grasso, Flavia Arnese, Andrea Ravignani, Alexandra Battaglia-Mayer, Giacomo Novembre","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.015","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143002039","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":"Symbiosis and horizontal gene transfer promote herbivory in the megadiverse leaf beetles.","authors":"Roy Kirsch, Yu Okamura, Marleny García-Lozano, Benjamin Weiss, Jean Keller, Heiko Vogel, Kayoko Fukumori, Takema Fukatsu, Alexander S Konstantinov, Matteo Montagna, Alexey G Moseyko, Edward G Riley, Adam Slipinski, Fredric V Vencl, Donald M Windsor, Hassan Salem, Martin Kaltenpoth, Yannick Pauchet","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.028","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Beetles that feed on the nutritionally depauperate and recalcitrant tissues provided by the leaves, stems, and roots of living plants comprise one-quarter of herbivorous insect species. Among the key adaptations for herbivory are plant cell wall-degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) that break down the fastidious polymers in the cell wall and grant access to the nutritious cell content. While largely absent from the non-herbivorous ancestors of beetles, such PCWDEs were occasionally acquired via horizontal gene transfer (HGT) or by the uptake of digestive symbionts. However, the macroevolutionary dynamics of PCWDEs and their impact on evolutionary transitions in herbivorous insects remained poorly understood. Through genomic and transcriptomic analyses of 74 leaf beetle species and 50 symbionts, we show that multiple independent events of microbe-to-beetle HGT and specialized symbioses drove convergent evolutionary innovations in approximately 21,000 and 13,500 leaf beetle species, respectively. Enzymatic assays indicate that these events significantly expanded the beetles' digestive repertoires and thereby contributed to their adaptation and diversification. Our results exemplify how recurring HGT and symbiont acquisition catalyzed digestive and nutritional adaptations to herbivory and thereby contributed to the evolutionary success of a megadiverse insect taxon.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143002062","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":"Subsets of extraocular motoneurons produce kinematically distinct saccades during hunting and exploration.","authors":"Charles K Dowell, Thomas Hawkins, Isaac H Bianco","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Animals construct diverse behavioral repertoires by moving a limited number of body parts with varied kinematics and patterns of coordination. There is evidence that distinct movements can be generated by changes in activity dynamics within a common pool of motoneurons or by selectively engaging specific subsets of motoneurons in a task-dependent manner. However, in most cases, we have an incomplete understanding of the patterns of motoneuron activity that generate distinct actions and of how upstream premotor circuits select and assemble such motor programs. In this study, we used two closely related but kinematically distinct types of saccadic eye movement in larval zebrafish as a model to examine circuit control of movement diversity. In contrast to the prevailing view of a final common pathway, we found that in the oculomotor nucleus, distinct subsets of motoneurons were engaged for each saccade type. This type-specific recruitment was topographically organized and aligned with ultrastructural differences in motoneuron morphology and afferent synaptic innervation. Medially located motoneurons were active for both saccade types, and circuit tracing revealed a type-agnostic premotor pathway that appears to control their recruitment. By contrast, a laterally located subset of motoneurons was specifically active for hunting-associated saccades and received premotor input from pretectal hunting command neurons. Our data support a model in which generalist and action-specific premotor pathways engage distinct subsets of motoneurons to elicit varied movements of the same body part that subserve distinct behavioral functions.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143002061","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":"Intrinsic timing of brood care in shell-dwelling cichlids.","authors":"Ash V Parker, Manuel Stemmer, Swantje Grätsch, Alessandro Dorigo, Oriolson Rodriguez Ramirez, Abdelrahman Adel, Alex Jordan, Herwig Baier","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.020","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Brood care relies on interactions between parents and offspring. Emergence of nestlings from their nest has been hypothesized to rely on the readout by the parent of the maturational state of the young. Theoretical considerations predict a conflict: parents should push for early emergence, if possible, to reduce care demands and maximize the number of reproductive cycles, whereas offspring should delay leaving to maximize resource allocation and protection by the parents. We tested this prediction in Lamprologus ocellatus, a shell-dwelling cichlid from Lake Tanganyika. We developed a laboratory paradigm to investigate the factors influencing emergence from the shell and found that mothers ensure their young stay inside the nest until 9 days after egg laying. Emergence coincides with an inversion of larval phototactic tendency from dark-seeking to light-seeking behavior on day 9. When we experimentally created a timing conflict by introducing older larvae to a foster mother, the mother resisted the (subjectively) premature emergence of her adopted fry. Removing the mother did not alter the larval intrinsic schedule, provided fresh water was supplied inside the shell. These findings suggest that, in L. ocellatus brood care, maternal and offspring behavior is normally synchronized by independent timing mechanisms. Our findings highlight the intricate coordination of parental and offspring behavior, offering insights into the evolutionary pressures shaping brood care in cichlids and challenging the traditional view of parent-offspring conflict over emergence timing.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143002038","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":"CRMP/UNC-33 maintains neuronal microtubule arrays by promoting individual microtubule rescue.","authors":"Xing Liang, Regina Agulto, Kelsie Eichel, Caitlin Ann Taylor, Victor Alexander Paat, Huichao Deng, Kassandra Ori-McKenney, Kang Shen","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.030","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microtubules (MTs) are intrinsically dynamic polymers. In neurons, staggered individual microtubules form stable, polarized acentrosomal MT arrays spanning the axon and dendrite to support long-distance intracellular transport. How the stability and polarity of these arrays are maintained when individual MTs remain highly dynamic is still an open question. Here, we visualize MT arrays in vivo in C. elegans neurons with single MT resolution. We find that the CRMP family homolog UNC-33 is essential for the stability and polarity of MT arrays in neurites. In unc-33 mutants, MTs exhibit dramatically reduced rescue after catastrophe, develop gaps in coverage, and lose their polarity, leading to trafficking defects. UNC-33 is stably anchored on the cortical cytoskeleton and forms patch-like structures along the dendritic shaft. These discrete and stable UNC-33 patches concentrate free tubulins and correlate with MT rescue sites. In vitro, purified UNC-33 preferentially associates with MT tips and increases MT rescue frequency. Together, we propose that UNC-33 functions as a microtubule-associated protein (MAP) to promote individual MT rescue locally. Through this activity, UNC-33 prevents the loss of individual MTs, thereby maintaining the coverage and polarity of MT arrays throughout the lifetime of neurons.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143022653","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":"Social associations across species during nocturnal bird migration.","authors":"Benjamin M Van Doren, Joely G DeSimone, Josh A Firth, Friederike Hillemann, Zach Gayk, Emily Cohen, Andrew Farnsworth","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>An emerging frontier in ecology explores how organisms integrate social information into movement behavior and the extent to which information exchange occurs across species boundaries.¹^,²^,³ Most migratory landbirds are thought to undertake nocturnal migratory flights independently, guided by endogenous programs and individual experience.⁴^,⁵ Little research has addressed the potential for social information exchange aloft during nocturnal migration, but social influences that aid navigation, orientation, or survival could be valuable during high-risk migration periods.¹^,²^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸ We captured audio of >18,000 h of nocturnal bird migration and used deep learning to extract >175,000 in-flight vocalizations of 27 species of North American landbirds.⁹^,¹⁰^,¹¹^,¹² We used vocalizations to test whether migrating birds distribute non-randomly relative to other species in flight, accounting for migration phenology, geography, and other non-social factors. We found that migrants engaged in distinct associations with an average of 2.7 ± 1.9 SD other species. Social associations were stronger among species with similar wing morphologies and vocalizations. These results suggest that vocal signals maintain in-flight associations that are structured by flight speed and behavior.¹¹^,¹³^,¹⁴ For small-bodied and short-lived bird species, transient social associations could play an important role in migratory decision-making by supplementing endogenous or experiential information sources.¹⁵^,¹⁶^,¹⁷ This research provides the first quantitative evidence of interspecific social associations during nocturnal bird migration, supporting recent calls to rethink songbird migration with a social lens.² Substantial recent declines in bird populations¹⁸^,¹⁹ may diminish the frequency and strength of social associations during migration, with currently unknown consequences for populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143002060","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}