Current Biology最新文献

{"title":"Genomic reconstruction reveals impact of population management strategies on modern Galápagos dogs.","authors":"Gabriella J Spatola, Tatiana R Feuerborn, Jennifer A Betz, Reuben M Buckley, Gary K Ostrander, Emily V Dutrow, Alberto Velez, C Miguel Pinto, Alex C Harris, Jessica M Hale, Bruce D Barnett, Timothy A Mousseau, Elaine A Ostrander","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.079","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Free-breeding dogs have occupied the Galápagos Islands at least since the 1830s; however, it was not until the 1900s that dog populations grew substantially, endangering wildlife and spreading disease.¹^,²^,³^,⁴ In 1981, efforts to control the population size of free-roaming dogs began.¹ Yet, there exist large free-roaming dog populations on the islands of Isabela and Santa Cruz whose ancestry has never been assessed on a genome-wide scale. We thus performed a complete genomic analysis of the current Galápagos dog population, as well as historical Galápagos dogs sampled between 1969 and 2003, testing for population structure, admixture, and shared ancestry. Our dataset included samples from 187 modern and six historical Galápagos dogs, together with whole-genome sequences from over 2,000 modern purebred and village dogs. Our results indicate that modern Galápagos dogs are recently admixed with purebred dogs but show no evidence of a population bottleneck related to the culling. Additionally, identity-by-descent analyses reveal evidence of shared shepherd-dog ancestry in the historical dogs. Overall, our results demonstrate that the 1980s culling of dogs was ineffective in controlling population size and did little to reduce genetic diversity, instead producing a stable and expanding population with genomic signatures of modern purebred dogs. The insights from this study can be used to improve population control strategies for the Galápagos Islands and other endangered endemic communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142791419","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 language model of problem solving in humans and macaque monkeys.","authors":"Qianli Yang, Zhihua Zhu, Ruoguang Si, Yunwei Li, Jiaxiang Zhang, Tianming Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.074","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human intelligence is characterized by the remarkable ability to solve complex problems by planning a sequence of actions that takes us from an initial state to a desired goal state. Quantifying and comparing problem-solving capabilities across species and finding their evolutionary roots are critical for understanding how the brain carries out this intricate process. We introduce the Language of Problem Solving (LoPS) model as a novel quantitative framework that investigates the structure of problem-solving behavior through a language model. We applied the model to an adapted classic Pac-Man game as a cross-species behavioral paradigm to test both humans and macaque monkeys. The LoPS model extracted the latent structure, or grammar, embedded in the agents' gameplay, revealing the non-Markovian temporal dependency structure of their problem-solving behavior and the hierarchical structures of problem solving in both species. The complexity of LoPS grammar correlated with individuals' game performance and reflected the difference in problem-solving capacity between humans and monkeys. Both species evolved their LoPS grammars during learning, progressing from simpler to more complex ones, suggesting that the structure of problem solving is not fixed but evolves to support more sophisticated and efficient problem solving. Our study provides insights into how humans and monkeys break down problem solving into compositional units and navigate complex tasks, deepening our understanding of human intelligence and its evolution and establishing a foundation for future investigations of the neural mechanisms of problem solving.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142779634","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":"Identification of a tetrahedral apical cell preserved within a fossilized fern fiddlehead.","authors":"Rafael Cruz, Alexander J Hetherington","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.076","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The gradual unfurling of fronds from tightly coiled tips, termed fiddleheads or croziers, is one of the most recognizable features of the fern lineage, but its evolutionary origin remains unclear. Here, we identify that fiddleheads and their development, termed circinate vernation,¹^,² are not ubiquitous across ferns. Instead, they are a synapomorphy of a clade we term the circinatophytes that includes extant marattioid and leptosporangiate ferns. Circinatophytes encompass the vast majority of extant ferns,³ and fossil evidence demonstrates the antiquity of the group at over 315 million years. Despite their overall conservation, a comparative investigation of extant species suggests that during fiddlehead evolution, there was a transition from a tetrahedral to a wedge-shaped apical cell in the leaf meristem. We predict that a tetrahedral leaf apical cell was likely ancestral in circinatophytes, despite being present in less than 2% of modern species,³ and that this cell mirrored the tetrahedral cell found in the shoots of all major groups of ferns. This is supported by our description of a tetrahedral apical cell in, to our knowledge, the oldest preserved fossil fern leaf meristem of the ca. 315-million-year-old fern Ankyropteris corrugata. We conclude that fiddleheads have been highly conserved in the circinatophytes, and the similarities in leaf and shoot apical cells in early diverging groups of ferns add support to the hypothesis that fern leaves evolved through the modification of shoots, as proposed by the telome theory.⁴.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142791420","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":"Multisensory integration of social signals by a pathway from the basal amygdala to the auditory cortex in maternal mice.","authors":"Alexandra C Nowlan, Jane Choe, Hoda Tromblee, Clancy Kelahan, Karin Hellevik, Stephen D Shea","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.078","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Social encounters are inherently multisensory events, yet how and where social cues of distinct sensory modalities merge and interact in the brain is poorly understood. When their pups wander away from the nest, mother mice use a combination of vocal and olfactory signals emitted by the pups to locate and retrieve them. Previous work revealed the emergence of multisensory interactions in the auditory cortex (AC) of both dams and virgins who cohabitate with pups (\"surrogates\"). Here, we identify a neural pathway that relays information about odors to the AC to be integrated with responses to sound. We found that a scattered population of glutamatergic neurons in the basal amygdala (BA) projects to the AC and responds to odors, including the smell of pups. These neurons exhibit increased activity when the female is searching for pups that terminates upon contact. Finally, we show that selective optogenetic activation of BA-AC neurons modulates responses to pup calls, and that this modulation switches from predominantly suppressive to predominantly excitatory after maternal experience. This supports an underappreciated role for the amygdala in directly shaping sensory representations in an experience-dependent manner. We propose that the BA-AC pathway supports integration of olfaction and audition to facilitate maternal care and speculate that it may carry valence information to the AC.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142779640","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":"Alkaloids are associated with increased microbial diversity and metabolic function in poison frogs.","authors":"Stephanie N Caty, Aurora Alvarez-Buylla, Cooper Vasek, Elicio E Tapia, Nora A Martin, Theresa McLaughlin, Chloe L Golde, Peter K Weber, Xavier Mayali, Luis A Coloma, Megan M Morris, Lauren A O'Connell","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.069","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Shifts in host-associated microbiomes can impact both host and microbes.¹^,²^,³^,⁴^,⁵^,⁶ It is of interest to understand how perturbations, like the introduction of exogenous chemicals,⁷^,⁸^,⁹^,¹⁰^,¹¹^,¹²^,¹³ impact microbiomes. In poison frogs (family Dendrobatidae), the skin microbiome is exposed to alkaloids that the frogs sequester for defense.¹⁴^,¹⁵^,¹⁶^,¹⁷^,¹⁸^,¹⁹ These alkaloids are antimicrobial²⁰^,²¹^,²²; however, their effect on the frogs' skin microbiome is unknown. To test this, we characterized microbial communities from field-collected dendrobatid frogs. Then, we conducted a laboratory experiment to monitor the effect of the alkaloid decahydroquinoline (DHQ) on the microbiome of two frog species with contrasting alkaloid loads in nature. In both datasets, we found that alkaloid-exposed microbiomes were more phylogenetically diverse, with an increase in diversity among rare taxa. To better understand the isolate-specific response to alkaloids, we cultured microbial isolates from poison frog skin and found that many isolates exhibited enhanced growth or were not impacted by the addition of DHQ. To further explore the microbial response to alkaloids, we sequenced the metagenomes from high- and low-alkaloid frogs and observed a greater diversity of genes associated with nitrogen and carbon metabolism in high-alkaloid frogs. From these data, we hypothesized that some strains may metabolize the alkaloids. We used stable isotope tracing coupled to nanoSIMS (nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry), which supported the idea that some of these isolates are able to metabolize DHQ. Together, these data suggest that poison frog alkaloids open new niches for skin-associated microbes with specific adaptations, such as alkaloid metabolism, that enable survival in this environment.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142784561","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":"Prefrontal tDCS fails to modulate memory retrieval in younger and older adults.","authors":"Tesnim Arar, Gabriella V Hirsch, Taylor A Chamberlain, Miranda Malone, Cheyenne D Wakeland-Hart, Martynas Snarskis, Diane S Lauderdale, L Philip Schumm, David A Gallo","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.080","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous research shows that a single session of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) can improve the accuracy of episodic memory retrieval, but stimulation effects are not always found and may be moderated by time of day. Here, we report the results from a rigorous clinical trial (NCT03723850) designed to replicate these tDCS findings in younger adults and extend them to cognitively normal older adults. We conducted the largest double-blind, between-subjects tDCS study on memory retrieval in younger and older adults to date. 150 younger adults and 91 older adults received anodal tDCS or sham stimulation to the left dlPFC prior to episodic memory retrieval and working memory tasks. We also manipulated when tDCS was administered (time of day: morning vs. afternoon), task difficulty (easy vs. hard), and stimulus format (verbal vs. visual/pictorial) to test the extent that these variables are important for identifying tDCS effects. Contrary to our preregistered predictions, we did not find any effect of tDCS or time of day on younger or older adults' episodic or working memory performance. This outcome was not due to insensitivity of our cognitive tasks, given that we found expected effects of task difficulty and age-related effects on our memory measures. Based on these and prior tDCS results, we conclude that a single dose of tDCS using the typical and often recommended parameters does not reliably improve episodic memory retrieval in either age group.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142791422","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":"Metabolite-level regulation of enzymatic activity controls awakening of cyanobacteria from metabolic dormancy.","authors":"Sofía Doello, Jakob Sauerwein, Nathan von Manteuffel, Markus Burkhardt, Niels Neumann, Jens Appel, Johanna Rapp, Pauline Just, Hannes Link, Kirstin Gutekunst, Karl Forchhammer","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Transitioning into and out of dormancy is a crucial survival strategy for many organisms. In unicellular cyanobacteria, surviving nitrogen-starved conditions involves tuning down their metabolism and reactivating it once nitrogen becomes available. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), the enzyme that catalyzes the first step of the oxidative pentose phosphate (OPP) pathway, plays a key role in this process. G6PDH is produced at the onset of nitrogen starvation but remains inactive in dormant cells, only to be rapidly reactivated when nitrogen is restored. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying this enzymatic regulation and found that G6PDH inactivation is primarily due to the accumulation of inhibitory metabolites. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that metabolite-level regulation is the driving force behind the resuscitation program. This study highlights the critical importance of metabolite-level regulation in ensuring rapid and precise enzymatic control, enabling microorganisms to swiftly adapt to environmental changes and undergo developmental transitions.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142767415","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":"Grapefruit-derived nootkatone potentiates GABAergic signaling and acts as a dual-action mosquito repellent and insecticide.","authors":"Merybeth Fernandez Triana, Felipe Andreazza, Nadia Melo, Rickard Ignell, Ali Afify, Yuan Li, Dan-Dan Zhang, Christopher J Potter, Ke Dong, Marcus C Stensmyr","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.067","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Humanity has long battled mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit-a struggle intensified by climate change and globalization, which have expanded mosquito ranges and the spread of associated diseases.¹ Additionally, widespread insecticide resistance has reduced the efficacy of current control methods, necessitating new solutions.²^,³ Nootkatone, a natural compound found in grapefruit, shows promise as both a mosquito repellent and an insecticide.⁴^,⁵ However, its mechanism of action remains unclear. Our study demonstrates that nootkatone acts as a potent spatial and contact repellent against multiple mosquito species. Nootkatone-induced spatial aversion, which is influenced by human odor, is in Aedes aegypti partially mediated by Orco- and ionotropic receptor (IR)-positive neurons, while contact aversion is robust and likely mediated via the proboscis and independent of TRPA1 and IRs. We further find that nootkatone potentiates γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-mediated signaling by modulating the broadly expressed major insect GABA-gated chloride channel resistant to dieldrin (Rdl). At low doses, the chemosensory-mediated spatial and contact repellency is likely strengthened by nootkatone's disruption of synaptic transmission in select mosquito sensory neurons. At higher doses, nootkatone induces paralysis and death, presumably through broad-range synaptic transmission disruption. These findings reveal nootkatone's unique mode of action and highlight its potential as an effective mosquito control agent. Its dual role as a repellent and an insecticide, combined with low-to-no toxicity to humans and a pleasant smell, underscores nootkatone's promise as a future tool in mosquito control efforts.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142779637","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":"Planar polarized force propagation integrates cell behavior with tissue shaping during convergent extension.","authors":"Shinuo Weng, Masaya Hayashi, Yasuhiro Inoue, John B Wallingford","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.070","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Convergent extension (CE) is an evolutionarily conserved developmental process that elongates tissues and organs via collective cell movements known as cell intercalation. Here, we sought to understand the mechanisms connecting cell behaviors and tissue shaping. We focus on an often-overlooked aspect of cell intercalation, the resolution of 4-cell vertices. Our data reveal that imbalanced cellular forces are involved in a timely vertex resolution, which, in turn, enables the propagation of such cellular forces, facilitating the propagation of tissue-scale CE. Conversely, delayed vertex resolution leads to a subtle but significant change in tissue-wide cell packing and exerts a profound impact by blocking force propagation, resulting in CE propagation defects. Our findings propose a collaborative nature of local cell intercalations in propagating tissue-wide CE. It unveils a multiscale biomechanical synergy underpinning the cellular mechanisms that orchestrate tissue morphogenesis during CE.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142750348","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":"Impaired pheromone detection and abnormal sexual behavior in female mice deficient for ancV1R.","authors":"Hiro Kondo, Tetsuo Iwata, Koji Sato, Riseru Koshiishi, Hikoyu Suzuki, Ken Murata, Marc Spehr, Kazushige Touhara, Masato Nikaido, Junji Hirota","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.077","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ancient vomeronasal receptor type-1 (ancV1R), a putative vomeronasal receptor, is highly conserved across a wide range of vertebrates and is expressed in the majority of vomeronasal sensory neurons, co-expressing with canonical vomeronasal receptors, V1Rs and V2Rs. The pseudogenization of ancV1R is closely associated with vomeronasal organ (VNO) degeneration, indicating its critical role in pheromone sensing. However, the specific role of ancV1R remains unknown. In this study, to elucidate the function of ancV1R, we conducted phenotypic analyses of ancV1R-deficient female mice. Behavioral analyses showed that ancV1R-deficient females exhibited rejective responses toward male sexual behavior and displayed no preference for male urine. Physiological analyses demonstrate that the loss-of-function mutation of ancV1R reduced VNO response to various pheromone cues, including male urine, the sexual enhancing pheromone exocrine gland-secreting peptide 1 (ESP1), and β-estradiol 3-sulfate. Pre-exposure to ESP1 did not overcome the rejection behavior caused by ancV1R deficiency. Analysis of neural activity in the vomeronasal system revealed increased responses in the medial amygdala and posteromedial cortical amygdala of mutant females upon contact with males but not in response to male urine alone. Additionally, upon male contacts, ancV1R-deficient females exhibited increased neural activity in the lateral septum, a stress-associated brain region, along with elevated stress hormone levels. Such effects were not observed in females exposed solely to male urine. These findings suggest that, in females, ancV1R facilitates VNO responses to pheromone stimuli and plays a crucial role in perceiving males as mating partners. The absence of ancV1R results in failure of male perception, leading to abnormal sexual behaviors and stress responses upon male contact.</p>","PeriodicalId":11359,"journal":{"name":"Current Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142692626","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}