PeerJ最新文献

{"title":"Association of gender and metabolic factors with thyroid nodules in T2DM: a retrospective study.","authors":"Xi Yuan, Xin Wang, Xinwen Yu, Yuxin Jin, Aili Yang, Xiaorui Jing, Shengru Liang, Chunni Heng, Na Zhang, Lijuan Chao, Langlang Liu, Meiying Wang, Yufei Liu, Guohong Zhao, Bin Gao","doi":"10.7717/peerj.19068","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.19068","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aims: </strong>Sex differences in the incidence of thyroid nodules (TNs) are broadly recognized, but further analysis is lacking. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the association between TNs and anthropometric parameters in type 2 diabetic males and females.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>This cross-sectional study included 747 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). All patients underwent clinical examination, thyroid ultrasound, laboratory tests, anthropometrics and body composition. Multivariable logistic regression assessed factors associated with TNs, and a simple nomogram was finally developed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In total, the incidence of TNs was 36.95% (276/747) and was significantly higher in females (52.75%) than in males (27.85%). Age was positively correlated with TNs risk in patients with T2DM (males: OR = 4.141, 95% CI [1.999-8.577], females: OR = 4.630, 95% CI [1.845-11.618]). Obesity (OR = 2.655, 95% CI [1.257-5.607]) and hyperuricemia (OR = 1.997, 95% CI [1.030-3.873]) were only associated with the risk of TNs independent of other risk factors in type 2 diabetic females, as well as other obesity factors such as weight, BMI, waist-hip ratio, percent body fat, visceral curve area, and upper arm circumference, but not in type 2 diabetic males. However, the diameter of the largest thyroid nodule was only related to age (<i>R</i> = 0.226, <i>p</i> < 0.01). Finally, the nomogram for evaluating TNs in female T2DM patients was established, and the C-index of the nomogram was 0.704 (95% CI [0.89-0.94]).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>TNs occur with a significantly higher frequency in type 2 diabetic females than in males, especially those with hyperuricemia and obesity. Modifiable metabolic factors, such as obesity and hyperuricemia, are a major focus for improving TNs risk in women.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"13 ","pages":"e19068"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11954462/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143753939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Electroencephalographic power spectrum patterns related to the intelligence of children with learning disorders.","authors":"Benito Javier Martínez-Briones, Thalía Fernández, Juan Silva-Pereyra","doi":"10.7717/peerj.19138","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.19138","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Children with learning disorders (LD) perform below average in tests of academic abilities and intelligence. These children also have a significantly abnormal resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) compared to children with typical development (TD), <i>i.e.</i>, an excess of slow brain oscillations such as delta and theta that may be markers of inefficient cognitive processing. We aimed to explore the relationship between the performance in an intelligence test and the resting-state EEG power spectrum of children with LD. Ninety-one children with LD and 45 control children with TD were evaluated with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children 4th Edition (WISC-IV) test of intelligence and a 19-channel EEG during an eyes-closed resting-state condition. The EEG dimensionality was reduced with a principal component analysis that yielded several components representing EEG bands with functional meaning. The first seven EEG components and the intelligence values were analyzed with multiple linear regression and a between-group discriminant analysis. The EEG power spectrum was significantly related to children's intelligence, predicting 13.1% of the IQ variance. Generalized delta and theta power were inversely related to IQ, whereas frontoparietal gamma activity was directly related. The intelligence test and the resting state EEG had a combined 82.4% success rate to discriminate between children with TD and those with LDs.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"13 ","pages":"e19138"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11954465/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143753953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of Risky Loot Box Index (RLI) and cross-sectional investigation among gamers of China.","authors":"Peidong Guo, Yueheng Liu, Luyin Tan, Yifan Xu, Haolin Huang, Qijian Deng","doi":"10.7717/peerj.19164","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.19164","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nowadays, many of the top-selling video games include options to purchase loot boxes as paid virtual items. As research progressed, loot boxes have been found to have similar characteristics to gambling, and there has been an ongoing debate as to whether loot boxes can be defined as gambling. In order to better study loot boxes, psychometrically meaningful scales are necessary. The Risky Loot Box Index (RLI) was developed by Brooks and Clark, which is the most commonly used tool to assess the use of loot boxes. This study aimed to translate the original RLI into Chinese and evaluate its psychometric properties. Two samples were recruited through online gaming forums (<i>n</i> = 143) and offline internet cafes (<i>n</i> = 236). An exploratory factor analysis of the online sample yielded a one-dimensional nine-item model, with the factor focused on risky behaviors associated with loot boxes. The confirmatory factor analysis carried out on the offline sample corroborated the results obtained from the exploratory factor analysis, and the Chinese version of the RLI displays satisfactory psychometric properties. Furthermore, the Problem Gambling Severity Index (r = 0.57, <i>P</i> < 0.001) and the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (r = 0.67, <i>P</i> < 0.001) were found to be significantly associated with the RLI. We also found that players with high RLI scores may have higher levels of anxiety and depression, and they were more willing to spend money on loot boxes, with some spending nearly all their earnings. Interestingly, no significant correlations between age, gender, education, or income level, and the RLI were found.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"13 ","pages":"e19164"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11952041/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143753885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A new species and new generic synonymy in the family Vietnamellidae (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber with notes on ancient dispersal across East Gondwana.","authors":"Roman J Godunko, Nadhira Benhadji, Alexander Martynov, Zhi-Teng Chen, Xuhongyi Zheng, Arnold H Staniczek","doi":"10.7717/peerj.19048","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.19048","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The monophyletic mayfly family Vietnamellidae has been introduced for a few extant species from the Indomalayan Realm. All these species belong to the genus <i>Vietnamella</i> and have been described in adult and larval stages. Recently, the fossil genus <i>Burmella</i> was established for male and female imagines of two new species from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber and assigned to the family Vietnamellidae. In this contribution, we describe another species in the genus <i>Burmella</i>, namely <i>B. inconspicua</i> <b>sp. nov.</b> based on a female imago. It clearly differs from the previously described female of <i>B. clypeata</i> by the absence of an extension of the clypeus and by a different venation in fore and hind wings. Furthermore, we discuss here in detail the systematic position of the monotypic species <i>Burmaheptagenia zhouchangfai</i> originally assigned to the family Heptageniidae and provide arguments for the synonymy of the genus <i>Burmaheptagenia</i> syn. nov. with <i>Burmella</i>. We propose the new combination <i>Burmella zhouchangfai</i> <b>comb. nov.</b>, together with a modified generic diagnosis for the genus <i>Burmella</i> and discuss the adult characters of Vietnamellidae. Systematic placement of the genus <i>Burmella</i> in Vietnamellidae and the phylogenetic position of this family within Ephemerelloidea are discussed. We also consider the geographic origin of the family and the role of the Cretaceous Burma Terrane migration as a key event that facilitated the transfer of Gondwanan fauna to Asia.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"13 ","pages":"e19048"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11952043/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143753900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Physiological traits underlying sodicity tolerance in Jamun (<i>Syzygium cumini</i> L. Skeels) cultivars.","authors":"Anshuman Singh, Ashwani Kumar, Jai Prakash, Daya Shankar Mishra","doi":"10.7717/peerj.19132","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.19132","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background: &lt;/strong&gt;There is a lack of research on how sodicity stress affects tree growth and physiological relations in jamun (&lt;i&gt;Syzygium cumini&lt;/i&gt; L. Skeels). An understanding of cultivar-specific morpho-physiological changes under sodic conditions might aid in the development of more sodicity-tolerant cultivars through genetic improvement, and help identify cultivars suitable for degraded sodic soils.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods: &lt;/strong&gt;We assessed the effects of sodicity stress on tree growth, physiological relations, and ion uptake in four cultivars of jamun including CISH J-37 (J-37), CISH J-42 (J-42), Konkan Bahadoli (KB), and Goma Priyanka (GP).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;Jamun cultivars exhibited varying degrees of reduction in tree growth, leaf area, and gas exchange properties under sodic conditions. Elevated soil pH caused relatively larger declines in trunk cross sectional area (TCSA; &gt;30%) and canopy volume (CV; &gt;25%) in J-42 and KB. Reductions brought on by sodicity stress in leaf area were rather modest (&lt;10%) across cultivars, suggesting that maintaining leaf area may be a key adaptive trait in jamun to cope with sodic conditions. In addition to displaying a notable increase in water use efficiency (WUE), cultivar J-37 also exhibited largely intact levels of relative chlorophyll and photosynthetic rate (&lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt; &lt;sub&gt;n&lt;/sub&gt;) under sodic conditions. Despite a high intrinsic &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt; &lt;sub&gt;n&lt;/sub&gt; under control treatment, cultivar GP displayed a large drop in &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt; &lt;sub&gt;n&lt;/sub&gt; (37.16%) when exposed to sodicity stress. Comparatively greater increases in leaf phenolics in KB and GP seemed to be at the expense of growth and photosynthesis under sodic conditions. While superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities showed notable spikes in both J-37 and GP, proline accumulation increased substantially only in cultivar J-37 in response to sodicity stress. Despite significant increases in leaf Na&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and Cl&lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; concentrations, J-37 was found to be comparatively efficient in Na&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and Cl&lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; exclusion from leaves when compared to other cultivars. Surprisingly, sodicity stress did not alter leaf K&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt;, Ca&lt;sup&gt;2+&lt;/sup&gt; and Mg&lt;sup&gt;2+&lt;/sup&gt; levels noticeably across cultivars. Correlation analysis suggested that elevated leaf Cl&lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; likely inhibited tree growth more than leaf Na&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt;. Principal component analysis was reasonably efficient in discerning the shared and divergent responses to sodicity stress of the studied cultivars.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusions: &lt;/strong&gt;Membership function analysis revealed a reasonable resilience to sodicity stress only in cultivar J-37. Maintenance of photosynthesis, reduced uptake of Na&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and Cl&lt;sup&gt;-&lt;/sup&gt; ions, increased and synergistic activities of SOD and CAT, and a higher leaf K&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt;/Na&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; ratio likely accounted for better performance of J-37 trees in sodic soils. Further investigations are neede","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"13 ","pages":"e19132"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11952042/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143753817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Differential effects of multiplex and uniplex affiliative relationships on biomarkers of inflammation.","authors":"Jessica J Vandeleest, Lauren J Wooddell, Amy C Nathman, Brianne Beisner, Brenda McCowan","doi":"10.7717/peerj.19113","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.19113","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Social relationships profoundly impact health in social species. Much of what we know regarding the impact of affiliative social relationships on health in nonhuman primates (NHPs) has focused on the structure of connections or the quality of relationships. These relationships are often quantified by comparing different types of affiliative behaviors (&lt;i&gt;e.g.&lt;/i&gt;, contact sitting, grooming, proximity) or pooling affiliative behaviors into an overall measure of affiliation. However, it is unclear how the breadth of affiliative behaviors (&lt;i&gt;e.g.&lt;/i&gt;, how many different types or which ones) a dyad engages in impact health and fitness outcomes. We used a novel social network approach to quantify the breadth of affiliative relationships based on two behaviors: grooming and sitting in contact. Dyadic relationships were filtered into separate networks depending on whether the pair engaged in multiple affiliative behaviors (multiplex networks) or just one (uniplex networks). Typically, in social network analysis, the edges in the network represent the presence of a single behavior (&lt;i&gt;e.g.&lt;/i&gt;, grooming) regardless of the presence or absence of other behaviors (&lt;i&gt;e.g.&lt;/i&gt;, contact sitting, proximity). Therefore, to validate this method, we first compared the overall structure of the standard network for each affiliative behavior: all grooming interactions regardless of contact sitting, and all contact sitting interactions regardless of grooming. We then similarly compared the structure of our filtered multiplex &lt;i&gt;vs.&lt;/i&gt; uniplex networks. Results indicated that multiplex networks were more modular, reciprocal, and kin-based while connections in uniplex networks were more strongly associated with social status. These differences were not replicated when comparing networks based on a single behavior alone (&lt;i&gt;i.e.&lt;/i&gt;, all grooming networks &lt;i&gt;vs.&lt;/i&gt; all contact sitting networks). Next, we evaluated whether individual network position in multiplex &lt;i&gt;vs&lt;/i&gt;. uniplex (novel approach) or grooming &lt;i&gt;vs&lt;/i&gt;. contact sitting (traditional approach) networks differentially impact inflammatory biomarkers in a commonly studied non-human primate model system, the rhesus macaque (&lt;i&gt;Macaca mulatta&lt;/i&gt;). Being well connected in multiplex networks (networks where individuals both contact sat and groomed) was associated with lower inflammation (IL-6, TNF-alpha). In contrast, being well connected in uniplex grooming networks (dyad engaged only in grooming and not in contact sitting) was associated with greater inflammation. Altogether, these results suggest that multiplex relationships may function as supportive relationships (&lt;i&gt;e.g.&lt;/i&gt;, those between kin or strong bonds) that promote health. In contrast, the function of uniplex grooming relationships may be more transactional (&lt;i&gt;e.g.&lt;/i&gt;, based on social tolerance or social status) and may incur physiological costs. This complexity is important to consider for understanding the mechanisms underlying the as","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"13 ","pages":"e19113"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11949109/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143731178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Physiological responses of wild birds to artificial grass during introduction to laboratory housing.","authors":"Bradley P Pedro, L Michael Romero","doi":"10.7717/peerj.19095","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.19095","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Introduction of wild animals to captivity induces chronic stress often leading to weight loss, increases in baseline corticosterone, and increased DNA damage. To mitigate these effects, providing enrichment to the captive environment has been proposed. Yet, studies investigating the physiological effects of captive environment enrichments are rare in wild birds. Here, we test the potential of a single enrichment factor by monitoring weight, baseline corticosterone, and DNA damage in two groups of house sparrows (<i>Passer domesticus)</i> during introduction to captivity: (1) birds in standard laboratory cages with food dishes and (2) birds in cages where food is spread across artificial grass to simulate a more natural foraging environment. After 3 weeks, all birds switched environments for 3 additional weeks. Weight was monitored bi-weekly while baseline corticosterone and DNA damage were measured weekly. Initially, both groups lost significant weight and weight plateaued by about 2 weeks of captivity. However, after switching housing environments, only initially grass-caged birds continued to lose weight. After one week of captivity, grass-caged birds had lower DNA damage compared to standard-caged birds. Over time, standard-caged birds remained unchanged and initially grass-caged birds increased damage after switching housing environments. There were no significant differences in baseline corticosterone across groups or over time. Our findings provide limited support for artificial grass as a substantial enrichment in mitigating the physiological consequences associated with introduction to captivity. Furthermore, given the challenges to husbandry of using artificial grass, the data are insufficiently strong to recommend the use of artificial grass as a stress-reducing enrichment to laboratory housing.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"13 ","pages":"e19095"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11949117/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143730797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Moving beyond the physical impervious surface impact and urban habitat fragmentation of Alaska: quantitative human footprint inference from the first large scale 30 m high-resolution Landscape metrics big data quantification in R and the cloud.","authors":"Moriz Steiner, Falk Huettmann","doi":"10.7717/peerj.18894","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.18894","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>With increased globalization, man-made climate change, and urbanization, the landscape-embedded within the Anthropocene-becomes increasingly fragmented. With wilderness habitats transitioning and getting lost, globally relevant regions considered 'pristine', such as Alaska, are no exception. Alaska holds 60% of the U.S. National Park system's area and is of national and international importance, considering the U.S. is one of the wealthiest nations on earth. These characteristics tie into densities and quantities of human features, <i>e.g</i>., roads, houses, mines, wind parks, agriculture, trails, <i>etc</i>., that can be summarized as 'impervious surfaces.' Those are physical impacts and actively affecting urban-driven landscape fragmentation. Using the remote sensing data of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), here we attempt to create the first quantification of this physical human impact on the Alaskan landscape and its fragmentation. We quantified these impacts using the well-established landscape metrics tool 'Fragstats', implemented as the R package \"landscapemetrics\" in the desktop software and through the interface of a Linux Cloud-computing environment. This workflow allows for the first time to overcome the computational limitations of the conventional Fragstats software within a reasonably quick timeframe. Thereby, we are able to analyze a land area as large as approx. 1,517,733 km² (state of Alaska) while maintaining a high assessment resolution of 30 m. Based on this traditional methodology, we found that Alaska has a reported physical human impact of c. 0.067%. We additionally overlaid other features that were not included in the input data to highlight the overall true human impact (<i>e.g</i>., roads, trails, airports, governance boundaries in game management and park units, mines, <i>etc</i>.). We found that using remote sensing (human impact layers), Alaska's human impact is considerably underestimated to a meaningless estimate. The state is more seriously fragmented and affected by humans than commonly assumed. Very few areas are truly untouched and display a high patch density with corresponding low mean patch sizes throughout the study area. Instead, the true human impact is likely close to 100% throughout Alaska for several metrics. With these newly created insights, we provide the first state-wide landscape data and inference that are likely of considerable importance for land management entities in the state of Alaska, and for the U.S. National Park systems overall, especially in the changing climate. Likewise, the methodological framework presented here shows an Open Access workflow and can be used as a reference to be reproduced virtually anywhere else on the planet to assess more realistic large-scale landscape metrics. It can also be used to assess human impacts on the landscape for more sustainable landscape stewardship and mitigation in policy.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"13 ","pages":"e18894"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11949110/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143730870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Isolation and <i>in silico</i> analysis of a new subclass of parasporin 4 from <i>Bacillus thuringiensis coreanensis</i>.","authors":"Thais N F Santos, Raquel O Moreira, Jardel D B Rodrigues, Luis A C Rojas, Jackson A M Souza, Janete A Desidério","doi":"10.7717/peerj.19061","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.19061","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong><i>Bacillus thuringiensis</i> (Bt) is a Gram-positive bacterium whose strains have been studied mainly for the control of insect pests, due to the insecticidal capacity of its Cry and Vip proteins. However, recent studies indicate the presence of other proteins with no known insecticidal action. These proteins denominated \"parasporins\" (PS) have cytotoxic activity and are divided into six classes, namely PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, PS5, and PS6. Among these, parasporins 4 (PS4) has only one described subclass, present in the <i>Bacillus thuringiensis shandongiensis</i> strain. Given the importance and limited knowledge about the actions of PS4 proteins and the existence of only one described subclass, the present work aimed to characterize the <i>Bacillus thuringiensis coreanensis</i> strain as a potential source of PS4 protein.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A preliminary screening to detect the <i>ps4</i> gene was conducted in a bank of standard strains and isolates of <i>Bacillus thuringiensis</i> from the Laboratory of Bacterial Genetics and Applied Biotechnology, FCAV/UNESP. The positive strain for this gene had its genomic DNA extracted, the <i>ps4</i> gene was isolated, cloned and <i>in silico</i> analyses of its sequence were performed. Tools such as Bioedit, BLAST, Clustal Omega, Geneious, IQ-Tree, and iTOL were used in these analyses. For the structural analysis of the PS4 detected, in comparison to the database PS4 (BAD22577), the tools Alphafold2, Pymol, and InterPro were used. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) gel analyses allowed the visualization of the inactive and active PS4 protein from the positive strain, after solubilization and activation with Proteinase K.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Previous screening of Bt standard strains revealed the presence of a partial <i>ps4</i> gene in <i>Bacillus thuringiensis coreanensis</i> strain. The alignment obtained by the BLAST tool revealed 100% identity between the fragment detected in this work with a hypothetical protein (ANN35810.1) from the genome of that same strain. Considering this, the isolation of the complete gene present in this strain was performed by applying the polymer chain reaction (PCR) technique, using the hypothetical sequence as a basis for the primers elaboration. The <i>in silico</i> analysis of the obtained sequence revealed 92.03% similarity with the <i>ps4</i> sequence presented in the database (AB180980). Protein modeling studies and comparison of their structures revealed that the <i>B. thuringiensis coreanensis</i> has a new subclass of PS4, denominated PS4Ab1, being an important source of parasporin to be explored in biotechnological applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"13 ","pages":"e19061"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11949118/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143730656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Strain differences between C57Bl/6 and DBA/2 mice (<i>Mus musculus</i>) in delayed matching and nonmatching-to-position tasks: impact of sample responses and delay intervals.","authors":"Kazuhiro Goto","doi":"10.7717/peerj.19200","DOIUrl":"10.7717/peerj.19200","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Spatial working memory is commonly assessed in rodents using delayed matching-to-position (DMTP) and delayed nonmatching-to-position (DNMTP) tasks. Although these tasks are widely used to examine memory function, particularly in relation to delay intervals and response requirements, strain differences in task performance remain underexplored. This study investigates spatial working memory in two widely used mouse strains, C57BL/6 and DBA/2, using these tasks.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Mice were trained and tested on the DNMTP task first, followed by the DMTP task. Both tasks were conducted with varying delay intervals and response requirements, allowing for the assessment of spatial working memory across different conditions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Both strains acquired the tasks. However, DBA/2 mice exhibited a smaller decline in accuracy with increasing delay intervals in the DNMTP task compared to C57BL/6 mice. DBA/2 mice also demonstrated more stable performance across both tasks, whereas C57BL/6 mice showed a more pronounced accuracy decline in the DNMTP task than in the DMTP task. In addition, enhancing response requirements during sample trials improved performance in DBA/2 mice for both tasks, a trend that was not observed in C57BL/6 mice. These findings suggest that task-specific variables, such as response modality (<i>e.g</i>., lever pressing <i>vs</i>. nose poking) and prior training history, can significantly influence strain performance. Overall, these results emphasize the need for considering strain-specific traits and experimental conditions when interpreting behavioral data, particularly for DBA/2 mice, frequently used as models for hippocampal dysfunction.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"13 ","pages":"e19200"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11949106/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143730969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}