PLoS GeneticsPub Date : 2026-10-05eCollection Date: 2026-10-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012326
Yang Sui, Dao-Qiong Zheng, Yeke Wang, Shan-Shan Zhao, Ke-Jing Li, Cunqi Ye, Ke Zhang
{"title":"Decoupling metabolic defense: Mutational and recombinational chaos in Sod1-deficient cells.","authors":"Yang Sui, Dao-Qiong Zheng, Yeke Wang, Shan-Shan Zhao, Ke-Jing Li, Cunqi Ye, Ke Zhang","doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012326","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012326","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Superoxide dismutase 1 (Sod1) is long recognized as a frontline antioxidant, yet its broader role in safeguarding the eukaryotic genome remains under-explored. Here, using a yeast model, we reveal that Sod1 is an indispensable guardian of genomic integrity. Its absence unleashes a genomic storm: whole-genome sequencing uncovered a dramatic surge in single nucleotide variations (13-fold), loss of heterozygosity (12-fold), chromosomal rearrangements (4-fold), and a staggering 48-fold increase in aneuploidy. Remarkably, this genomic instability was completely abolished under anaerobic conditions, identifying reactive oxygen species as the sole executioner. We demonstrate that Sod1 deficiency sculpts a unique mutational landscape dominated by C:G to A:T transversions-a molecular fingerprint of 8-oxoguanine overproduction. Mechanistically, these lesions are exacerbated by error-prone DNA polymerase ζ but mitigated by the concerted actions of Ogg1-mediated excision and DNA polymerase η. Critically, we show that Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis-associated variants are not created equal: the H48Q mutation shatters genome stability, whereas others (A4V, G36R, and G93A) remain benign in this context. Unlike yeast Sod1, human Sod1 is highly resistant to amino acid substitutions outside copper-binding sites, thus preventing the loss of enzyme function. Overall, our findings provide a mechanistically framework for understanding how Sod1 dysfunction drives genome instability in eukaryotic cells.</p>","PeriodicalId":49007,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Genetics","volume":"22 10","pages":"e1012326"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13649116/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149117073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS GeneticsPub Date : 2026-10-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012255
Xinyu Huang, Sudharsan Kannan, Gail A Robertson, Han Wang
{"title":"Forward genetics reveals a conserved CNBHD-CNBHD interface that restrains EAG channel activation to regulate sleep.","authors":"Xinyu Huang, Sudharsan Kannan, Gail A Robertson, Han Wang","doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012255","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012255","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>KCNH voltage-gated potassium channels regulate neuronal excitability, yet how their hallmark cyclic nucleotide-binding homology domains (CNBHDs) influence channel gating to regulate behavior remains unclear. Using an unbiased forward genetic screen in Caenorhabditis elegans, we identified a gain-of-function mutation in the EAG-subfamily KCNH channel EGL-2 that suppresses sleep. The mutation (G574E) alters a highly conserved glycine residue at the interface between CNBHDs of adjacent channel subunits. EGL-2 functions cell-autonomously in the central sleep-promoting neuron ALA. In vivo calcium imaging showed that the gain-of-function mutation suppresses sleep by inhibiting ALA neuronal activity, consistent with enhanced potassium channel activity. Genetic analysis demonstrated that the sleep-suppressing phenotype of G574E requires both an intact potassium selectivity filter and the intrinsic ligand-occupied CNBHD. A second substitution at the same glycine (G574R), which introduces a positively charged side chain in contrast to the negatively charged side chain in G574E, similarly suppresses sleep, indicating that perturbation of the CNBHD-CNBHD interface, rather than the specific amino acid change, underlies the phenotype. Moreover, mutations at the corresponding residue in the ERG-subfamily KCNH channels C. elegans UNC-103 and human hERG also produce gain-of-function effects, and electrophysiological analysis showed that hERG(G749R) shifts voltage-dependent channel activation to more negative potentials and accelerates activation kinetics. These findings identify EGL-2 as an important sleep regulator and uncover a conserved gating mechanism by which the intersubunit CNBHD-CNBHD interface restrains KCNH channel activation to regulate neuronal excitability and behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":49007,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Genetics","volume":"22 10","pages":"e1012255"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13660981/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149117189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS GeneticsPub Date : 2026-09-30eCollection Date: 2026-09-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012328
Sophie Breunig, Kristen M Kelly, Lukas S Schaffer, Jeremy M Lawrence, Younga Heather Lee, Elizabeth W Karlson, Andrew D Grotzinger
{"title":"Immune markers mediate genetic relationships between immune diseases and psychiatric disorders.","authors":"Sophie Breunig, Kristen M Kelly, Lukas S Schaffer, Jeremy M Lawrence, Younga Heather Lee, Elizabeth W Karlson, Andrew D Grotzinger","doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012328","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012328","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study explored the genetic links between 11 immune-mediated diseases and 13 psychiatric disorders, addressing the limited understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms linking these illnesses. Utilizing genomic structural equation modeling, we investigated whether the genetic liability for 14 immune markers (e.g., C-reactive protein [CRP], interleukin-6 [IL-6]) mediated associations between latent genomic factors of immune-mediated diseases (e.g., autoimmune) and psychiatric disorders (e.g., internalizing). While the literature extensively describes the psychiatric relevance of CRP, results indicated this is better explained by its biological precursor, IL-6. This is evidenced by highly attenuated associations of psychiatric traits with CRP when accounting for overlapping signal of IL6. Overall, the genetic liability of six immune markers significantly mediated 11 psychiatric-immune disease genetic relationships. For example, IL-6 mediated 60% of the genetic link between an internalizing factor and Crohn's disease. Identified markers often evinced mediating effects for multiple disorder clusters and many immune-psychiatric relationships were mediated by multiple markers. At the same time, highlighting their diagnostic relevance, only a subset of examined immune markers were significant mediators. These findings provide mechanistic insight by pinpointing the immune markers that may be most critical to the psychiatric-immune disease link, which notably did not include CRP.</p>","PeriodicalId":49007,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Genetics","volume":"22 9","pages":"e1012328"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641701/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149116800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS GeneticsPub Date : 2026-09-30eCollection Date: 2026-09-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012085
Rose A Gogal, Genevieve M Cox, Diana L Kolbe, Amanda M Odell, Chloe E Ovel, Katherine I McCormick, Brian Hong, Hela Azaiez, Thomas L Casavant, Richard J H Smith, Terry A Braun, Michael J Schnieders
{"title":"The prevalence of protein misfolding as a mechanism for hereditary deafness.","authors":"Rose A Gogal, Genevieve M Cox, Diana L Kolbe, Amanda M Odell, Chloe E Ovel, Katherine I McCormick, Brian Hong, Hela Azaiez, Thomas L Casavant, Richard J H Smith, Terry A Braun, Michael J Schnieders","doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012085","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012085","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hearing loss is the most common sensory deficit impacting ~5% of the world's population. The Deafness Variation Database (DVD) is a public resource of deafness variants, containing 381,924 missense variants across 224 genes, with 303,577 classified as a variant of uncertain significance (VUS). To address the challenge of evaluating each deafness associated VUS, we evaluate a family of probabilistic frameworks to quantify the strength of computational evidence based on ACMG/AMP recommendations. First, CADD and REVEL are compared using Bayesian models parameterized using either a ClinVar 2019 dataset or labeled DVD variants. The REVEL model built using the DVD dataset demonstrates the best accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Incorporation of (in)tolerance to missense variation based on sorting each gene into three bins (tolerant, average, intolerant) shows that intolerant DVD genes are consistent with a higher prior probability of being pathogenic (25.7%) than average (10.7%) or tolerant (8.7%) genes. Finally, the impact of protein folding stability was incorporated into the Bayesian model and surpassed the simpler versions while also offering a biophysical rationale for the disease mechanism. The 28,866 VUSs that reach a posterior probability of pathogenicity above 98% based on the protein-folding informed Bayesian model were prioritized as likely to be pathogenic. Overall, 54,752 missense variants (14.3% of 381,924) are predicted to cause modest protein folding destabilization of greater than 1.0 kcal/mol, while 18,706 of these are prioritized VUSs (34% of 54,752). 22,237 missense variants (6.2% of 381,924) are predicted to cause more severe protein folding destabilization of at least 2 kcal/mol with 12,424 being prioritized VUSs (55.8% of 22,237). From these VUSs, we identify twelve probands where the patient's genetic diagnosis is upgraded to likely pathogenic/pathogenic. We highlight two variants that cause clear structural disruption, demonstrating the impact of biophysical characterization on variant evaluation.</p>","PeriodicalId":49007,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Genetics","volume":"22 9","pages":"e1012085"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641712/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149117046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS GeneticsPub Date : 2026-09-28eCollection Date: 2026-09-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012319
Jake Colautti, Alexander C Anderson, Wyatt P K Clark, Lindsey S Marmont
{"title":"Altered regulation of septal peptidoglycan synthesis modulates β-lactam susceptibility in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.","authors":"Jake Colautti, Alexander C Anderson, Wyatt P K Clark, Lindsey S Marmont","doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012319","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012319","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bacterial cell division requires precise regulation of septal peptidoglycan (PG) synthesis by the essential SEDS-bPBP synthase FtsWI. Activation of FtsWI is thought to occur through an allosteric cascade initiated by the late-arriving divisome protein FtsN and transmitted via the FtsQ-FtsL-FtsB (FtsQLB) complex, but the molecular details of this process remain incompletely defined and differ across species. Here, using the conditional essentiality of ftsN in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we identify substitutions in the non-enzymatic pedestal domain of FtsI that bypass the requirement for FtsN. These mutations restore cell division in ΔftsN cells, suppress dominant-negative phenotypes of activation-defective ftsL alleles, and reduce cell length in an otherwise wild-type background, demonstrating that they alter FtsWI regulation to overcome the requirement for stimulation by both FtsN and FtsQLB. Mapping these mutations onto the P. aeruginosa FtsQLBWI structure reveals that they cluster on distinct surfaces of the pedestal domain. Because some of these substitutions have been identified in clinical P. aeruginosa isolates with increased aztreonam resistance, we next asked whether these regulatory substitutions alter β-lactam susceptibility. Variants at the FtsI-FtsL interface modestly reduce susceptibility to multiple β-lactam antibiotics, whereas a variant on the opposite face of the pedestal domain produces striking FtsN-dependent hypersusceptibility to the same molecules. These findings show that the FtsI pedestal domain plays a central role in the regulation of FtsWI and reveal a previously unrecognized relationship between divisome regulation and β-lactam susceptibility. More broadly, our work identifies the pedestal domain as a regulatory hub that integrates multiple inputs controlling septal PG synthesis and highlights its potential relevance to β-lactam resistance in clinical P. aeruginosa isolates.</p>","PeriodicalId":49007,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Genetics","volume":"22 9","pages":"e1012319"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641693/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149075904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS GeneticsPub Date : 2026-09-28eCollection Date: 2026-09-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012071
Siyao Wang, Laura Childers, Fernando Martinez Iii, Michel Bagnat, Jieun Park
{"title":"Genome wide transcriptional changes underlie gradual and recurrent adaptation to protein malnutrition in zebrafish.","authors":"Siyao Wang, Laura Childers, Fernando Martinez Iii, Michel Bagnat, Jieun Park","doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012071","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012071","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Lysosome-rich enterocytes (LREs) are a specialized population of intestinal cells that mediate the uptake and absorption of dietary proteins in fish and neonatal mammals. Loss of LRE function causes inhibited growth and poor survival due to protein malnutrition. Previously, we reported that in zebrafish loss of Plasmolipin (pllp), an endosomal membrane protein highly expressed in LREs, impairs LRE differentiation and dietary protein absorption, resulting in marked reduction in survival rates. Raising pllp homozygous mutants surviving to adulthood and in-crossing them for multiple generations resulted in a recovery of survival and growth, even when fed a low protein diet. To uncover mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, we compared the older adapted pllp allele with genetically related wild type (WT) fish and a newly generated pllp mutant allele. Using transcriptome profiling and quantitative protein absorption assays, we found that the adapted pllp mutants exhibit upregulation of LRE endocytic components associated with a capacity for protein absorption that exceeds that of WT. This hyperactivation of LRE endocytic and absorptive activity is accompanied by transcriptional regulation of immune genes that may contribute to the enhanced survival of pllp mutants in the face of increased exposure to environmental antigens. Genetic analyses indicate that these divergent phenotypes emerge gradually over generations and can recur in an independently generated pllp allele upon inbreeding and natural selection. Overall, our study illustrates that genome-wide transcriptional changes are associated with stable improvements in intestinal function and organismal survival in response to protein malnutrition.</p>","PeriodicalId":49007,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Genetics","volume":"22 9","pages":"e1012071"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13652339/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149076075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS GeneticsPub Date : 2026-09-25eCollection Date: 2026-09-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012290
Sarah Frieda Becker, Marie-Charlotte Morin, Julien Lambert, Shashi Kumar Suman, Francesco Nicola Carelli, Alex Appert, Stéphane Roth, Sarah Hoff-Yoessle, Jessica D Medina-Sanchez, Manuela Portoso, Julie Ahringer, Sophie Jarriault
{"title":"The SynMuvA lin-15A licenses natural transdifferentiation by antagonizing identity safeguarding mechanisms.","authors":"Sarah Frieda Becker, Marie-Charlotte Morin, Julien Lambert, Shashi Kumar Suman, Francesco Nicola Carelli, Alex Appert, Stéphane Roth, Sarah Hoff-Yoessle, Jessica D Medina-Sanchez, Manuela Portoso, Julie Ahringer, Sophie Jarriault","doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012290","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012290","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The mechanisms that restrict or enable latent cellular plasticity have attracted growing interest over the past decade, with important implications for cancer and regenerative therapies. However, the diversity of both pro- and anti-plasticity mechanisms remains incompletely understood. Here, we identify the THAP domain gene lin-15A as a novel factor involved in the natural rectal-to-neuronal Y-to-PDA transdifferentiation in Caenorhabditis elegans. Our genetic analyses show that lin-15A acts in parallel to previously described plasticity factors. Null mutant suggests that, rather than driving the process, LIN-15A licenses its initiation by antagonizing several chromatin-modifying complexes known to safeguard differentiated cell identities. In addition, our data show that even cells developmentally programmed to undergo transdifferentiation exhibit reprogramming barriers. Interestingly, lin-15A is not a core plasticity factor per se but acts as one specifically in the Y cell context. Together, our findings support a model in which diverse molecular activities coordinate controlled cell identity conversions: plasticity factors function as Drivers, while others like lin-15A, termed here transdifferentiation Licensers, attenuate identity safeguarding mechanisms, thereby facilitating transdifferentiation.</p>","PeriodicalId":49007,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Genetics","volume":"22 9","pages":"e1012290"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641710/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149065601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS GeneticsPub Date : 2026-09-24eCollection Date: 2026-09-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012317
Penghui Song, Lijuan Ma, Dong Yan
{"title":"Role of the m6A methyltransferase Mettl16 in Drosophila development.","authors":"Penghui Song, Lijuan Ma, Dong Yan","doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012317","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012317","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>N6-methyladenosine (m6A), one of the most abundant chemical modifications on RNA, is installed by METTL3 and several other methyltransferases, including METTL16. Although METTL16 has been characterized in several model organisms, its function in Drosophila remains unknown. Here, we show that, unlike in mammals, Drosophila Mettl16 mutants are viable but exhibit multiple developmental and behavioral defects. Both male and female mutants are sterile, with severe gametogenesis defects. Mettl16 mutant germ cells can pass the mitotic and meiotic stages, but are defective in spermatid elongation and individualization. Mettl16-GFP localizes predominantly to the nucleus, and its absence does not impair global protein synthesis in wing disc epithelial cells. MeRIP-Seq analysis indicates that Mettl16 loss affects m6A on only a small subset of transcripts, in contrast to the broad effect of Mettl3. We further demonstrate that Mettl16 interacts with U6 snRNA and is required for its m6A modification. Accordingly, Mettl16 mutants display widespread alterations in alternative splicing. Together, the pleiotropic phenotypes of Mettl16 mutants likely stem from its role in m6A deposition and U6-dependent splicing regulation of specific target transcripts.</p>","PeriodicalId":49007,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Genetics","volume":"22 9","pages":"e1012317"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13608003/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149041447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PLoS GeneticsPub Date : 2026-09-23eCollection Date: 2026-09-01DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1012314
Joshua Richland, Tuomo Kiiskinen, William Wang, Wenhui Sophia Lu, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Trevor Hastie, Manuel Rivas, Robert Tibshirani
{"title":"Univariate-guided sparse regression for Biobank-scale high-dimensional omics data.","authors":"Joshua Richland, Tuomo Kiiskinen, William Wang, Wenhui Sophia Lu, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Trevor Hastie, Manuel Rivas, Robert Tibshirani","doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012314","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012314","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We present a scalable framework for computing polygenic risk scores (PRS) in high-dimensional genomic settings using the recently introduced Univariate-Guided Sparse Regression (uniLasso). UniLasso is a two-stage penalized regression procedure that leverages univariate coefficients and magnitudes to stabilize feature selection and produce sparse predictive models. Building on its theoretical and empirical advantages, we adapt uniLasso for application to the UK Biobank, a population-based repository comprising over one million genetic variants measured on hundreds of thousands of individuals from the United Kingdom. We further extend the framework to incorporate external summary statistics via uniLasso ES (external scores). These signals guide the regression toward variants with prior evidence of association by informing penalty weights and sign constraints. Both uniLasso ES and uniLasso ultimately fit multivariate models using individual-level target data; the external statistics guide, rather than replace, this fitting. Our results demonstrate that uniLasso attains predictive performance comparable to standard Lasso while selecting substantially fewer variants, yielding sparser and potentially more interpretable models. Moreover, it remains competitive with other PRS estimation methods, such as PRS-CS and lassosum2.</p>","PeriodicalId":49007,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Genetics","volume":"22 9","pages":"e1012314"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13623159/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149031766","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"METTL1-mediated m7G modification regulates hair follicle cycle via the HOXC13/FOXN1/DSG4 axis.","authors":"Xinyan Gan, Qiwen Li, Qiuchan Xiong, Denghao Huang, Zizheng Liu, Qi Yin, Shuang Jiang, Takuma Matsubara, Shoichiro Kokabu, Wei Yan, Quan Yuan","doi":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012307","DOIUrl":"10.1371/journal.pgen.1012307","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rapid hair follicle cycling requires precise fate commitment and differentiation of hair follicle stem cells. While the essential role of transcription factors in establishing cell identity is well recognized, how cells control its protein synthesis to achieve tissue specificity remains unknown. RNA modifications constitute a pivotal layer of post-transcriptional regulation for protein synthesis. Among them, the N7-methylguanosine (m7G) modification has recently emerged as a critical regulator with diverse functional impacts. Here, we reveal a pivotal role of METTL1, the key enzyme for RNA m7G modification, in hair follicle cycle. Conditional knockout of Mettl1 in keratinocytes leads to severe hair follicle developmental dysplasia, impaired regeneration, and disrupted keratinocyte adhesion. Complementarily, keratinocyte-specific knock-in of Mettl1 accelerates hair regeneration. Mechanistically, beyond its effects on tRNAs, METTL1 deficiency destabilizes HOXC13 mRNA through internal m7G modification, which in turn downregulates the HOXC13/FOXN1/DSG4 signaling axis. Our findings establish METTL1-mediated internal mRNA m7G methylation as one of the essential regulatory layers of RNA modification in hair follicle morphogenesis and cycling, operating through the precise post-transcriptional control of a key transcriptional circuit to ensure structural integrity and timely regeneration.</p>","PeriodicalId":49007,"journal":{"name":"PLoS Genetics","volume":"22 9","pages":"e1012307"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13596829/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149026392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}