microPublication biologyPub Date : 2025-08-16eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001001
Madeline L Gruys, Anne E Backlund, Logan Cohen, Veronica C Gomes, Rida Mansoor, Jennifer A Kennell, Jennifer Jemc, Nikolaos Tsotakos, Chinmay P Rele, Laura K Reed
{"title":"Gene model for the ortholog of <i>Sdr</i> in <i>Drosophila ananassae</i>.","authors":"Madeline L Gruys, Anne E Backlund, Logan Cohen, Veronica C Gomes, Rida Mansoor, Jennifer A Kennell, Jennifer Jemc, Nikolaos Tsotakos, Chinmay P Rele, Laura K Reed","doi":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001001","DOIUrl":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Gene model for the ortholog of <i>Secreted decoy of InR</i> ( <i>sdr</i> ) in the May 2011 (Agencourt dana_caf1/DanaCAF1) Genome Assembly (GenBank Accession: GCA_000005115.1 ) of <i>Drosophila ananassae</i> . This ortholog was characterized as part of a developing dataset to study the evolution of the Insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling pathway (IIS) across the genus <i>Drosophila</i> using the Genomics Education Partnership gene annotation protocol for Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences.</p>","PeriodicalId":74192,"journal":{"name":"microPublication biology","volume":"2025 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12398695/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
microPublication biologyPub Date : 2025-08-15eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001715
Hongyang Wu, William Constance, Ayako Abe, Shu Kondo, Darren Williams, Hiromu Tanimoto
{"title":"Spatial Gradient of Axon Terminal Maturation Reveals the Sequential Active Zone Assembly in Adult <i>Drosophila</i> Mushroom Bodies.","authors":"Hongyang Wu, William Constance, Ayako Abe, Shu Kondo, Darren Williams, Hiromu Tanimoto","doi":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001715","DOIUrl":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001715","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Presynaptic active zones (AZs) form during synaptogenesis and are critical for ensuring precise synaptic transmission. Although much is known about the development of AZs at the neuromuscular junction, their assembly in the <i>Drosophila</i> central nervous system (CNS) remains incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate the mushroom body α/β Kenyon cells in young adults in which new AZs are continuously formed, as a novel system to dissect the sequential AZ assembly in the CNS. With this system we show proof of principle using a tagged allele of the cell-adhesion molecule Neurexin-1 to investigate the structural maturation of synapses in the fly brain.</p>","PeriodicalId":74192,"journal":{"name":"microPublication biology","volume":"2025 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12397877/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
microPublication biologyPub Date : 2025-08-15eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001718
Iliana Nava, Margaret T Fuller, Lorenzo Gallicchio
{"title":"The CFII components PCF11 and Cbc change subnuclear localization as cells differentiate in an adult stem cell lineage.","authors":"Iliana Nava, Margaret T Fuller, Lorenzo Gallicchio","doi":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001718","DOIUrl":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001718","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Stage specific increased expression of PCF11 and Cbc, the two components of Cleavage Factor complex II, contribute to developmentally regulated 3'UTR shortening due to alternate polyadenylation of nascent RNA molecules in <i>Drosophila</i> spermatocytes. Here, we show that both Cbc and PCF11 change subnuclear localization during male germ cell differentiation, from homogeneous in the nucleus in spermatogonia and early spermatocytes to concentrated around the nucleolus in later spermatocyte stages.</p>","PeriodicalId":74192,"journal":{"name":"microPublication biology","volume":"2025 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12397876/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
microPublication biologyPub Date : 2025-08-14eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001651
Mitra Esfandiarei, Faizan Anwar, Manogna Nuthi, Alisha Harrison, Mary Eunice Barrameda, Tala Curry-Koski, Kasey Pull, Theresa Currier Thomas, Nafisa Jadavji
{"title":"Apoptosis and Brain Dervived Neurotrophic Factor are increased in cortical neurons of Marfan Syndrome mice.","authors":"Mitra Esfandiarei, Faizan Anwar, Manogna Nuthi, Alisha Harrison, Mary Eunice Barrameda, Tala Curry-Koski, Kasey Pull, Theresa Currier Thomas, Nafisa Jadavji","doi":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001651","DOIUrl":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001651","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Marfan Syndrome (MFS) is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder that affects connective tissue throughout the body due to mutations in the fibrillin-1 ( <i>FBN1)</i> gene. There is a gap in our understanding of the impact of monogenic connective tissue aberrations on the brain. This study aimed to determine the impact of MFS on neurodegeneration in the cortical brain tissue of mice. We report increased levels of apoptosis in neurons within the sensory and motor cortical areas of female MFS mice. Additionally, we also report increased levels of neuronal plasticity in cortical brain tissue of both male and female MFS mice.</p>","PeriodicalId":74192,"journal":{"name":"microPublication biology","volume":"2025 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12391915/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
microPublication biologyPub Date : 2025-08-14eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001670
Jeffrey J Anuszczyk, Michael W Stuck, Thibaut Eguether, Gregory J Pazour
{"title":"DeleteROI for Cleaning CiliaQ Output of Non-ciliary Contamination.","authors":"Jeffrey J Anuszczyk, Michael W Stuck, Thibaut Eguether, Gregory J Pazour","doi":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001670","DOIUrl":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001670","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ImageJ plugin CiliaQ developed by Hansen and colleagues (Hansen et al., 2021) provides for sophisticated analysis of ciliary parameters in three-dimensional space. However, midbodies and other non-ciliary structures can contaminate the output and require significant effort to remove. Furthermore, the manual removal of contamination risks subjective bias as the data is not blinded to the investigator. To address these problems, we developed an ImageJ plugin that presents images of the cilia region-of-interests (ROIs) identified by CiliaQ in a clickable grid that allows for marking and automated removal of non-ciliary contaminants. To reduce subjective bias, our plugin works on a dataset of multiple images and presents the cilia ROIs randomly. If the dataset contains both control and experimental conditions, the cilia are randomly interspersed with no visible information about their experimental group, thus reducing subjective bias. After removal of contamination, the cleaned data is output maintaining the CiliaQ file formats initially used.</p>","PeriodicalId":74192,"journal":{"name":"microPublication biology","volume":"2025 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12395279/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
microPublication biologyPub Date : 2025-08-13eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001716
Stephen M Kotfila, Sarah J Leduc, Genna M Mullen, Shawna C O Reed
{"title":"N2A, MCF7, and HepG2 Cells Support Intracellular Replication of <i>Coxiella burnetii</i>.","authors":"Stephen M Kotfila, Sarah J Leduc, Genna M Mullen, Shawna C O Reed","doi":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001716","DOIUrl":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001716","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><i>Coxiella burnetii</i> is a gram-negative, obligate, intracellular bacterial pathogen that causes zoonotic Q fever in humans. In a mammalian host, <i>C. burnetii</i> may infect macrophage, heart, brain, liver, and placental cells. <i>C. burnetii</i> is routinely cultured in HeLa (human cervical) and Vero (African green monkey kidney) cells for research, but these cell types poorly reflect the natural replicative niche. Here we report the first evidence of <i>C. burnetii</i> , Nine Mile Phase II, replication in N2A (mouse neuronal), HepG2 (human hepatocyte), and MCF7 (human mammary epithelial) cells. These findings will enable further comparative study of <i>C. burnetii</i> cytopathology and infection dynamics in various cell types.</p>","PeriodicalId":74192,"journal":{"name":"microPublication biology","volume":"2025 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12391916/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
microPublication biologyPub Date : 2025-08-13eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001754
David D Lowe, Martin Newman, Gary Ruvkun, Scott G Kennedy
{"title":"The microRNA <i>miR-243</i> directs poly(UG) modification of a somatic mRNA in <i>C. elegans</i>.","authors":"David D Lowe, Martin Newman, Gary Ruvkun, Scott G Kennedy","doi":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001754","DOIUrl":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001754","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><i>C. elegans</i> RDE-3 adds poly UG tails to mRNAs targeted for silencing by the dsRNA-initiated RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. RDE-3 can also add p(UG) tails to some endogenous cellular mRNAs. Mechanisms directing RDE-3 to pUGylate specific mRNAs are not understood. Here we show that the miRNA <i>miR-243</i> directs pUGylation of an intestine-specific mRNA <i>y47h10a.5</i> , which leads to silencing of the mRNA. The data show that genome-encoded small regulatory RNAs are one mechanism by which RDE-3 can be directed to pUGylate specific mRNAs for gene regulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":74192,"journal":{"name":"microPublication biology","volume":"2025 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12381656/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
microPublication biologyPub Date : 2025-08-12eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001766
Harald Hutter
{"title":"Laminin is uniformly expressed in basement membranes surrounding longitudinal axon tracts in the ventral and dorsal nerve cords in <i>C. elegans</i>.","authors":"Harald Hutter","doi":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001766","DOIUrl":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001766","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Laminin is a core basement membrane (BM) component. Mutations in laminin subunits cause a variety of defects including axon navigation defects. We examined the localization of the laminin subunits LAM-3 (laminin αA), EPI-1 (laminin αB) and LAM-2 (laminin γ) in basement membranes surrounding the ventral nerve cord (VNC) and the dorsal nerve cord (DNC) in <i>C. elegans</i> . We found that EPI-1 and LAM-2 are uniformly distributed, which suggests that laminins might provide an adhesive substrate for axons but not a directional cue for the positioning of VNC and DNC axon tracts.</p>","PeriodicalId":74192,"journal":{"name":"microPublication biology","volume":"2025 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12381658/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
microPublication biologyPub Date : 2025-08-12eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.000901
Graham M Jones, D'Andrew Harrington, Zachary Lill, Amy T Hark, Chelsey McKenna, Chinmay P Rele, Laura K Reed
{"title":"Gene model for the ortholog of <i>Pten</i> in <i>Drosophila ananassae</i>.","authors":"Graham M Jones, D'Andrew Harrington, Zachary Lill, Amy T Hark, Chelsey McKenna, Chinmay P Rele, Laura K Reed","doi":"10.17912/micropub.biology.000901","DOIUrl":"10.17912/micropub.biology.000901","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Gene model for the ortholog of <i>Phosphatase and tensin homolog</i> ( <i>Pten</i> ) in the May 2011 (Agencourt dana_caf1/DanaCAF1) Genome Assembly (GenBank Accession: GCA_000005115.1 ) of <i>Drosophila ananassae</i> . This ortholog was characterized as part of a developing dataset to study the evolution of the Insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling pathway (IIS) across the genus <i>Drosophila</i> using the Genomics Education Partnership gene annotation protocol for Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences.</p>","PeriodicalId":74192,"journal":{"name":"microPublication biology","volume":"2025 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12381659/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
microPublication biologyPub Date : 2025-08-12eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001767
Anja H Schiemann, Makhdoom Sarwar, Evelyn Sattlegger
{"title":"Functional Analysis of the Yeast Counterpart to the Human GCN2 p.Glu738_Asp739insArgArg Variant.","authors":"Anja H Schiemann, Makhdoom Sarwar, Evelyn Sattlegger","doi":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001767","DOIUrl":"10.17912/micropub.biology.001767","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>GCN2, a cytoplasmic protein kinase, helps cells adapt to nutrient deprivation and is implicated in various cancers. The GCN2 p.Glu738_Asp739insArgArg variant was found to be significantly enriched in a cohort of early-onset colorectal cancer cases, indicating possible lineage-associated predisposition. Introducing an equivalent variant into the yeast model <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> showed no direct impact on Gcn2 function, suggesting that the variant's pathogenicity likely does not simply stem from altered GCN2 enzyme activity. Our yeast-based study helped narrow potential mechanisms, accelerating efforts to understand the variant's role in colorectal cancer.</p>","PeriodicalId":74192,"journal":{"name":"microPublication biology","volume":"2025 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12381657/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}