BioEssaysPub Date : 2026-06-03DOI: 10.1002/bies.70151
Álvaro J. Arana, Laura Sánchez
{"title":"Zebrafish as an Anti-Isogenic Vertebrate Model and What It Reveals About Genetic Background and Reproducibility","authors":"Álvaro J. Arana, Laura Sánchez","doi":"10.1002/bies.70151","DOIUrl":"10.1002/bies.70151","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Isogenic lines, understood here as lines approaching genome-wide homozygosity while remaining fertile and stable across successive generations, have transformed genetics and toxicology in vertebrate models. In zebrafish (<i>Danio rerio</i>), however, more than four decades of gynogenesis, clonal line production and inbreeding have not yielded stable, broadly usable fully homozygous resources. We argue that, in practice, this reflects biological constraints rather than merely technical limitations. Historical, genomic and developmental evidence points to three major barriers: polygenic and environmentally sensitive sex determination, strong dependence on maternal factors during early development, and a structurally dynamic genome shaped by duplication, copy-number variation and substrain divergence. Together, these features make extreme homozygosity biologically fragile, with recurrent sex-ratio bias, infertility and line collapse, and they support experimental strategies that treat genetic background as a variable to be reported, tested and exploited rather than idealized away.</p>","PeriodicalId":9264,"journal":{"name":"BioEssays","volume":"48 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/bies.70151","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148148507","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}
BioEssaysPub Date : 2026-05-29DOI: 10.1002/bies.70148
Miguel M. Sandin, Nicole L. Coots, Nicolaas Glock, Mattia Greco, Natalia Llopis-Monferrer, Julie Meilland, Raphael Morard
{"title":"Unifying Retaria Research: A Common Framework for Studying Foraminifera and Radiolaria","authors":"Miguel M. Sandin, Nicole L. Coots, Nicolaas Glock, Mattia Greco, Natalia Llopis-Monferrer, Julie Meilland, Raphael Morard","doi":"10.1002/bies.70148","DOIUrl":"10.1002/bies.70148","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Spanning over 500 million years, the fossil record of Retaria is a cornerstone of paleobiology, paleoclimate reconstruction, and stratigraphy. Yet, the constitutive branches of Retaria, Foraminifera, and Radiolaria, not only have been studied independently, but just a fraction of this research has focused on living representatives of these lineages. Here we tentatively identify the “Big Five” areas of biological research into Retaria, articulated around novel and transformative understanding of their evolution and diversity, role in ocean biogeochemistry, life cycles, and ecology. Through this perspective, we argue that a unified Retaria framework that seamlessly integrates biological and paleontological data will benefit the scientific community at large, train the next generation of researchers broadly and open novel perspectives to understand the global ocean's evolution.</p>","PeriodicalId":9264,"journal":{"name":"BioEssays","volume":"48 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/bies.70148","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148052856","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}
BioEssaysPub Date : 2026-05-28DOI: 10.1002/bies.70147
Ian McLauchlan, Jack White, Mohamed Eldeeb
{"title":"Oxidation-Induced C-Terminal Amidation Marks Proteins for Degradation","authors":"Ian McLauchlan, Jack White, Mohamed Eldeeb","doi":"10.1002/bies.70147","DOIUrl":"10.1002/bies.70147","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Proteostasis hinges on the precise recognition and elimination of damaged proteins through the ubiquitin–proteasome system (UPS), where E3 ubiquitin ligases recognize degradation signals, or degrons. While degrons have traditionally been viewed as genetically encoded or enzymatically generated motifs, emerging evidence suggests that nonenzymatic chemical damage can also create functional degradation signals. Oxidative stress-induced peptide backbone fragmentation, including hydroxyl radical-mediated cleavage, generates proteins bearing C-terminal amide groups (CTAPs), a chemically derived degron class recognized by the SCF–FBXO31 E3 ligase complex. Genome-wide CRISPR screening identified FBXO31 as a selective CTAP reader required for ubiquitination and proteasomal clearance of amidated substrates. Disruption of this pathway impairs proteostasis and, in disease-associated FBXO31 mutants, promotes aberrant degradation of non-amidated proteins such as SUGT1, contributing to cytotoxicity and neurodevelopmental dysfunction. Collectively, these findings redefine degron biology via establishing chemically induced modified amino acid degrons (MAADs) as mechanistic links between oxidative damage and selective protein degradation.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":9264,"journal":{"name":"BioEssays","volume":"48 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148052878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BioEssaysPub Date : 2026-05-01DOI: 10.1002/bies.70141
Dave Speijer
{"title":"How the Entanglement of Chance and Selection Leads to Darwinian Evolution.","authors":"Dave Speijer","doi":"10.1002/bies.70141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.70141","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9264,"journal":{"name":"BioEssays","volume":"48 5","pages":"e70141"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147763224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BioEssaysPub Date : 2026-05-01DOI: 10.1002/bies.70145
Kerstin Brachhold
{"title":"Time to Say Goodbye.","authors":"Kerstin Brachhold","doi":"10.1002/bies.70145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.70145","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9264,"journal":{"name":"BioEssays","volume":"48 5","pages":"e70145"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147811268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BioEssaysPub Date : 2026-05-01DOI: 10.1002/bies.70144
Richard M Clark, Sander De Rouck, Marilou Vandenhole, Thomas Van Leeuwen
{"title":"Spider Mites: Genetic Models to Inform Herbivore and Chelicerate Biology.","authors":"Richard M Clark, Sander De Rouck, Marilou Vandenhole, Thomas Van Leeuwen","doi":"10.1002/bies.70144","DOIUrl":"10.1002/bies.70144","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Spider mites (Acari: Trombidiformes; Tetranychidae) are globally important herbivore pests of crops. They have also become powerful genetic models for understanding chelicerate biology and the evolution of xenobiotic (i.e., pesticide) resistance and host plant adaptation. The first spider mite genome, that of Tetranychus urticae, uncovered dramatic expansions of gene families and horizontally acquired genes that associate with this species' very broad host plant range. While in its infancy, comparative genomics with other Tetranychidae species with more restricted host plant ranges is already uncovering relationships between gene content and host plant breadth. Further, quantitative genetic methods adapted to spider mites' life history now enable the identification of loci underlying adaptive traits, and functional studies are possible with RNAi and a recent breakthrough in high-efficiency gene editing. This review combines a primer in spider mite biology and experimental tractability with recent genome-enabled findings to highlight the potential of spider mites to inform Acari and chelicerate biology, as well as mechanisms of genetic adaptation and evolution more broadly.</p>","PeriodicalId":9264,"journal":{"name":"BioEssays","volume":"48 5","pages":"e70144"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148013745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}