BMC Biology最新文献

{"title":"Genome-wide integrative dissection of genetic basis of fiber color and whiteness regulation in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum).","authors":"Shiguftah Khalid, Zhenzhen Wang, Tahir Mahmood, Xiaoli Geng, Hongge Li, Xiaomeng Zhang, Shoupu He, Xiongming Du","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02662-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02662-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Naturally colored cotton has gained renewed interest due to increasing environmental concerns over synthetic dyes. The genetic regulatory characteristics of fiber color are discovered by two perspectives in this study.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified two major loci D11: 24.3-24.7 Mb and A07: 20.4-22.3 Mb controlling fiber color variation. Integrative QTL mapping and transcriptome profiling revealed three candidate genes Gh_D11G208100, Gh_D11G207100, and Gh_D11G207600 with distinct expression profiles in fiber whiteness on D11. In contrast, the A07 locus harbors key transcription regulators TT2, C1, and bHLH82 which are implicated in flavonoid-mediated brown pigmentation along with differentially expressed genes, Gh_A07G015400, Gh_A07G019500, and Gh_A07G019400, further supporting their potential role in regulating fiber pigmentation. Segregation analysis of fiber color across three different F₂ populations revealed three gene models. The W1_W2_loci were proposed to determine fiber whiteness located on D11 chromosome, while the fiber color gene locus Lb_ determined by genetic analysis is related to the key locus for transcription regulators TT2 on the A07 chromosome. The interaction of these three genes controls fiber color. Inheritance patterns were consistent pigment loss and a graded dilution model for pigmented phenotypes, with stable extreme classes white and near white, whereas intermediate pigmentation classes shifted between populations. We also identified overlapping QTLs of fiber quality and color attributes, indicating strongly linked genetic mechanisms.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This integrated analysis supports a model of coordinated regulation, where transcriptional control from A07 influences pigment biosynthesis, while D11 modulates fiber surface or secondary metabolism to fine tune color intensity and whiteness.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13480058/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148764406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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 lifespan atlas of the killifish testis defines a pronounced mid-age remodeling shift during testicular aging.","authors":"Roman Franěk, Radek Šindelka, Aarón Torres-Martínez, Jan Štundl, Essaikiammal Sodalai Muthu Konar, Diógenes Henrique de Siqueira-Silva, Hana Sehadová, Martin Pšenička, Tomáš Tichopád","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02689-2","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02689-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Reproductive aging in vertebrates is commonly interpreted as a gradual decline; however, whether aging of the male gonad proceeds linearly or is characterized by periods of accelerated remodeling remains unclear. The turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri), a short-lived vertebrate, enables lifespan-wide resolution of both rapid germline establishment and subsequent aging within months.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our staged histological atlas shows that the testis progresses from a simple gonadal primordium to completed spermatogenesis within 3 to 4 weeks post-hatching, revealing an exceptionally compressed developmental program. Proliferative activity peaks in early adulthood, marking maximal spermatogenic output, but declines sharply at mid-age. This period coincides with coordinated repression of germline, mitotic, and meiotic programs and activation of extracellular matrix remodeling, angiogenic, inflammatory, and stromal pathways. These molecular shifts are accompanied by structural remodeling, including expansion of the interstitial compartment and accumulation of collagen-rich matrix. Late-life testes exhibit comparatively modest additional changes, suggesting stabilization of a remodeled, low-proliferative niche.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Testicular aging in the turquoise killifish unfolds as a process marked by a pronounced mid-age remodeling shift that links testicular decline to somatic niche remodeling. This remodeling window provides a mechanistic entry point for dissecting reproductive aging in a short-lived vertebrate, with potential relevance for comparative studies in other vertebrate systems, although these dynamics may be shaped by species-specific life histories. Together, these findings establish the killifish as a uniquely powerful model for identifying interventions that preserve germline function.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13579994/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148547900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identification of a volatile chemotype associated with resilience to water stress in domesticated varieties of cotton.","authors":"Christopher J Frost, Sarah M Johnson, Duke Pauli, Giovanni Melandri","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02693-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02693-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) mediate plant responses to environmental stresses; yet, their chemotypic variation and drought responsiveness remain poorly characterized in domesticated crops.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Here, we identify a previously undocumented binary chemotype structure in cultivated upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), defined by the mutually exclusive production of either bisabolene or guaiene sesquiterpenes. Across 24 genotypes grown under field conditions, 23 genotypes consistently produced one of these compounds (one genotype produced neither one nor the other compound), but never both, revealing a cryptic chemotypic polymorphism associated with different physiological responses to drought. While drought stress reduced leaf water content across all genotypes, the ones in the guaiene chemotype exhibited greater losses. Water limitation also reduced total monoterpene and sesquiterpene concentrations, with the bisabolene chemotype showing stronger declines despite higher constitutive levels. Chemotypes further diverged in their biosynthesis of key damage-induced green leaf volatiles (GLVs). While the guaiene chemotype reduced GLV biosynthetic capacity under prolonged drought, the bisabolene chemotype showed transient increases in GLVs and pathway-specific enzyme activity under short-term stress, suggesting differential physiological resilience. Notably, all genotypes in this study fell within the low γ-terpinene category previously described in wild cotton, indicating that this bisabolene/guaiene variation represents a novel axis of chemical diversity distinct from known wild chemotypes.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings position chemotypic variation as a promising, non-destructive biomarker for drought differential responses. By linking chemotype to constitutive VOCs and water status, our work provides new tools for identifying stress-resilient cultivars and advances understanding of phytochemical strategies for crop management in a changing climate.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148535406","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":"Promoter G-quadruplex structures regulate tissue-specific gene expression and functional differentiation in Bombyx mori.","authors":"Lijun Xiang, Jin Li, Bingxian Wu, Tingting Yao, Xiaojuan Zhang, Keling Wu, Mingxi Zheng, Qili Feng, Kangkang Niu","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02696-3","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02696-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>DNA G-quadruplex structures (G4s) are noncanonical nucleic acid structures that play crucial roles in gene transcription regulation, particularly when located within promoter regions. Tissue-specific gene expression underlies the development and functional specialization of multicellular organisms. However, the potential role of G4s in tissue-specific transcriptional regulation remains largely unexplored. In this study, we conducted an integrative analysis of G-quadruplex (G4) distribution and function in the silkworm brain and fat body, two substantially differentiated tissues in terms of structure and function, using G4-CUT&Tag, ATAC-seq, RNA-seq, and histone modification datasets.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found that promoter G4s were highly enriched in regions of open chromatin and active histone modification, and that G4 folding showed a correlation with transcriptional activation in a tissue-specific manner. Even at identical genomic DNA sequences, G4 folding patterns differed markedly between the brain and fat body and were associated with tissue-specific gene expression profiles. Genes marked by brain-specific G4s were enriched in neural pathways, whereas genes with fat body-specific G4s were enriched in metabolic pathways, closely aligning with the physiological roles of each tissue. Moreover, chemical stabilization of G4s by pyridostatin disrupted gene expression and impaired tissue development, including neurogenesis in the brain and lipid metabolism in the fat body.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our results suggest that G4s may function as dynamic epigenetic modulators that shape tissue-specific gene expression and coordinate functional differentiation in insects.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148535349","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":"Diversity and potential ecological roles of viruses in Pleistocene permafrost.","authors":"Changhua He, Yuntong Du, Karen G Lloyd, Tatiana A Vishnivetskaya, Elizaveta M Rivkina, Hongchen Jiang, Renxing Liang","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02685-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02685-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Ancient permafrost, formed during past glacial periods, is widespread in Siberia and other Arctic regions. Even though these soils have remained below 0 °C over geological time periods, the widespread presence of bacteria and archaea in permafrost is well documented. However, the diversity of viruses in ancient permafrost of different geological ages and their potential ecological roles are still poorly understood.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We applied metagenomics to characterize viruses from Middle to Late Pleistocene permafrost sediments from Siberia. A total of 2697 viral operational taxonomic units (vOTUs) were recovered through metagenomic assembly and virus identification. Viral diversity in the Middle Pleistocene permafrost was much higher than that in the Late Pleistocene. The virus communities at different depths of the Middle Pleistocene permafrost showed great similarity to each other but were significantly different from those of the Late Pleistocene, with Azeredovirinae, Peduoviridae, and Fiersviridae being the predominant viruses in Pleistocene permafrost. The viruses were predicted to carry auxiliary metabolic genes potentially involved in cold adaptation and elemental (C and N) biogeochemical cycling in ancient permafrost. The virus-host prediction revealed that microorganisms such as bacteria and archaea are the main hosts and only a few eukaryotic hosts were identified.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our results show that permafrost viral communities in Siberia exhibit remarkable diversity and may have played a significant ecological role in ancient permafrost over geological time. While the release of viruses from thawing deep permafrost could pose a relatively small risk to human health and environment, it could have significant impacts on the carbon cycle, potentially influencing climate change feedback in permafrost regions.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13656477/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148469076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dynamin inhibitor dynasore modulates longitudinal bone growth in a hormetic manner.","authors":"Jose G Marchan-Alvarez, Sanya Koikkara, Ruihan Zhou, Amal Nazaraliyev, Oscar P B Wiklander, Phillip T Newton","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02687-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02687-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Longitudinal bone growth occurs via endochondral ossification, involving a complex interplay of chondrocyte proliferation, differentiation, and matrix remodeling. As with all mammalian cells, chondrocytes require dynamin for mitochondrial fission, to shuttle vesicles from the Golgi apparatus, and for both clathrin- and caveolin-mediated endocytosis. Here, we aimed to test the functions of dynamin on bone growth. To do so, we applied dynasore-a small molecule that is a reversible dynamin inhibitor-to mouse metatarsal bones cultured ex vivo. We assessed gross changes using bone length measurements combined with EdU detection, immunostaining, super-resolution microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Dynasore induced a dose-dependent hormetic effect on bone elongation: while high concentrations (220 µM) impaired growth and abolished chondrocyte proliferation, low-dose treatment (40 µM) significantly increased longitudinal bone growth. Histological analysis demonstrated that low dose dynasore augmented epiphyseal cartilage expansion and matrix accumulation, while reducing chondrocyte proliferation. Immunostaining indicated that 40 µM dynasore preserved collagen type X synthesis, activated mTORC1 signaling, and blocked autophagy, based on SQSTM1 accumulation. Low dose dynasore treatment expanded the thickness of the filamentous actin layer at the plasma membrane and deepened endocytic pits containing collagen fibril-like electron-dense extracellular structures, indicating that impaired cartilage remodeling was associated with growth-associated matrix accumulation. Finally, the use of a structurally unrelated dynamin inhibitor, dynole, indicated that the effects of dynasore were partially mediated by its actions on dynamin.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Dynasore exerts hormetic effects on epiphyseal chondrocytes, wherein low doses stimulate bone elongation, and high doses impair chondrocyte function.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13374082/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148469110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"ViMST: vision transformer-based dual modality multi-task graph contrastive network for spatial transcriptomics microenvironments investigation.","authors":"Cheng Ding, Qiaoming Liu, Yuming Zhao","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02676-7","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02676-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Investigating spatial transcriptomics microenvironments is crucial for unraveling cellular heterogeneity. Existing methods struggle to extract non-redundant information from histopathological images, as well as to simultaneously and spatially resolve gene expression profiles. We propose a vision transformer-based dual-modality multi-task graph contrastive network for exploring the spatial transcriptomics domain (ViMST), which integrates gene expression, image features, and spatial coordinates to investigate tissue microenvironments. It employs Vision Transformer (ViT) for feature extraction and dual masked Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) to model modalities separately. A novel joint topology decoder learns the spatial covariation between morphology and expression, thereby enhancing relationship modeling across multiple tasks.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The evaluation results across nine spatial transcriptomics datasets reveal that ViMST consistently outperforms eight state-of-the-art methods in spatial domain identification and data denoising. It demonstrates robust performance in multiple tissue microenvironment research tasks, including data visualization, trajectory inference, identification of spatially variable genes (SVGs), horizontal integration analysis, cellular heterogeneity analysis, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) studies.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>ViMST is a powerful and versatile multimodal framework for spatial transcriptomics analysis. Its robust performance across multiple datasets and tasks highlights its broad applicability and practical value in deciphering tissue spatial organization. By integrating histological, spatial, and transcriptional information, ViMST enables comprehensive characterization of spatial heterogeneity and provides new opportunities for understanding disease mechanisms, identifying spatial biomarkers, and discovering potential therapeutic targets.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13651426/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148454777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Shared and niche-specific transcriptional signatures of macrophage aging revealed by a cross-tissue meta-analysis.","authors":"Ella Schwab, Eyael Tewelde, Leon Chen, Bérénice A Benayoun","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02672-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02672-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Aging is accompanied by widespread transcriptional remodeling across tissues, yet how aging impacts different categories of tissue-resident macrophages is not well understood. Macrophages are highly specialized innate immune cells shaped by their local microenvironments, suggesting that aging may elicit both shared and niche-specific transcriptional responses. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of publicly available bulk and single-cell RNA-seq datasets to characterize age-associated transcriptional changes in murine macrophages across tissues and sexes. We curated and uniformly processed 33 macrophage transcriptomic datasets, derived from 10 distinct tissue niches, in male and female C57BL/6 mice, examining transcriptional changes as a function of age.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The similarity of differentially expressed aging genes was compared across niches and pathway-level analysis uncovered conserved age-associated signatures, including upregulation of gene sets related to antigen presentation, antioxidant responses, and negative regulation of ferroptosis, alongside downregulation of gene sets related to Wnt, GTPase, and extracellular matrix organization signaling. Transcription factor activity inference identified consistent age-associated activation of AP-1 (Fos, Jun), C/EBPβ, PU.1, and Egr1 across niches. Meta-analysis defined 593 consistently age-altered genes in > 3/4 of analyzed datasets, converging on dysregulation of small GTPase signaling. Focused analysis of alveolar macrophages and microglia, made possible by the larger number of available datasets, revealed sex-specific transcriptional programs altered with age in these macrophage subtypes.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings demonstrate that macrophage aging is shaped by both tissue niche and sex and provides a framework for understanding the transcriptomic signatures of macrophage aging across tissues.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13371344/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148444451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The immune protection of OMP16-specific IgM against Brucella infection.","authors":"Yunyi Zhai, Kaihui Sun, Ye Yuan, Gawa Wudong, Shuan Qu, Yaxin Li, Yuanhao Yang, XiaoFang Liu, Dong Zhou, Wei Liu, Yaping Jin, Aihua Wang","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02682-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02682-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Brucellosis, a severe zoonotic infectious disease, poses substantial economic and health threats globally. The intracellular survival strategy of Brucella complicates disease control, highlighting the need for novel immunotherapeutic strategies such as antibody-based therapies and multi-epitope vaccines.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>This study generated two IgM monoclonal antibodies (D3 and F5) against the conserved outer membrane protein OMP16 of Brucella using hybridoma technology. Peptide scanning and Western blot identified their linear epitopes (D3: ⁷⁷TLSKQAQW⁸⁴; F5: ¹²⁰RDFLASRG¹²⁷), which are highly conserved among major Brucella species. Integrated approaches-including molecular docking, alanine-scanning mutagenesis, and dot-blot assays-revealed key residues at the epitope interface that form stable bonds with antibody complementarity-determining regions (CDRs). Functionally, both antibodies activated the complement system, with F5 exhibiting significant complement-dependent bacteriolytic activity in vitro. Furthermore, in the presence of complement, D3 and F5 enhanced macrophage-mediated opsonophagocytosis and intracellular killing of Brucella abortus A19. In a mouse infection model, passive immunization with either antibody significantly alleviated infection-induced weight loss and splenomegaly and reduced bacterial load in the spleen.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our study underscores the role of IgM antibodies in combating Brucella infection, offers insights for antibody-based immunotherapy, and provides a theoretical foundation for developing multi-epitope vaccines based on the conserved epitopes and critical residues.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13651081/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148454725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dissecting cancer in a non-mammalian model: genomic insights from lemon frost geckos.","authors":"Brandon T Hastings, Tony Gamble, Robert J Ossiboff, Virginia Gazziero, Giulio Caravagna, Scott Glaberman, Ylenia Chiari","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02661-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02661-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Comparative oncology can uncover novel mechanisms of cancer resistance and progression across animals. Non-traditional model organisms with naturally high or low cancer prevalence may provide further insights into metastasis or cancer resistance. In this context, the \"lemon frost\" morph of the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius) shows high prevalence of iridophoromas, exceeding 80%. These tumors can recur and metastasize, presenting a unique opportunity to study pigment cell cancer and tumor progression in a non-mammalian vertebrate.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We performed high-coverage whole-genome sequencing on matched tumor and non-tumor samples from three lemon frost individuals. A shared missense mutation in the TATA-box binding protein (TBP) suggests possible disruption to transcriptional regulation in tumor samples. Additionally, a recurrent gene fusion between IARS1 and RNF213 was identified across all tumor samples. Copy number neutral loss of heterozygosity events were observed in three mutated genes that have a role in cancer: MAP3K13, TENM4, and OR2AT4-like, while copy number gains were observed in four genomic regions. Pathway analysis revealed dysregulation in actin filament organization, a hallmark of metastatic potential. These findings suggest a multifaceted genomic basis for tumorigenesis in this model, including transcriptional misregulation, chromatin remodeling defects, and cytoskeletal disruption.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study provides the first characterization of genomic changes associated with iridophoroma in a reptilian species and establishes the lemon frost gecko as a promising model for cancer research. Our findings identify candidate pathways of tumor progression and metastasis in a non-traditional system, highlighting both conserved and novel mechanisms relevant to human disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13371695/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148444441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}