BMC Biology最新文献

{"title":"The tiny germline chromosomes of Paramecium aurelia have an exceptionally high recombination rate and are capped by a new class of Helitrons.","authors":"Olivier Arnaiz, Frédéric Guérin, Arnaud Couloux, Caridad Miró-Pina, Guillaume Pellerin, Irina Nekrasova, Joëlle Amselem, Jean-Marc Aury, Simran Bhullar, Andrea Frapporti, Emmanuelle Lerat, Isabelle Luyten, Sophie Malinsky, Nathalie Mathy, Alexey Potekhin, Vinciane Régnier, Natalia Sawka-Gądek, Amandine Touzeau, Augustin de Vanssay, Coralie Zangarelli, Hadi Quesneville, Mireille Bétermier, Karine Labadie, Laurent Duret, Eric Meyer, Sandra Duharcourt, Linda Sperling","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02584-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02584-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Paramecia belong to the ciliate phylum of unicellular eukaryotes characterized by nuclear dimorphism. A diploid germline micronucleus (MIC) transmits genetic information across sexual generations. A polyploid transcriptionally active somatic macronucleus (MAC) develops at each sexual generation from a copy of the MIC through programmed DNA elimination (PDE) of > 30% of germline DNA. PDE requires the domesticated PiggyMac (Pgm) transposase. Assembly of Paramecium germline genomes has presented an enormous challenge owing to the difficulty of MIC isolation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We report chromosome-scale short-read MIC assemblies for 7 species from the P. aurelia species complex. We discovered a novel clade of Helitrons, with 9-10-kb transposase ORFs under purifying selection, that have remained active in all P. aurelia lineages. A long-read assembly for P. tetraurelia together with a genetic linkage map provided a nearly telomere-to-telomere assembly.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The ~ 100-Mb genome consists of tiny (300 kb-1.2 Mb) and numerous (~ 160) germline chromosomes with the highest recombination rate ever reported for a eukaryote (420 cM/Mb). The ends of the chromosomes consist of Helitrons inserted in telomeric C₄A₂ repeats, forming a distinct genomic compartment that is eliminated very early during MAC development in a Pgm-independent manner.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13085455/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147697833","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":"Evolution of the reproductive interactome and the origins of postmating-prezygotic reproductive divergence.","authors":"Jeremy M Bono, Luciano M Matzkin, Helen K Pigage, Toan Hoang, Santana L Navarrette, Marissa K Benavidez, Clinton Green, Carson W Allan","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02601-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02601-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Reproductive proteins evolve rapidly, making them strong candidates for driving postmating-prezygotic (PMPZ) reproductive mismatches between populations. While most previous studies have focused on protein sequence divergence as a likely driver of PMPZ disruptions, reproductive proteomes may also diverge compositionally and/or quantitatively.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Here, we combine quantitative proteomics, molecular evolutionary analyses, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) modeling to predict the molecular basis of reproductive mismatches between Drosophila mojavensis and D. arizonae. We demonstrate multidimensional divergence in reproductive proteomes including changes at the sequence, compositional, and quantitative levels. We further demonstrate that three divergent male seminal fluid proteins affect the size of the insemination reaction mass and/or fertilization success in D. arizonae. Despite high sequence divergence, predicted protein-protein interactions involving a conserved set of proteases and/or protease inhibitors were predicted to be maintained in heterospecific crosses. In contrast, predicted interspecies protein mismatches arose from proteome compositional divergence, suggesting that such changes may play a disproportionate role in PMPZ isolation, at least for the subset of the interactome that we tested. Furthermore, extensive quantitative divergence, particularly for proteases and inhibitors, suggests pervasive stoichiometric mismatches in heterospecific matings.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Altogether, our findings indicate that reproductive proteins are evolutionarily labile at multiple levels, and that compositional and quantitative divergence, rather than sequence changes alone, may be central to the early evolution of reproductive isolation.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147697770","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":"LMO7-mediated ubiquitination of SIRT3 promotes osteoarthritis progression: an investigation using machine learning and molecular dynamics simulations.","authors":"Qian Zhang, Jun Li, Guangchang Shan, Dongfeng Huang","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02587-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02587-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>This study aims to inform clinical decision-making by identifying metabolism-related biomarkers involved in the progression of osteoarthritis (OA). Four OA cartilage-related microarray datasets were downloaded from the GEO database. A metabolism-related differentially co-expressed gene signature (MDCGS) associated with OA was then identified through an integrative computational approaches of Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) and Linear Models for Microarray Data (LIMMA) in combination with machine learning tools. The optimal gene expression and functions were additionally explored in vitro and in vivo. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations (MDs) were conducted to explore the mode of binding with the drug and its role in OA.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>An MDCGS comprising 30 upregulated genes and 29 downregulated genes was identified. The LMO7 gene was determined to exhibit the most prominent importance score within the MDCGS, and subsequent molecular analyses confirmed the ability of LMO7 to ubiquitinate SIRT3, leading to its degradation and subsequent OA progression. Molecular docking and MDs were employed to further investigate the binding mode and stability of LMO7 and its inhibitors. The effectiveness of LM-1685, which had the best binding stability with LMO7, was verified in both in vivo and in vitro experiments.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In summary the series of bioinformatics, machine learning, experimental, molecular docking, and MDs analyses performed in this study led to the identification of LMO7 as a promising target for treating OA progression.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147697857","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":"scDEBGCL: a deep embedding approach based on bipartite graph contrastive learning for single-cell RNA-seq data.","authors":"Jing Wang, Delei Ke, Junfeng Xia, Ao Liu, Yansen Su, Chun-Hou Zheng","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02598-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02598-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) allows for the measurement of gene expression at the transcriptomic level with single-cell precision, thereby deepening our comprehension of cellular heterogeneity. However, the high dimensionality and sparsity of scRNA-seq data impede downstream analyses (such as cell clustering and trajectory inference), and learning effective embedded representations of the data has become a key aspect in scRNA-seq data analysis.</p><p><strong>Result: </strong>We present scDEBGCL, a novel deep embedding algorithm based on bipartite graph contrastive learning. scDEBGCL leverages Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) for bipartite graph enhancement and integrates graph contrastive learning, graph reconstruction, and data reconstruction to jointly learn low-dimensional embedded representations of cells, which are used for downstream tasks such as cell clustering, trajectory inference, and marker gene identification. Specifically, scDEBGCL first converts the gene expression matrix into a cell-gene bipartite graph and applies SVD to this bipartite graph for graph enhancement. This strategy effectively preserves the global cell-gene interactions and facilitate the learning of global synergistic signals within the data. To further capture the discriminative cellular representations, scDEBGCL performs contrastive learning between the enhanced graph and the original bipartite graph. Then, scDEBGCL integrates the contrastive learning loss, bipartite graph reconstruction loss, and ZINB distribution-based reconstruction loss to jointly optimize and learn the low-dimensional representations of cells for downstream analyses such as cell clustering, cell trajectory inference, and marker gene identification.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Experiments results demonstrate that scDEBGCL is a useful GCL framework for deep embedding in scRNA-seq data, providing a reliable foundation for various downstream analyses.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147688024","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":"Evaluating the role of coral trophic strategies in driving community shifts in response to heat stress via stable isotopes-based modeling.","authors":"Yuanming Zheng, Qifang Wang, Caidingqian Deng, Baohua Xiao, Xinqing Zheng","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02594-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02594-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Corals are increasingly threatened by global climate change, which may lead to shifts in their community on geographic scales. Reef-building corals are mixotrophic and may increase heterotrophy to bolster their resilience to environmental stress. However, many studies only focus on trophic strategies at the species or genus level, overlooking whether the change in these strategies may cause community shifts.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Prior to potential summer thermal events, we collected coral samples and classified them into different groups based on the shortest distance from the inner edge of the corallite wall (SDI), life history strategy (competitive vs. non-competitive), and evolutionary trajectory (complex vs. robust). Physiological measurements showed that the corals with small polyps, a competitive life history strategy, and membership in the complex clade had higher symbiotic density and greater chlorophyll content, indicating enhanced photosynthetic capacity. By integrating stable isotope analysis (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N), Bayesian mixing models, and a kernel utilization density niche approach, we found that during summer, corals with larger SDI, non-competitive life history strategies, and robust evolutionary trajectory relied more on heterotrophy, a pattern suggesting greater resilience to thermal stress. These results are consistent with field observations, where coral groups with greater reliance on heterotrophy maintained their relative abundance after a local bleaching event.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings suggest that trophic strategies, inferred from summer states, may play a role in coral resilience and provide new insights into how coral reefs may respond to climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147687987","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":"Decisional processes balance sensitivity and stability in visual perception.","authors":"Kuo-Wei Chen, Gi-Yeul Bae","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02597-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02597-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The human visual system recruits adaptation mechanisms that enhance perceptual sensitivity over time. However, such mechanisms can also introduce substantial repulsive biases, disrupting stable perceptual experiences. Research on serial dependence has suggested that the visual system promotes stability by mechanisms that integrate new sensory inputs with inputs obtained in the recent past, leading to an attractive bias to the past visual inputs. Yet, it remains unclear when and how the two mechanisms interact in visual processing. The present study tested the hypothesis that adaptation produces a repulsive bias during earlier processing, which is later mitigated by post-perceptual decisional processing.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In two orientation perception tasks, observers used a mouse to reproduce the orientation of a briefly presented target. We recorded the mouse trajectory to track the temporal dynamics of their reproduction responses. We found that the mouse reports began more slowly when the current stimulus was similar to the prior stimulus. In the mouse-tracking data, the initial phase of the response exhibited a strong repulsive bias away from the prior stimulus, but this bias diminished significantly as the response unfolded, ending with either a weaker repulsive bias or a small attractive bias, depending on task contexts.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These results indicate that post-perceptual decision processes are involved in both repulsive and attractive serial biases, suggesting that the visual system balances the competing demands of sensitivity and stability in perceptual experiences by reducing early repulsive biases through dynamic decisional mechanisms, thereby optimizing behavior in a given task context.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147670725","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":"Transcriptomic signature of differentiating catshark cartilage unravels the co-evolution of the Spp2 gene family with skeletal mineralisation in cartilaginous fish.","authors":"Debiais-Thibaud Mélanie, Leurs Nicolas, Panara Virginia, Saclier Nathanaëlle, Gueret Elise, Lagadec Ronan, Fichter Marc, Besset Nina, Deremarque Théo, Martinand-Mari Camille","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02593-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02593-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Skeletal mineralisation, achieved through the controlled precipitation of calcium phosphate, represents a major evolutionary innovation in early vertebrates. While this process has been extensively studied in bony species, it remains poorly understood in cartilaginous fishes, which lack endochondral bone. In this study, the small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) was used as a model to investigate the genetic basis of cartilage differentiation and subsequent mineralisation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Two stages in late embryogenesis were examined: one preceding and one following the onset of vertebral mineralisation. Using a bulk RNA sequencing approach, we identified a set of genes characterising the early differentiation of chondrocytes and cartilage synthesis, shared among jawed vertebrates. Strikingly, only a very limited number of genes previously identified in mammalian skeletogenesis showed upregulated expression in the catshark mineralising chondrocytes. Among these, particular attention was given to the spp2 (secreted phosphoprotein 2) gene family. Unlike in bony vertebrates, where spp2 exists as a single and rather little-studied gene, cartilaginous fishes possess multiple gene duplicates with contrasted sites of expression. Through phylogenetic analyses and gene expression studies in the catshark, we showed how, despite the presence of shared molecular components likely inherited from their last jawed vertebrate ancestor, cartilaginous and bony fishes have independently evolved distinct cartilage mineralisation strategies.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This work highlights the diversity of skeletal development mechanisms and underscores the importance of cartilaginous fishes in broadening our understanding of how vertebrate mineralisation evolved. By contrasting conserved and lineage-specific features, the study provides new insights into the independent trajectories that shaped the skeletal structures of modern vertebrates.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147653740","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":"Total-evidence phylogeny reveals recent crown group radiation and biogeographical history of hamsters.","authors":"Moritz Dirnberger, Pablo Peláez-Campomanes, Tiago R Simões, Raquel López-Antoñanzas","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02581-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02581-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The systematics of extant hamsters (Cricetinae) have been increasingly clarified, due to advances in molecular phylogenetics. In contrast, their relationships with their fossil relatives have remained relatively unclear. Furthermore, studies on the biogeographical history and divergence times of the main groups of extant hamsters have so far been limited to molecular phylogenies and node dating approaches.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Here, we present the first 'total-evidence' analysis of hamsters that combines extinct and extant taxa, based on a comprehensive dataset covering 82 species (~ 75% of the total known diversity of 109 species). We performed a relaxed-clock Bayesian phylogenetic reconstruction and used the resulting tip-dated tree to estimate ancestral geographic ranges. Our results confirm '†Kowalskia' as a synonym of †Neocricetodon, support the previously suggested non-monophyly of †Allocricetus, †Cricetulodon, and '†Cricetinus' and reveal several fossil taxa as potential close relatives of the crown group. We recover a Pliocene origin of the crown hamsters, considerably younger than previous estimates of a late/middle Miocene origin. Our biogeographic reconstructions suggest a Central and Eastern European origin of the entire group, with crown hamsters emerging in the region around the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. Subsequent dispersal events into Western Europe and East Central Asia may be linked to the expansion of open vegetation.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Based on a total-evidence phylogenetic reconstruction, we highlight necessary taxonomical revisions for several fossil cricetine taxa and explore the biogeographical evolution of the group. Importantly, our estimated divergence dates reveal a substantially younger group of crown hamsters than previously assumed.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147644238","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":"Metabolic capacities of large \"pillotinaceous\" spirochetes from termite guts and their placement among Breznakiellaceae.","authors":"Sebastian C Treitli, Undine S Mies, Renate Radek, Patricia A Zinnhardt, Joana Maria Kästle Silva, Lisa Reuter, Natalie A Röhr, Katja Platt, Vincent Hervé, Rudy Plarre, Mario Marini, Andreas Brune","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02591-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12915-026-02591-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Spirochetes are the most abundant bacterial group in the hindgut of termites. The largest species, with cell lengths of up to 100 µm, have been provisionally classified in the family \"Pillotinaceae\" based exclusively on morphological traits. However, in the absence of cultured representatives, their phylogenetic position and metabolism remain entirely unknown.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We investigated phylogeny and metabolic capacities of \"pillotinaceous\" spirochetes using single-cell techniques, electron microscopy, and fluorescence in situ hybridization. All sequences of large spirochetes obtained from various termites fell into four distinct, well-supported clusters within the family Breznakiellaceae. Based on ultrastructural features, three of the clusters were assigned to the genera Pillotina, Hollandina, and the newly established genus Hollandinoides; a fourth cluster was tentatively assigned to the genus Clevelandina. Functional analysis of the single-cell genomes of Pillotina corrugata sp. nov., Hollandina grandis sp. nov., and Hollandinoides gharagozlouae gen. nov. sp. nov., combined with comparative genomics of other uncultured relatives, demonstrated differences in the capacity to degrade cellulose, hemicelluloses, and dextrins. While members of the genus Pillotina have a fermentative metabolism, members of the other genera encode a Wood-Ljungdahl pathway and, in the case of Hollandina, a group-III nitrogenase, suggesting roles in reductive acetogenesis and nitrogen fixation.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our results provide the first molecular data on pillotinaceous spirochetes. We show that the three genera covered in our study belong to the family Breznakiellaceae, which harbors the majority of termite-gut spirochetes. Comparative genome analysis indicated that the large spirochetes in termite guts have distinct roles in symbiotic digestion.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13067680/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147627470","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 value of learned societies in the biological sciences: benefits, threats, and futures.","authors":"David J S Montagnes, Joel B Dacks, John R Dolan, Virginia Edgcomb, Rachel Foster, R Ellen R Nisbet, Anastasios D Tsaousis","doi":"10.1186/s12915-026-02583-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02583-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Learned societies play a vital role in fostering interactions that are important in scholarly discourse and the advancement of biological sciences. However, they now face threats from declining funding and membership, shifting disciplinary boundaries, changing approaches towards digital communication, and academic marketization. We outline the historical development of these societies and propose ways to sustain them. Key considerations include improving meetings, adapting publishing models, ensuring financial stability, expanding membership, strengthening outreach, and managing increasingly broad remits. Our main aim is to examine how regional learned societies can maintain their roles to support scientific progress and enrich broader society.</p>","PeriodicalId":9339,"journal":{"name":"BMC Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147590273","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}