Cluster K Mycobacteriophages: Insights into the Evolutionary Origins of Mycobacteriophage TM4

Five newly isolated mycobacteriophages –Angelica, CrimD, Adephagia, Anaya, and Pixie – have similar genomic architectures to mycobacteriophage TM4, a previously characterized phage that is widely used in mycobacterial genetics. The nucleotide sequence similarities warrant grouping these into Cluster K, with subdivision into three subclusters: K1, K2, and K3. Although the overall genome architectures of these phages are similar, TM4 appears to have lost at least two segments of its genome, a central region containing the integration apparatus, and a segment at the right end. This suggests that TM4 is a recent derivative of a temperate parent, resolving a long-standing conundrum about its biology, in that it was reportedly recovered from a lysogenic strain of Mycobacterium avium, but it is not capable of forming lysogens in any mycobacterial host. Like TM4, all of the Cluster K phages infect both fast- and slow-growing mycobacteria, and all of them – with the exception of TM4 – form stable lysogens in both Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis; immunity assays show that all five of these phages share the same immune specificity. TM4 infects these lysogens suggesting that it was either derived from a heteroimmune temperate parent or that it has acquired a virulent phenotype. We have also characterized a widely-used conditionally replicating derivative of TM4 and identified mutations conferring the temperature-sensitive phenotype. All of the Cluster K phages contain a series of well conserved 13 bp repeats associated with the translation initiation sites of a subset of the genes; approximately one half of these contain an additional sequence feature composed of imperfectly conserved 17 bp inverted repeats separated by a variable spacer. The K1 phages integrate into the host tmRNA and the Cluster K phages represent potential new tools for the genetics of M. tuberculosis and related species

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29

Conformational changes in the negative arm of the circadian clock correlate with dynamic interactomes involved in post-transcriptional regulation

Summary: Biology is tuned to the Earth’s diurnal cycle by the circadian clock, a transcriptional/translational negative feedback loop that regulates physiology via transcriptional activation and other post-transcriptional mechanisms. We hypothesize that circadian post-transcriptional regulation might stem from conformational shifts in the intrinsically disordered proteins that comprise the negative arm of the feedback loop to coordinate variation in negative-arm-centered macromolecular complexes. This work demonstrates temporal conformational fluidity in the negative arm that correlates with 24-h variation in physiologically diverse macromolecular complex components in eukaryotic clock proteins. Short linear motifs on the negative-arm proteins that correspond with the interactors localized to disordered regions and known temporal phosphorylation sites suggesting changes in these macromolecular complexes could be due to conformational changes imparted by the temporal phospho-state. Interactors that oscillate in the macromolecular complexes over circadian time correlate with post-transcriptionally regulated proteins, highlighting how time-of-day variation in the negative-arm protein complexes may tune cellular physiology

Cluster k mycobacteriophages: Insights into the evolutionary origins of mycobacteriophage tm4

Five newly isolated mycobacteriophages -Angelica, CrimD, Adephagia, Anaya, and Pixie - have similar genomic architectures to mycobacteriophage TM4, a previously characterized phage that is widely used in mycobacterial genetics. The nucleotide sequence similarities warrant grouping these into Cluster K, with subdivision into three subclusters: K1, K2, and K3. Although the overall genome architectures of these phages are similar, TM4 appears to have lost at least two segments of its genome, a central region containing the integration apparatus, and a segment at the right end. This suggests that TM4 is a recent derivative of a temperate parent, resolving a long-standing conundrum about its biology, in that it was reportedly recovered from a lysogenic strain of Mycobacterium avium, but it is not capable of forming lysogens in any mycobacterial host. Like TM4, all of the Cluster K phages infect both fast- and slow-growing mycobacteria, and all of them - with the exception of TM4 - form stable lysogens in both Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis; immunity assays show that all five of these phages share the same immune specificity. TM4 infects these lysogens suggesting that it was either derived from a heteroimmune temperate parent or that it has acquired a virulent phenotype. We have also characterized a widely-used conditionally replicating derivative of TM4 and identified mutations conferring the temperature-sensitive phenotype. All of the Cluster K phages contain a series of well conserved 13 bp repeats associated with the translation initiation sites of a subset of the genes; approximately one half of these contain an additional sequence feature composed of imperfectly conserved 17 bp inverted repeats separated by a variable spacer. The K1 phages integrate into the host tmRNA and the Cluster K phages represent potential new tools for the genetics of M. tuberculosis and related species. © 2011 Pope et al.Fil: Pope, Welkin H.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Ferreira, Christina M.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Jacobs Sera, Deborah. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Benjamin, Robert C.. University of North Texas; Estados UnidosFil: Davis, Ariangela J.. Calvin College; Estados UnidosFil: DeJong, Randall J.. Calvin College; Estados UnidosFil: Elgin, Sarah C. R.. Washington University in St. Louis; Estados UnidosFil: Guilfoile, Forrest R.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Forsyth, Mark H.. The College Of William And Mary; Estados UnidosFil: Harris, Alexander D.. Calvin College; Estados UnidosFil: Harvey, Samuel E.. The College Of William And Mary; Estados UnidosFil: Hughes, Lee E.. University of North Texas; Estados UnidosFil: Hynes, Peter M.. Washington University in St. Louis; Estados UnidosFil: Jackson, Arrykka S.. The College Of William And Mary; Estados UnidosFil: Jalal, Marilyn D.. University of North Texas; Estados UnidosFil: MacMurray, Elizabeth A.. The College Of William And Mary; Estados UnidosFil: Manley, Coreen M.. University of North Texas; Estados UnidosFil: McDonough, Molly J.. The College Of William And Mary; Estados UnidosFil: Mosier, Jordan L.. University of North Texas; Estados UnidosFil: Osterbann, Larissa J.. Calvin College; Estados UnidosFil: Rabinowitz, Hannah S.. Washington University in St. Louis; Estados UnidosFil: Rhyan, Corwin N.. Washington University in St. Louis; Estados UnidosFil: Russell, Daniel A.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Saha, Margaret S.. The College Of William And Mary; Estados UnidosFil: Shaffer, Christopher D.. Washington University in St. Louis; Estados UnidosFil: Simon, Stephanie E.. University of North Texas; Estados UnidosFil: Sims, Erika F.. Washington University in St. Louis; Estados UnidosFil: Tovar, Isabel G.. University of North Texas; Estados UnidosFil: Weisser, Emilie G.. Washington University in St. Louis; Estados UnidosFil: Wertz, John T.. Calvin College; Estados UnidosFil: Weston-Hafer, Kathleen A.. Washington University in St. Louis; Estados UnidosFil: Williamson, Kurt E.. The College Of William And Mary; Estados UnidosFil: Zhang, Bo. Washington University in St. Louis; Estados UnidosFil: Cresawn, Steven G.. James Madison University; Estados UnidosFil: Jain, Paras. Albert Einstein College Of Medicine Of Yeshiva University; Estados UnidosFil: Piuri, Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Jacobs, William R.. Albert Einstein College Of Medicine Of Yeshiva University; Estados UnidosFil: Hendrix, Roger W.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Hatfull, Graham F.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unido