Emotional engagements predict and enhance social cognition in young chimpanzees

Social cognition in infancy is evident in coordinated triadic engagements, that is, infants attending jointly with social partners and objects. Current evolutionary theories of primate social cognition tend to highlight species differences in cognition based on human-unique cooperative motives. We consider a developmental model in which engagement experiences produce differential outcomes. We conducted a 10-year-long study in which two groups of laboratory-raised chimpanzee infants were given quantifiably different engagement experiences. Joint attention, cooperativeness, affect, and different levels of cognition were measured in 5- to 12-month-old chimpanzees, and compared to outcomes derived from a normative human database. We found that joint attention skills significantly improved across development for all infants, but by 12 months, the humans significantly surpassed the chimpanzees. We found that cooperativeness was stable in the humans, but by 12 months, the chimpanzee group given enriched engagement experiences significantly surpassed the humans. Past engagement experiences and concurrent affect were significant unique predictors of both joint attention and cooperativeness in 5- to 12-month-old chimpanzees. When engagement experiences and concurrent affect were statistically controlled, joint attention and cooperation were not associated. We explain differential social cognition outcomes in terms of the significant influences of previous engagement experiences and affect, in addition to cognition. Our study highlights developmental processes that underpin the emergence of social cognition in support of evolutionary continuity

The Bacillus anthracis chromosome contains four conserved, excision-proficient, putative prophages

BACKGROUND: Bacillus anthracis is considered to be a recently emerged clone within the Bacillus cereus sensu lato group. The B. anthracis genome sequence contains four putative lambdoid prophages. We undertook this study in order to understand whether the four prophages are unique to B. anthracis and whether they produce active phages. RESULTS: More than 300 geographically and temporally divergent isolates of B. anthracis and its near neighbors were screened by PCR for the presence of specific DNA sequences from each prophage region. Every isolate of B. anthracis screened by PCR was found to produce all four phage-specific amplicons whereas none of the non-B. anthracis isolates, produced more than one phage-specific amplicon. Excision of prophages could be detected by a PCR based assay for attP sites on extra-chromosomal phage circles and for attB sites on phage-excised chromosomes. SYBR-green real-time PCR assays indicated that prophage excision occurs at very low frequencies (2 × 10(-5 )- 8 × 10(-8)/cell). Induction with mitomycin C increased the frequency of excision of one of the prophages by approximately 250 fold. All four prophages appear to be defective since, mitomycin C induced culture did not release any viable phage particle or lyse the cells or reveal any phage particle under electron microscopic examination. CONCLUSION: The retention of all four putative prophage regions across all tested strains of B. anthracis is further evidence of the very recent emergence of this lineage and the prophage regions may be useful for differentiating the B. anthracis chromosome from that of its neighbors. All four prophages can excise at low frequencies, but are apparently defective in phage production

Intestinal fungi contribute to development of alcoholic liver disease

This study was supported in part by NIH grants R01 AA020703, U01 AA021856 and by Award Number I01BX002213 from the Biomedical Laboratory Research & Development Service of the VA Office of Research and Development (to B.S.). K.H. was supported by a DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) fellowship (HO/ 5690/1-1). S.B. was supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (P2SKP3_158649). G.G. received funding from the Yale Liver Center NIH P30 DK34989 and R.B. from NIAAA grant U01 AA021908. A.K. received support from NIH grants RC2 AA019405, R01 AA020216 and R01 AA023417. G.D.B. is supported by funds from the Wellcome Trust. We acknowledge the Human Tissue and Cell Research (HTCR) Foundation for making human tissue available for research and Hepacult GmbH (Munich, Germany) for providing primary human hepatocytes for in vitro analyses. We thank Dr. Chien-Yu Lin Department of Medicine, Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taiwan for statistical analysis.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

AbGRI4, a novel antibiotic resistance island in multiply antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the genomic context of a novel resistance island (RI) in multiply antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates and global isolates. METHODS: Using a combination of long and short reads generated from the Oxford Nanopore and Illumina platforms, contiguous chromosomes and plasmid sequences were determined. BLAST-based analysis was used to identify the RI insertion target. RESULTS: Genomes of four multiply antibiotic-resistant A. baumannii clinical strains, from a US hospital system, belonging to prevalent MLST ST2 (Pasteur scheme) and ST281 (Oxford scheme) clade F isolates were sequenced to completion. A class 1 integron carrying aadB (tobramycin resistance) and aadA2 (streptomycin/spectinomycin resistance) was identified. The class 1 integron was 6.8 kb, bounded by IS26 at both ends, and embedded in a new target location between an α/β-hydrolase and a reductase. Due to its novel insertion site and unique RI composition, we suggest naming this novel RI AbGRI4. Molecular analysis of global A. baumannii isolates identified multiple AbGRI4 RI variants in non-ST2 clonal lineages, including variations in the resistance gene cassettes, integron backbone and insertion breakpoints at the hydrolase gene. CONCLUSIONS: A novel RI insertion target harbouring a class 1 integron was identified in a subgroup of ST2/ST281 clinical isolates. Variants of the RI suggested evolution and horizontal transfer of the RI across clonal lineages. Long- and short-read hybrid assembly technology completely resolved the genomic context of IS-bounded RIs, which was not possible using short reads alone

Paring Down HIV Env: Design and Crystal Structure of a Stabilized Inner Domain of HIV-1 gp120 Displaying a Major ADCC Target of the A32 Region

SummaryEvidence supports a role of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) toward transitional epitopes in the first and second constant (C1-C2) regions of gp120 (A32-like epitopes) in preventing HIV-1 infection and in vaccine-induced protection. Here, we describe the first successful attempt at isolating the inner domain (ID) of gp120 as an independent molecule that encapsulates the A32-like region within a minimal structural unit of the HIV-1 Env. Through structure-based design, we developed ID2, which consists of the ID expressed independently of the outer domain and stabilized in the CD4-bound conformation by an inter-layer disulfide bond. ID2 expresses C1-C2 epitopes in the context of CD4-triggered full-length gp120 but without any known neutralizing epitope present. Thus, ID2 represents a novel probe for the analysis and/or selective induction of antibody responses to the A32 epitope region. We also present the crystal structure of ID2 complexed with mAb A32, which defines its epitope

Planetary companions around the metal-poor star HIP 11952

Aims. We carried out a radial-velocity survey to search for planets around metal-poor stars. In this paper we report the discovery of two planets around HIP 11952, a metal-poor star with [Fe/H]= -1.9 that belongs to our target sample. Methods. Radial velocity variations of HIP 11952 were monitored systematically with FEROS at the 2.2 m telescope located at the ESO La Silla observatory from August 2009 until January 2011. We used a cross-correlation technique to measure the stellar radial velocities (RV). Results. We detected a long-period RV variation of 290 d and a short-period one of 6.95 d. The spectroscopic analysis of the stellar activity reveals a stellar rotation period of 4.8 d. The Hipparcos photometry data shows intra-day variabilities, which give evidence for stellar pulsations. Based on our analysis, the observed RV variations are most likely caused by the presence of unseen planetary companions. Assuming a primary mass of 0.83 M\odot, we computed minimum planetary masses of 0.78 MJup for the inner and 2.93 MJup for the outer planet. The semi-major axes are a1 = 0.07 AU and a2 = 0.81 AU, respectively. Conclusions. HIP 11952 is one of very few stars with [Fe/H]< -1.0 which have planetary companions. This discovery is important to understand planet formation around metal-poor starsComment: Published in A&

Impact of sequence variation in the ul128 locus on production of human cytomegalovirus in fibroblast and epithelial cells

The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) virion envelope contains a complex consisting of glycoproteins gH and gL plus proteins encoded by the UL128 locus (UL128L): pUL128, pUL130, and pUL131A. UL128L is necessary for efficient infection of myeloid, epithelial, and endothelial cells but limits replication in fibroblasts. Consequently, disrupting mutations in UL128L are rapidly selected when clinical isolates are cultured in fibroblasts. In contrast, bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC)-cloned strains TB40-BAC4, FIX, and TR do not contain overt disruptions in UL128L, yet no virus reconstituted from them has been reported to acquire mutations in UL128L in vitro. We performed BAC mutagenesis and reconstitution experiments to test the hypothesis that these strains contain subtle mutations in UL128L that were acquired during passage prior to BAC cloning. Compared to strain Merlin containing wild-type UL128L, all three strains produced higher yields of cell-free virus. Moreover, TB40-BAC4 and FIX spread cell to cell more rapidly than wild-type Merlin in fibroblasts but more slowly in epithelial cells. The differential growth properties of TB40-BAC4 and FIX (but not TR) were mapped to single-nucleotide substitutions in UL128L. The substitution in TB40-BAC4 reduced the splicing efficiency of UL128, and that in FIX resulted in an amino acid substitution in UL130. Introduction of these substitutions into Merlin dramatically increased yields of cell-free virus and increased cell-to-cell spread in fibroblasts but reduced the abundance of pUL128 in the virion and the efficiency of epithelial cell infection. These substitutions appear to represent mutations in UL128L that permit virus to be propagated in fibroblasts while retaining epithelial cell tropism