Astrocyte response to motor neuron injury promotes structural synaptic plasticity via STAT3-regulated TSP-1 expression.

The role of remote astrocyte (AC) reaction to central or peripheral axonal insult is not clearly understood. Here we use a transgenic approach to compare the direct influence of normal with diminished AC reactivity on neuronal integrity and synapse recovery following extracranial facial nerve transection in mice. Our model allows straightforward interpretations of AC-neuron signalling by reducing confounding effects imposed by inflammatory cells. We show direct evidence that perineuronal reactive ACs play a major role in maintaining neuronal circuitry following distant axotomy. We reveal a novel function of astrocytic signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3). STAT3 regulates perineuronal astrocytic process formation and re-expression of a synaptogenic molecule, thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), apart from supporting neuronal integrity. We demonstrate that, through this new pathway, TSP-1 is responsible for the remote AC-mediated recovery of excitatory synapses onto axotomized motor neurons in adult mice. These data provide new targets for neuroprotective therapies via optimizing AC-driven plasticity.This is the final version. It was first published in Nature Communications here: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140711/ncomms5294/abs/ncomms5294.html

Playing in the dark with online games for girls

Pregnant Rapunzel Emergency is part of a series of online free games aimed at young girls (forhergames.com or babygirlgames.com), where dozens of characters from fairy tales, children’s toys and media feature in recovery settings, such as ‘Barbie flu’. The range of games available to choose from includes not only dressing, varnishing nails or tidying messy rooms, but also rather more troubling options such as extreme makeovers, losing weight, or a plethora of baby showers, cravings, hospital pregnancy checks, births (including caesarean), postnatal ironing, washing and baby care. Taking the online game Pregnant Rapunzel Emergency as an exemplar of a current digital trend, the authors explore the workings of ‘dark digital play’ from a number of perspectives – one by each named author. The game selected has (what may appear to adults) several disturbing features in that the player is invited to treat wounds of the kind of harm that might usually be associated with domestic violence towards women

Author Correction: Expanded encyclopaedias of DNA elements in the human and mouse genomes

Online Correction for: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2493-4 | Erratum for https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/21299In the version of this article initially published, two members of the ENCODE Project Consortium were missing from the author list. Rizi Ai (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA) and Shantao Li (Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA) are now included in the author list. These errors have been corrected in the online version of the article : 'Expanded encyclopaedias of DNA elements in the human and mouse genomes'.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04226-3https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04226-

Evolution of sex-specific pace-of-life syndromes: genetic architecture and physiological mechanisms

Sex differences in life history, physiology, and behavior are nearly ubiquitous across taxa, owing to sex-specific selection that arises from different reproductive strategies of the sexes. The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis predicts that most variation in such traits among individuals, populations, and species falls along a slow-fast pace-of-life continuum. As a result of their different reproductive roles and environment, the sexes also commonly differ in pace-of-life, with important consequences for the evolution of POLS. Here, we outline mechanisms for how males and females can evolve differences in POLS traits and in how such traits can covary differently despite constraints resulting from a shared genome. We review the current knowledge of the genetic basis of POLS traits and suggest candidate genes and pathways for future studies. Pleiotropic effects may govern many of the genetic correlations, but little is still known about the mechanisms involved in trade-offs between current and future reproduction and their integration with behavioral variation. We highlight the importance of metabolic and hormonal pathways in mediating sex differences in POLS traits; however, there is still a shortage of studies that test for sex specificity in molecular effects and their evolutionary causes. Considering whether and how sexual dimorphism evolves in POLS traits provides a more holistic framework to understand how behavioral variation is integrated with life histories and physiology, and we call for studies that focus on examining the sex-specific genetic architecture of this integration

Brain size regulations by cbp haploinsufficiency evaluated by in-vivo MRI based volumetry

The Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome (RSTS) is a congenital disease that affects brain development causing severe cognitive deficits. In most cases the disease is associated with dominant mutations in the gene encoding the CREB binding protein (CBP). In this work, we present the first quantitative analysis of brain abnormalities in a mouse model of RSTS using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and two novel self-developed automated algorithms for image volumetric analysis. Our results quantitatively confirm key syndromic features observed in RSTS patients, such as reductions in brain size (-16.31%, p < 0.05), white matter volume (-16.00%, p < 0.05), and corpus callosum (-12.40%, p < 0.05). Furthermore, they provide new insight into the developmental origin of the disease. By comparing brain tissues in a region by region basis between cbp(+/-) and cbp(+/+) littermates, we found that cbp haploinsufficiency is specifically associated with significant reductions in prosencephalic tissue, such us in the olfactory bulb and neocortex, whereas regions evolved from the embryonic rhombencephalon were spared. Despite the large volume reductions, the proportion between gray-, white-matter and cerebrospinal fluid were conserved, suggesting a role of CBP in brain size regulation. The commonalities with holoprosencephaly and arhinencephaly conditions suggest the inclusion of RSTS in the family of neuronal migration disorders.We are grateful to Begona Fernandez for her excellent technical assistance. We would like to thank S. Sawiak (Wolfson Imaging Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom) for the mouse brain tissue probability maps and the SPMmouse plug-in, and to N. Kovacevic (Mouse Imaging Centre, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) for the atlas of the mouse brain. Supported by grants from the Spanish MINECO to S.C. (BFU 2012-39958) and MINECO and FEDER to D.M. (TEC 2012-33778) and from MINECO (SAF2011-22855) and Generalitat Valenciana (Prometeo/2012/005) to A.B. The Instituto de Neurociencias is "Centre of Excellence Severo Ochoa".Ateca Cabarga, JC.; Cosa, A.; Pallares, V.; Lopez-Atalaya, JP.; Barco, A.; Canals, S.; Moratal Pérez, D. (2015). Brain size regulations by cbp haploinsufficiency evaluated by in-vivo MRI based volumetry. Scientific Reports. 5. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep16256S5Rubinstein, J. H. & Taybi, H. Broad thumbs and toes and facial abnormalities. A possible mental retardation syndrome. Am J Dis Child 105, 588–608 (1963).Van Belzen, M., Bartsch, O., Lacombe, D., Peters, D. J. & Hennekam, R. C. Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (CREBBP, EP300). Eur J Hum Genet. 19, preceeding 118–120 (2011).Hennekam, R. C. Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome. Eur J Hum Genet. 14, 981–985 (2006).Wiley, S., Swayne, S., Rubinstein, J. H., Lanphear, N. E. & Stevens, C. A. Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome medical guidelines. Am J Med Genet A. 119A, 101–110 (2003).Michail, J., Matsoukas, J. & Theodorou, S. Pouce bot arqué en forte abduction-extension et autres symptomes concomitants. Rev Chir Orthop 43, 142–146 (1957).Barco A. The Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome: modeling mental impairment in the mouse. Genes Brain Behav 6, 32–39 (2007).Lopez-Atalaya, J. P., Valor, L. M. & Barco, A. Epigenetic factors in intellectual disability: the Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome as a paradigm of neurodevelopmental disorder with epigenetic origin. Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 128, 139–176 (2014).Petrij, F., Giles, R. H., Dauwerse, H. G., Saris, J. J., Hennekam, R. C. M., Masuno, M., Tommerup, N., Van Ommen, G. J. B., Goodman, R. H., Peters, D. J. M. & Breuning, M. H. Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome caused by mutations in the transcriptional co-activator CBP. Nature 376, 348–351 (1995).Zimmermann, N., Acosta, A. M., Kohlhase, J. & Bartsch, O. Confirmation of EP300 gene mutations as a rare cause of Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome. Eur J Hum Genet. 15, 837–842 (2007).Bartholdi, D. et al. Genetic heterogeneity in Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome: delineation of the phenotype of the first patients carrying mutations in EP300. J Med Genet. 44, 327–333 (2007).Roelfsema, J. H. et al. Genetic heterogeneity in Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome: mutations in both the CBP and EP300 genes cause disease. Am J Hum Genet. 76, 572–580 (2005).Tanaka, Y., Naruse, I., Maekawa, T., Masuya, H., Shiroishi, T. & Ishii, S. Abnormal skeletal patterning in embryos lacking a single Cbp allele: a partial similarity with Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 94, 10215–10220 (1997).López-Atalaya, J. P. et al. CBP is required for environmental enrichment-induced neurogenesis and cognitive enhancement. EMBO J 30, 4287–4298 (2011).Wang, J. et al. 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C., Chae, J. H., Kim, K. J. & Hwang, Y. S. A case of Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome with a CREB-binding protein gene mutation. Korean J Pediatr. 53, 718–721 (2010).Wójcik, C. et al. Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome associated with Chiari type I malformation caused by a large 16p13.3 microdeletion: a contiguous gene syndrome? Am J Med Genet A. 152A, 479–483 (2010).Wachter-Giner, T., Bieber, I., Warmuth-Metz, M., Bröcker, E. B. & Hamm, H. Multiple pilomatricomas and gliomatosis cerebri--a new association? Pediatr Dermatol. 26, 75–78 (2009).Verstegen, M. J., van den Munckhof, P., Troost, D. & Bouma, G. J. Multiple meningiomas in a patient with Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome. Case report. J Neurosurg. 102, 167–168 (2005).Agarwal, R., Aggarwal, R., Kabra, M. & Deorari, A. K. Dandy-Walker malformation in Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome: a rare association. Clin Dysmorphol. 11, 223–224 (2002).Ihara, K., Kuromaru, R., Takemoto, M. & Hara, T. Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome: a girl with a history of neuroblastoma and premature thelarche. Am J Med Genet. 83, 365–366 (1999).Sener, R. N. Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome: cranial MR imaging findings. Comput Med Imaging Graph 19, 417–418 (1995).Robinson, T. W., Stewart, D. L. & Hersh, J. H. Monozygotic twins concordant for Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome and implications for genetic counseling. Am J Med Genet. 45, 671–673 (1993).Guion-Almeida, M. L. & Richieri-Costa, A. Callosal agenesis, iris coloboma and megacolon in a Brazilian boy with Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome. Am J Med Genet. 43, 929–931 (1992).Albanese, A. et al. [Role of diagnostic imaging in Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome. personal experience with 8 cases]. Radiol Med. 81, 253–261 (1991).Rubinstein, J. H. Broad thumb-hallux (Rubinstein-Taybi) syndrome 1957-1988. Am J Med Genet Suppl. 6, 3–16 (1990).Hennekam, R. C., Stevens, C. A. & Van de Kamp, J. J. Etiology and recurrence risk in Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome. 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Population genetics of sexual conflict in the genomic era

Sexual conflict occurs when selection acts in opposing directions on males and females. Case studies in both vertebrates and invertebrates indicate that sexual conflict maintains genetic diversity through balancing selection, which might explain why many populations show more genetic variation than expected. Recent population genomic approaches based on different measures of balancing selection have suggested that sexual conflict can arise over survival, not just reproductive fitness as previously thought. A fuller understanding of sexual conflict will provide insight into its contribution to adaptive evolution and will reveal the constraints it might impose on populations

Perspectives on ENCODE

Supplementary information is available for this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020- 2449-8.© 2020, The Author(s). The Encylopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project launched in 2003 with the long-term goal of developing a comprehensive map of functional elements in the human genome. These included genes, biochemical regions associated with gene regulation (for example, transcription factor binding sites, open chromatin, and histone marks) and transcript isoforms. The marks serve as sites for candidate cis-regulatory elements (cCREs) that may serve functional roles in regulating gene expression1. The project has been extended to model organisms, particularly the mouse. In the third phase of ENCODE, nearly a million and more than 300,000 cCRE annotations have been generated for human and mouse, respectively, and these have provided a valuable resource for the scientific community.NIH grants: U01HG007019, U01HG007033, U01HG007036, U01HG007037, U41HG006992, U41HG006993, U41HG006994, U41HG006995, U41HG006996, U41HG006997, U41HG006998, U41HG006999, U41HG007000, U41HG007001, U41HG007002, U41HG007003, U41HG007234, U54HG006991, U54HG006997, U54HG006998, U54HG007004, U54HG007005, U54HG007010 and UM1HG009442