Colonization, mouse-style

Several recent papers, including one in BMC Evolutionary Biology, examine the colonization history of house mice. As well as background for the analysis of mouse adaptation, such studies offer a perspective on the history of movements of the humans that accidentally transported the mice

Phylogeography of Rattus norvegicus in the South Atlantic Ocean

Acknowledgments Funding for sample collection was provided by the Shackleton Scholarship Fund, Antarctic Research Trust, the Wyoming Biodiversity Institute, PVE/CAPES (Proposal 235453) and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/88854/2012). Thanks to Martin Collins, Andy Black, Darren Christie and the Government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands for the provision of samples from South Georgia, Annalea Beard for providing the rat sample from St Helena Island, Joaquim Tapisso, Rita Monarca and Ana Cerveira for samples from Portugal, and Emily Puckett for help validating South American SNP haplotypes. Funding for DNA sequencing was provided by Island LandCare, the University of Auckland. Thanks to two anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Associations of dwarf galaxies in a λCDM Universe

Associations of dwarf galaxies are loose systems composed exclusively of dwarf galaxies. These systems were identified in the Local Volume for the first time more than 30 yr ago. We study these systems in the cosmological framework of the λ cold dark matter (λCDM) model.We consider the Small MultiDark Planck simulation and populate its dark matter haloes by applying the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation SAG. We identify galaxy systems using a friends-of-friends algorithm with a linking length equal to b = 0.4Mpc h-1to reproduce the size of dwarf galaxy associations detected in the Local Volume. Our samples of dwarf systems are built up removing those systems that have one or more galaxies with stellar mass larger than a maximum thresholdMmax.We analyse three different samples defined by log10(Mmax[M⊙ h-1]) = 8.5, 9.0, and 9.5. On average, our systems have typical sizes of ∼ 0.2Mpc h-1, velocity dispersion of ∼ 30km s-1, and estimated total mass of ∼ 1011M⊙ h-1. Such large typical sizes suggest that individual members of a given dwarf association reside in different dark matter haloes and are generally not substructures of any other halo. Indeed, in more than 90 per cent of our dwarf systems their individual members inhabit different dark matter haloes, while only in the remaining 10 per cent members do reside in the same halo. Our results indicate that the λCDM model can naturally reproduce the existence and properties of dwarf galaxies' associations without much difficulty.Fil: Yaryura, Claudia Yamila. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Abadi, Mario Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Gottlöber, Stefan. Leibniz Universitat Hannover; AlemaniaFil: Libeskind, Noam I.. Leibniz Universitat Hannover; AlemaniaFil: Cora, Sofia Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Ruiz, Andrés Nicolás. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Vega Martínez, Cristian Antonio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; Argentina. Universidad de La Serena; ChileFil: Yepes, Gustavo. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; EspañaFil: Behroozi, Peter. George Mason University. School Of Physics. Astronomy And Computational Sciences; Estados Unido

A half-century of studies on a chromosomal hybrid zone of the house mouse

The first natural chromosomal variation in the house mouse was described nearly 50 years ago in Val Poschiavo on the Swiss side of the Swiss–Italian border in the Central Eastern Alps. Studies have extended into neighboring Valtellina, and the house mice of the Poschiavo-Valtellina area have been subject to detailed analysis, reviewed here. The maximum extent of this area is 70 km, yet it has 4 metacentric races and the standard 40-chromosome telocentric race distributed in a patchwork fashion. The metacentric races are characterized by highly reduced diploid numbers (2n = 22–26) resulting from Robertsonian fusions, perhaps modified by whole-arm reciprocal translocations. The races hybridize and the whole Poschiavo-Valtellina area can be considered a “hybrid zone.” The studies of this area have provided insights into origin of races within hybrid zones, gene flow within hybrid zones and the possibility of speciation in hybrid zones. This provides a case study of how chromosomal rearrangements may impact the genetic structure of populations and their diversification.Fil: Giménez, Mabel Dionisia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas; Argentina. University of York; Reino UnidoFil: Förster, Daniel W.. Leibniz-institute For Zoo And Wildlife Research; Alemania. University of York; Reino UnidoFil: Jones, Eleanor P.. University of York; Reino Unido. Fera Science; Reino UnidoFil: Jóhannesdóttir, Fríđa. University of York; Reino Unido. Cornell University; Estados UnidosFil: Gabriel, Sofia I.. Universidade de Lisboa; Portugal. University of York; Reino UnidoFil: Panithanarak, Thadsin. Burapha University; Tailandia. University of York; Reino UnidoFil: Scascitelli, Moira. University of York; Reino UnidoFil: Merico, Valeria. Universita Di Pavia; ItaliaFil: Garagna, Silvia. Universita Di Pavia; ItaliaFil: Searle, Jeremy B.. University of York; Reino Unido. Cornell University; Estados UnidosFil: Hauffe, Heidi C.. Instituto Agrario San Michele All'adige Fondazione Edmund Mach. Centro Ricerca E Innovazione; Italia. University of York; Reino Unid

Influence of passage number on the impact of the secretome of adipose tissue stem cells on neural survival, neurodifferentiation and axonal growth

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and within them adipose tissue derived stem cells (ASCs), have been shown to have therapeutic effects on central nervous system (CNS) cell populations. Such effects have been mostly attributed to soluble factors, as well as vesicles, present in their secretome. Yet, little is known about the impact that MSC passaging might have in the secretion therapeutic profile. Our aim was to show how human ASCs (hASCs) passage number influences the effect of their secretome in neuronal survival, differentiation and axonal growth. For this purpose, post-natal rat hippocampal primary cultures, human neural progenitor cell (hNPCs) cultures and dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) explants were incubated with secretome, collected as conditioned media (CM), obtained from hASCs in P3, P6, P9 and P12. Results showed no differences when comparing percentages of MAP-2 positive cells (a mature neuronal marker) in neuronal cultures or hNPCs, after incubation with hASCs secretome from different passages. The same was observed regarding DRG neurite outgrowth. In order to characterize the secretomes obtained from different passages, a proteomic analysis was performed, revealing that its composition did not vary significantly with passage number P3 to P12. Results allowed us to identify several key proteins, such as pigment epithelium derived factor (PEDF), DJ-1, interleucin-6 (IL-6) and galectin, all of which have already proven to play neuroprotective and neurodifferentiating roles. Proteins that promote neurite outgrowth were also found present, such as semaphorin 7A and glypican-1. We conclude that cellular passaging does not influence significantly hASCs's secretome properties especially their ability to support post-natal neuronal survival, induce neurodifferentiation and promote axonal growth.Prémios Santa Casa Neurociências - Prize Melo e Castro for Spinal Cord Injury Research (MC-17-2013 and MC-04-2017), Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering (LAB), Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020),, European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), National Mass Spectrometry Network (RNEM)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Of Mice and ‘Convicts’: Origin of the Australian House Mouse, Mus musculus

The house mouse, Mus musculus, is one of the most ubiquitous invasive species worldwide and in Australia is particularly common and widespread, but where it originally came from is still unknown. Here we investigated this origin through a phylogeographic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences (D-loop) comparing mouse populations from Australia with those from the likely regional source area in Western Europe. Our results agree with human historical associations, showing a strong link between Australia and the British Isles. This outcome is of intrinsic and applied interest and helps to validate the colonization history of mice as a proxy for human settlement history

Search for coherent charged pion production in neutrino-carbon interactions

We report the result from a search for charged-current coherent pion production induced by muon neutrinos with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV. The data are collected with a fully active scintillator detector in the K2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. No evidence for coherent pion production is observed and an upper limit of $0.60 \times 10^{-2}$ is set on the cross section ratio of coherent pion production to the total charged-current interaction at 90% confidence level. This is the first experimental limit for coherent charged pion production in the energy region of a few GeV.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Evidence for muon neutrino oscillation in an accelerator-based experiment

We present results for muon neutrino oscillation in the KEK to Kamioka (K2K) long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. K2K uses an accelerator-produced muon neutrino beam with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV directed at the Super-Kamiokande detector. We observed the energy dependent disappearance of muon neutrino, which we presume have oscillated to tau neutrino. The probability that we would observe these results if there is no neutrino oscillation is 0.0050% (4.0 sigma).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin