How low can you go (and live): Determining the sub-lethal exposure time to desiccation in snowberry maggot flies (Rhagoletis zephyria)

The fruit infesting snowberry maggot (Rhagoletis zephyria) inhabits a broad range of habitats across the northern United States, including the humid and arid parts of Washington State. Pupating snowberry maggots (the most vulnerable life stage) exhibit local adaptation, with flies being more desiccation resistant east than west of the Cascades. Previous experiments have measured this difference at eight days after the larvae leave the fruit. However, desiccation impacts on survival may occur much earlier. To better understand the mechanism(s) by which flies protect themselves from desiccation we need to study flies at a sub-lethal level of stress, as dying flies may display general stress, rather than desiccation-specific responses. We sampled larvae from both western and central WA, and exposed them to varying lengths of low humidity before “rescuing” them in 100% relative humidity. Survival was measured indirectly as water loss. Desiccation sensitive flies from western WA experience lethal effects as early as day one of treatment whereas central WA flies did not differ from a no-treatment control. These results are consistent with previously reported gene expression differences between the two populations. Our results suggest that functional studies of desiccation resistance should focus on the time period immediately following the larva’s exit from the fruit. These results have agricultural implications, as R. zephyria populations hybridize with the related R. pomenella (the apple maggot) and may transfer their desiccation resistance to this invasive pest

Transcriptomic evidence that von Economo neurons are regionally specialized extratelencephalic-projecting excitatory neurons.

von Economo neurons (VENs) are bipolar, spindle-shaped neurons restricted to layer 5 of human frontoinsula and anterior cingulate cortex that appear to be selectively vulnerable to neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, although little is known about other VEN cellular phenotypes. Single nucleus RNA-sequencing of frontoinsula layer 5 identifies a transcriptomically-defined cell cluster that contained VENs, but also fork cells and a subset of pyramidal neurons. Cross-species alignment of this cell cluster with a well-annotated mouse classification shows strong homology to extratelencephalic (ET) excitatory neurons that project to subcerebral targets. This cluster also shows strong homology to a putative ET cluster in human temporal cortex, but with a strikingly specific regional signature. Together these results suggest that VENs are a regionally distinctive type of ET neuron. Additionally, we describe the first patch clamp recordings of VENs from neurosurgically-resected tissue that show distinctive intrinsic membrane properties relative to neighboring pyramidal neurons

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, Nearby Galaxies, and the Distant Universe

We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median $z\sim 0.03$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $z\sim 0.6$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the Second Phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since 2014 July. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the 14th from SDSS overall (making this Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes the data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (2014–2016 July) public. Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey; the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data-driven machine-learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from the SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS web site (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020 and will be followed by SDSS-V

Comparative cellular analysis of motor cortex in human, marmoset and mouse

The primary motor cortex (M1) is essential for voluntary fine-motor control and is functionally conserved across mammals1. Here, using high-throughput transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling of more than 450,000 single nuclei in humans, marmoset monkeys and mice, we demonstrate a broadly conserved cellular makeup of this region, with similarities that mirror evolutionary distance and are consistent between the transcriptome and epigenome. The core conserved molecular identities of neuronal and non-neuronal cell types allow us to generate a cross-species consensus classification of cell types, and to infer conserved properties of cell types across species. Despite the overall conservation, however, many species-dependent specializations are apparent, including differences in cell-type proportions, gene expression, DNA methylation and chromatin state. Few cell-type marker genes are conserved across species, revealing a short list of candidate genes and regulatory mechanisms that are responsible for conserved features of homologous cell types, such as the GABAergic chandelier cells. This consensus transcriptomic classification allows us to use patch-seq (a combination of whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, RNA sequencing and morphological characterization) to identify corticospinal Betz cells from layer 5 in non-human primates and humans, and to characterize their highly specialized physiology and anatomy. These findings highlight the robust molecular underpinnings of cell-type diversity in M1 across mammals, and point to the genes and regulatory pathways responsible for the functional identity of cell types and their species-specific adaptations

A multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex

ABSTRACT We report the generation of a multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex (MOp or M1) as the initial product of the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN). This was achieved by coordinated large-scale analyses of single-cell transcriptomes, chromatin accessibility, DNA methylomes, spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomes, morphological and electrophysiological properties, and cellular resolution input-output mapping, integrated through cross-modal computational analysis. Together, our results advance the collective knowledge and understanding of brain cell type organization: First, our study reveals a unified molecular genetic landscape of cortical cell types that congruently integrates their transcriptome, open chromatin and DNA methylation maps. Second, cross-species analysis achieves a unified taxonomy of transcriptomic types and their hierarchical organization that are conserved from mouse to marmoset and human. Third, cross-modal analysis provides compelling evidence for the epigenomic, transcriptomic, and gene regulatory basis of neuronal phenotypes such as their physiological and anatomical properties, demonstrating the biological validity and genomic underpinning of neuron types and subtypes. Fourth, in situ single-cell transcriptomics provides a spatially-resolved cell type atlas of the motor cortex. Fifth, integrated transcriptomic, epigenomic and anatomical analyses reveal the correspondence between neural circuits and transcriptomic cell types. We further present an extensive genetic toolset for targeting and fate mapping glutamatergic projection neuron types toward linking their developmental trajectory to their circuit function. Together, our results establish a unified and mechanistic framework of neuronal cell type organization that integrates multi-layered molecular genetic and spatial information with multi-faceted phenotypic properties

Musical Training Changes the Brain and Enhances Speech Perception

Previous research has found that musicians have enhanced selective attention and increased sensitivity to acoustic features of speech that is facilitated by musical training and supported, in part, by right hemisphere homologues of established speech processing regions of the brain (Jantzen et al., 2014; Jantzen and Scheurich, 2014). In the current study, we sought to provide evidence that musical training would enhance the processing of acoustic information for speech sounds. We hypothesized that non-musicians would have improved discrimination and enhanced sensitivity of acoustic features for speech stimuli differing in voice onset time. More specifically, we hypothesized that there would be increased recruitment of right hemisphere homologues for speech after completion of a musical training program. Musical training effects and organization of acoustic features were reflected in the EEG as observed by location and amplitude of the ERP’s. Results show neural response during the P50/N1/P2 to the acoustic features was greater following musical training. In addition, behavioral results indicate that after musical training enhanced sensitivity to and improved discrimination of small differences in VOT. Moreover, musical training affected both formation of phonemic categories and internal category structure. This work is currently a manuscript “in preparation” for submission and review

The Route to Musicianship Affects Language Along the Way

Intro: Perception and processing of speech displays similar acoustic features to that of music in the human brain. One of the most important temporal acoustic features in speech processing is voice onset time (VOT), or the length between the closure and start of voicing. Previous research suggests that VOT allows us to differentiate between voiced (e.g., /b/) and voiceless (e.g., /p/) stop consonants. Because musicians are better categorizing voiceless stimuli, have a more accurate representation of auditory stimuli and are less susceptible to background noise than non musicians, we predicted that musical training would improve a non-musician’s ability to discriminate a voiced from a voiceless stop consonant. This would suggest that musical training modulates neuroplastic changes in the language network of the human brain. Method: Previous researchers in the Language and Neural Systems lab recruited 15 non-musicians, and pre-tested their perceptual mapping ability with 3 tasks (An identification task and judged goodness tasks for both voiced and voiceless). Then they had the participants complete the WWU Music Department Theta Music Trainer Program over eleven days. Finally, the researchers tested the subjects’ perceptual mapping ability post-training. Results: There were n=12 learners and n=3 non learners at the end of the musical training. The learners were either an initial learner, because they had a good perceptual mapping representation pre and post training, or a non-initial learner, because they had a poor perceptual mapping representation pre musical training and then improved at the end of 11 days. Many of the learners displayed evidence of the perceptual magnet theory. Conclusions: Musical training either improved or maintained the learners’ ability to discriminate voiced and voiceless stop consonant speech sounds. Thus, we suggest that musical training can improve speech perception. This is interesting because it suggests that the music processing networks modulate the speech processing networks