Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle

This work was funded by UK NERC grants to M.G.R. and A.J.M. an NERC studentship to D.J.P. the University of Georgia and a US NSF grant to A.J.M. and M.G.R.Parenting in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is complex and, unusually, the sex and number of parents that can be present is flexible. Such flexibility is expected to involve specialized behaviour by the two sexes under biparental conditions. Here, we show that offspring fare equally well regardless of the sex or number of parents present. Comparing transcriptomes, we find a largely overlapping set of differentially expressed genes in both uniparental and biparental females and in uniparental males including vitellogenin, associated with reproduction, and takeout, influencing sex-specific mating and feeding behaviour. Gene expression in biparental males is similar to that in non-caring states. Thus, being ‘biparental’ in N. vespilloides describes the family social organization rather than the number of directly parenting individuals. There was no specialization; instead, in biparental families, direct male parental care appears to be limited with female behaviour unchanged. This should lead to strong sexual conflict.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Comb-Based Radio-Frequency Photonic Filters with Rapid Tunability and High Selectivity

Photonic technologies have received considerable attention for enhancement of radio-frequency (RF) electrical systems, including high-frequency analog signal transmission, control of phased arrays, analog-to-digital conversion, and signal processing. Although the potential of radio-frequency photonics for implementation of tunable electrical filters over broad RF bandwidths has been much discussed, realization of programmable filters with highly selective filter lineshapes and rapid reconfigurability has faced significant challenges. A new approach for RF photonic filters based on frequency combs offers a potential route to simultaneous high stopband attenuation, fast tunability, and bandwidth reconfiguration. In one configuration tuning of the RF passband frequency is demonstrated with unprecedented (~40 ns) speed by controlling the optical delay between combs. In a second, fixed filter configuration, cascaded four-wave mixing simultaneously broadens and smoothes comb spectra, resulting in Gaussian RF filter lineshapes exhibiting extremely high (>60 dB) main lobe to sidelobe suppression ratio and (>70 dB) stopband attenuation.Comment: Updated the submission with the most recent version of the pape

The Genome and Methylome of a Beetle with Complex Social Behavior,Nicrophorus vespilloides(Coleoptera: Silphidae)

Testing for conserved and novelmechanisms underlying phenotypic evolution requires a diversity of genomes available for comparisonspanning multiple independent lineages. For example, complex social behavior in insects has been investigated primarily witheusocial lineages, nearly all of which are Hymenoptera. If conserved genomic influences on sociality do exist, we need data from awider range of taxa that also vary in their levels of sociality. Here,we present the assembled and annotated genome of the subsocialbeetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, a species long used to investigate evolutionary questions of complex social behavior. We used thisgenome to address two questions. First, do aspects of life history, such as using a carcass to breed, predict overlap in gene modelsmore strongly than phylogeny? We found that the overlap in gene models was similar between N. vespilloides and all other insectgroups regardless of life history. Second, like other insects with highly developed social behavior but unlike other beetles, doesN. vespilloides have DNA methylation?We found strong evidence for an active DNA methylation system. The distribution of methylationwassimilar to other insects with exons having themostmethylatedCpGs. Methylation status appears highly conserved; 85%of themethylated genes in N. vespilloides are alsomethylated in the hymentopteran Nasonia vitripennis. The addition of this genomeadds a coleopteran resource to answer questions about the evolution and mechanistic basis of sociality and to address questionsabout the potential role of methylation in social behavior

A CD8 + NK cell transcriptomic signature associated with clinical outcome in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Abstract: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) with the majority of cases characterised by relapsing/remitting (RRMS) attacks of neurologic dysfunction followed by variable resolution. Improving clinical outcomes in RRMS requires both a better understanding of the immunological mechanisms driving recurrent demyelination and better means of predicting future disease course to facilitate early targeted therapy. Here, we apply hypothesis-generating network transcriptomics to CD8+ cells isolated from patients in RRMS, identifying a signature reflecting expansion of a subset of CD8+ natural killer cells (NK8+) associated with favourable outcome. NK8+ are capable of regulating CD4+ T cell activation and proliferation in vitro, with reduced expression of HLA-G binding inhibitory receptors and consequent reduced sensitivity to HLA-G-mediated suppression. We identify surrogate markers of the NK8+ signature in peripheral blood leucocytes and validate their association with clinical outcome in an independent cohort, suggesting their measurement may facilitate early, targeted therapy in RRMS

A CD8 + NK cell transcriptomic signature associated with clinical outcome in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Abstract: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) with the majority of cases characterised by relapsing/remitting (RRMS) attacks of neurologic dysfunction followed by variable resolution. Improving clinical outcomes in RRMS requires both a better understanding of the immunological mechanisms driving recurrent demyelination and better means of predicting future disease course to facilitate early targeted therapy. Here, we apply hypothesis-generating network transcriptomics to CD8+ cells isolated from patients in RRMS, identifying a signature reflecting expansion of a subset of CD8+ natural killer cells (NK8+) associated with favourable outcome. NK8+ are capable of regulating CD4+ T cell activation and proliferation in vitro, with reduced expression of HLA-G binding inhibitory receptors and consequent reduced sensitivity to HLA-G-mediated suppression. We identify surrogate markers of the NK8+ signature in peripheral blood leucocytes and validate their association with clinical outcome in an independent cohort, suggesting their measurement may facilitate early, targeted therapy in RRMS

Signal Transmission in the Auditory System

Contains table of contents for Section 3, an introduction and reports on seven research projects.National Institutes of Health Grant P01-DC-00119National Institutes of Health Grant R01-DC-00194National Institutes of Health Grant R01 DC00238National Institutes of Health Grant R01-DC02258National Institutes of Health Grant T32-DC00038National Institutes of Health Grant P01-DC00361National Institutes of Health Grant 2RO1 DC00235National Institutes of Health Contract N01-DC2240