Nematodes of the genus
are important parasites of humans and swine, and the phylogenetically related genera (
, and
infect mammals of veterinary interest. Over the last decade, considerable genomic ...resources have been established for
, including complete germline and somatic genomes, comprehensive mRNA and small RNA transcriptomes, as well as genome-wide histone and chromatin data. These datasets provide a major resource for studies on the basic biology of these parasites and the host-parasite relationship.
and its relatives undergo programmed DNA elimination, a highly regulated process where chromosomes are fragmented and portions of the genome are lost in embryonic cells destined to adopt a somatic fate, whereas the genome remains intact in germ cells. Unlike many model organisms,
transcription drives early development beginning prior to pronuclear fusion. Studies on
demonstrated a complex small RNA network even in the absence of a piRNA pathway. Comparative genomics of these ascarids has provided perspectives on nematode sex chromosome evolution, programmed DNA elimination, and host-parasite coevolution. The genomic resources enable comparison of proteins across diverse species, revealing many new potential drug targets that could be used to control these parasitic nematodes.
Significance Latent viral infection is a major obstacle for effective antiviral treatment and presents a continuous risk to the host. The dormant viral genome during latent infection provides few ...therapeutic targets other than itself for antiviral drug development. This study demonstrates the clearance of latent Epstein–Barr virus genomes in a subpopulation of Burkitt’s lymphoma patient-derived cells with clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat/Cas9 nuclease. Viral genome destruction leads to proliferation arrest and apoptosis in Epstein–Barr virus-infected cells, with no observed cytotoxicity to noninfected cells. Although many hurdles remain before this approach could be used in the clinic, this strategy may lead to a generalized approach to cure latent viral infections.
In most organisms, the whole genome is maintained throughout the life span. However, exceptions occur in some species where the genome is reduced during development through a process known as ...programmed DNA elimination (PDE). In the human and pig parasite Ascaris, PDE occurs during the 4 to 16 cell stages of embryogenesis, when germline chromosomes are fragmented and specific DNA sequences are reproducibly lost in all somatic cells. PDE was identified in Ascaris over 120 years ago, but little was known about its molecular details until recently. Genome sequencing revealed that approximately 1,000 germline-expressed genes are eliminated in Ascaris, suggesting PDE is a gene silencing mechanism. All germline chromosome ends are removed and remodeled during PDE. In addition, PDE increases the number of chromosomes in the somatic genome by splitting many germline chromosomes. Comparative genomics indicates that these germline chromosomes arose from fusion events. PDE separates these chromosomes at the fusion sites. These observations indicate that PDE plays a role in chromosome karyotype and evolution. Furthermore, comparative analysis of PDE in other parasitic and free-living nematodes illustrates conserved features of PDE, suggesting it has important biological significance. We summarize what is known about PDE in Ascaris and its relatives. We also discuss other potential functions, mechanisms, and the evolution of PDE in these parasites of humans and animals of veterinary importance.
Organic thin‐film transistors (OTFTs) can provide an effective platform to develop flexible pressure sensors in wearable electronics due to their good signal amplification function. However, it is ...particularly difficult to realize OTFT‐based pressure sensors with both low‐voltage operation and high sensitivity. Here, controllable polyelectrolyte composites based on poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) are developed as a type of high‐capacitance dielectrics for flexible OTFTs and ultrasensitive pressure sensors with sub‐1 V operation. Flexible OTFTs using the PAA:PEG dielectrics show good universality and greatly enhanced electrical performance under a much smaller operating voltage of −0.7 V than those with a pristine PAA dielectric. The low‐voltage OTFTs also exhibit excellent flexibility and bending stability under various bending radii and long cycles. Flexible OTFT‐based pressure sensors with low‐voltage operation and superhigh sensitivity are demonstrated by using a suspended semiconductor/dielectric/gate structure in combination with the PAA:PEG dielectric. The sensors deliver a record high sensitivity of 452.7 kPa−1 under a low‐voltage of −0.7 V, and excellent operating stability over 5000 cycles. The OTFT sensors can be built into a wearable sensor array for spatial pressure mapping, which shows a bright potential in flexible electronics such as wearable devices and smart skins.
Flexible organic thin‐film transistors and ultrasensitive pressure sensors with sub‐1 V operation are demonstrated by using high‐capacitance polyelectrolyte composite dielectrics. Using a suspended semiconductor/dielectric/gate structure, a record high sensitivity of 452.7 kPa−1 with a low‐operating voltage of −0.7 V is achieved for the pressure sensors, which are subsequently built into a wearable sensor array for pressure mapping.
We report a rational design of a sulfur heterocyclic quinone (dibenzob,ithianthrene‐5,7,12,14‐tetraone=DTT) used as a cathode (uptake of four lithium ions to form Li4DTT) and a conductive polymer ...poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)=PEDOT:PSS) used as a binder for a high‐performance rechargeable lithium‐ion battery. Because of the reduced energy level of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) caused by the introduced S atoms, the initial Li‐ion intercalation potential of DTT is 2.89 V, which is 0.3 V higher than that of its carbon analog. Meanwhile, there is a noncovalent interaction between DTT and PEDOT:PSS, which remarkably suppressed the dissolution and enhanced the conductivity of DTT, thus leading to the great improvement of the electrochemical performance. The DTT cathode with the PEDOT:PSS binder displays a long‐term cycling stability (292 mAh g−1 for the first cycle, 266 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles at 0.1 C) and a high rate capability (220 mAh g−1 at 1 C). This design strategy based on a noncovalent interaction is very effective for the application of small organic molecules as the cathode of rechargeable lithium‐ion batteries.
A noncovalent interaction: A sulfur heterocyclic quinone compound (DTT) and a multifunctional binder (PEDOT:PSS) were prepared and used together as a high‐performance cathode in a rechargeable lithium‐ion battery (see picture). Through a noncovalent interaction between DTT and PEDOT:PSS the dissolution of DTT into an electrolyte was reduced and the conductivity of DTT was enhanced.
Visualizing genome coverage is of vital importance to inspect and interpret various next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. Besides genome coverage, genome annotations are also crucial in the ...visualization. While different NGS data require different annotations, how to visualize genome coverage and add the annotations appropriately and conveniently is challenging. Many tools have been developed to address this issue. However, existing tools are often inflexible, complicated, lack necessary preprocessing steps and annotations, and the figures generated support limited customization.
Here, we introduce ggcoverage, an R package to visualize and annotate genome coverage of multi-groups and multi-omics. The input files for ggcoverage can be in BAM, BigWig, BedGraph and TSV formats. For better usability, ggcoverage provides reliable and efficient ways to perform read normalization, consensus peaks generation and track data loading with state-of-the-art tools. ggcoverage provides various available annotations to adapt to different NGS data (e.g. WGS/WES, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq) and all the available annotations can be easily superimposed with ' + '. ggcoverage can generate publication-quality plots and users can customize the plots with ggplot2. In addition, ggcoverage supports the visualization and annotation of protein coverage.
ggcoverage provides a flexible, programmable, efficient and user-friendly way to visualize and annotate genome coverage of multi-groups and multi-omics. The ggcoverage package is available at https://github.com/showteeth/ggcoverage under the MIT license, and the vignettes are available at https://showteeth.github.io/ggcoverage/ .
Oxocarbon salts (M2(CO)n) prepared through one‐pot proton exchange reactions with different metal ions (M=Li, Na, K) and frameworks (n=4, 5, 6) have been rationally designed and used as electrodes in ...rechargeable Li, Na, and K‐ion batteries. The results show that M2(CO)5/M2(CO)6 salts can insert two or four metal ions reversibly, while M2(CO)4 shows less electrochemical activity. Especially, we discover that the K2C6O6 electrode enables ultrafast potassium‐ion insertion/extraction with 212 mA h g−1 at 0.2 C and 164 mA h g−1 at 10 C. This behavior can be ascribed to the natural semiconductor property of K2C6O6 with a narrow band gap close to 0.9 eV, the high ionic conductivity of the K‐ion electrolyte, and the facilitated K‐ion diffusion process. Moreover, a first example of a K‐ion battery with a rocking‐chair reaction mechanism of K2C6O6 as cathode and K4C6O6 as anode is introduced, displaying an operation voltage of 1.1 V and an energy density of 35 Wh kg−1. This work provides an interesting strategy for constructing rapid K‐ion batteries with renewable and abundant potassium materials.
Organic electrode material: Oxocarbon salts (M2(CO)n) with different metal ions (M=Li, Na, K) and frameworks (n=4, 5, 6) were rationally designed and used as electrodes for rechargeable Li, Na, and K‐ion batteries. A first example of a renewable and sustainable K‐ion battery based on K2C6O6 and K4C6O6 with a rocking‐chair reaction mechanism is shown.
Conventional experimental methods of studying the human genome are limited by the inability to independently study the combination of alleles, or haplotype, on each of the homologous copies of the ...chromosomes. We developed a microfluidic device capable of separating and amplifying homologous copies of each chromosome from a single human metaphase cell. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array analysis of amplified DNA enabled us to achieve completely deterministic, whole-genome, personal haplotypes of four individuals, including a HapMap trio with European ancestry (CEU) and an unrelated European individual. The phases of alleles were determined at ∼99.8% accuracy for up to ∼96% of all assayed SNPs. We demonstrate several practical applications, including direct observation of recombination events in a family trio, deterministic phasing of deletions in individuals and direct measurement of the human leukocyte antigen haplotypes of an individual. Our approach has potential applications in personal genomics, single-cell genomics and statistical genetics.
Schistosome infection persists for decades. Parasites are in close contact with host peripheral blood immune cells, yet little is known about the regulatory interactions between parasites and these ...immune cells. Here, we report that extracellular vesicles (EVs) released from Schistosoma japonicum are taken up primarily by macrophages and other host peripheral blood immune cells and their miRNA cargo transferred into recipient cells. Uptake of S. japonicum EV miR-125b and bantam miRNAs into host cells increased macrophage proliferation and TNF-α production by regulating the corresponding targets including Pros1, Fam212b, and Clmp. Mice infected with S. japonicum exhibit an increased population of monocytes and elevated levels of TNF-α. Reduction of host monocytes and TNF-α level in S. japonicum infected mice led to a significant reduction in worm and egg burden and pathology. Overall, we demonstrate that S. japonicum EV miRNAs can regulate host macrophages illustrating parasite modulation of the host immune response to facilitate parasite survival. Our findings provide valuable insights into the schistosome-host interaction which may help to develop novel intervention strategies against schistosomiasis.
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are gaining traction in the realm of network communication, renowned for their adaptability, configuration, and flexibility. The forthcoming network traffic within ...WSNs can be forecasted through temporal sequence models. In this correspondence, we present a method (TSENet) that can accurately predict the traffic in the cellular network. TSENet is composed of transformers and self-attention network. We have designed a temporal transformer module specifically for extracting temporal features. This module accomplishes this by modeling the traffic flow within each grid of the communication network at both near-term and periodical intervals. Simultaneously, we amalgamate the spatial features of each grid with information from its correlated grids, generating spatial predictions within the spatial transformer. Furthermore, we employ self-attention aggregation to capture dependencies between external factor features and cellular data features. Empirical assessments performed on a genuine cellular traffic dataset offer compelling evidence substantiating the efficacy of TSENet.
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