scholarly journals Recent Progress Regarding the Molecular Aspects of Insect Gall Formation

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (17) ◽  
pp. 9424
Author(s):  
Seiji Takeda ◽  
Tomoko Hirano ◽  
Issei Ohshima ◽  
Masa H. Sato

Galls are characteristic plant structures formed by cell size enlargement and/or cell proliferation induced by parasitic or pathogenic organisms. Insects are a major inducer of galls, and insect galls can occur on plant leaves, stems, floral buds, flowers, fruits, or roots. Many of these exhibit unique shapes, providing shelter and nutrients to insects. To form unique gall structures, gall-inducing insects are believed to secrete certain effector molecules and hijack host developmental programs. However, the molecular mechanisms of insect gall induction and development remain largely unknown due to the difficulties associated with the study of non-model plants in the wild. Recent advances in next-generation sequencing have allowed us to determine the biological processes in non-model organisms, including gall-inducing insects and their host plants. In this review, we first summarize the adaptive significance of galls for insects and plants. Thereafter, we summarize recent progress regarding the molecular aspects of insect gall formation.

Author(s):  
Antoine Guiget ◽  
Seiji Takeda ◽  
Tomoko Hirano ◽  
Ohishima Issei ◽  
Masa H. Sato

Galls are characteristic plant structures formed by hypertrophy (excessive increase in cell size) and/or hyperplasia (cell proliferation) induced by parasitic or pathogenic organisms. Insects are a major inducer of galls, and insect galls can occur on plant leaves, stems, floral buds, flowers, fruits, or roots. Many of these exhibit unique shapes, providing shelter and nutrients to the insects. To form unique gall structures, all-inducing insects are believed to secrete certain effector molecules and hijack host developmental programs. However, the molecular mechanisms of insect gall induction and development is still largely unknown because of the difficulty of studying non-model plants in the wild. Recent progress in next-generation sequencing has allowed us to determine the structure of biological processes in non-model organisms, including gall-inducing insects and their host plants. In this review, we first summarize the evolutionary aspects of gall-inducing life histories and their adaptive significance for insects and plants. Then, we briefly summarize recent progress regarding the molecular aspects of insect gall formation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 170577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Springate ◽  
Timothy R. Frasier

Fertilization represents a critical stage in biology, where successful alleles of a previous generation are shuffled into new arrangements and subjected to the forces of selection in the next generation. Although much research has been conducted on how variation in morphological and behavioural traits lead to variation in fertilization patterns, surprisingly little is known about fertilization at a molecular level, and specifically about how genes expressed on the sperm and egg themselves influence fertilization patterns. In mammals, several genes have been identified whose products are expressed on either the sperm or the egg, and which influence the fertilization process, but the specific mechanisms are not yet known. Additionally, in 2014 an interacting pair of proteins was identified: ‘Izumo’ on the sperm, and ‘Juno’ on the egg. With the identification of these genes comes the first opportunity to understand the molecular aspects of fertilization in mammals, and to identify how the genetic characteristics of these genes influence fertilization patterns. Here, we review recent progress in our understanding of fertilization and gamete compatibility in mammals, which should provide a helpful guide to researchers interested in untangling the molecular mechanisms of fertilization and the resulting impacts on population biology and evolutionary processes.


Genetics ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 162 (4) ◽  
pp. 1863-1873 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Slate ◽  
P M Visscher ◽  
S MacGregor ◽  
D Stevens ◽  
M L Tate ◽  
...  

Abstract Recent empirical evidence indicates that although fitness and fitness components tend to have low heritability in natural populations, they may nonetheless have relatively large components of additive genetic variance. The molecular basis of additive genetic variation has been investigated in model organisms but never in the wild. In this article we describe an attempt to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) for birth weight (a trait positively associated with overall fitness) in an unmanipulated, wild population of red deer (Cervus elaphus). Two approaches were used: interval mapping by linear regression within half-sib families and a variance components analysis of a six-generation pedigree of >350 animals. Evidence for segregating QTL was found on three linkage groups, one of which was significant at the genome-wide suggestive linkage threshold. To our knowledge this is the first time that a QTL for any trait has been mapped in a wild mammal population. It is hoped that this study will stimulate further investigations of the genetic architecture of fitness traits in the wild.


Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 437
Author(s):  
Ilaria Maria Saracino ◽  
Matteo Pavoni ◽  
Angelo Zullo ◽  
Giulia Fiorini ◽  
Tiziana Lazzarotto ◽  
...  

Background and aims: Only a few antimicrobials are effective against H. pylori, and antibiotic resistance is an increasing problem for eradication therapies. In 2017, the World Health Organization categorized clarithromycin resistant H. pylori as a “high-priority” bacterium. Standard antimicrobial susceptibility testing can be used to prescribe appropriate therapies but is currently recommended only after the second therapeutic failure. H. pylori is, in fact, a “fastidious” microorganism; culture methods are time-consuming and technically challenging. The advent of molecular biology techniques has enabled the identification of molecular mechanisms underlying the observed phenotypic resistance to antibiotics in H. pylori. The aim of this literature review is to summarize the results of original articles published in the last ten years, regarding the use of Next Generation Sequencing, in particular of the whole genome, to predict the antibiotic resistance in H. pylori.Methods: a literature research was made on PubMed. The research was focused on II and III generation sequencing of the whole H. pylori genome. Results: Next Generation Sequencing enabled the detection of novel, rare and complex resistance mechanisms. The prediction of resistance to clarithromycin, levofloxacin and amoxicillin is accurate; for other antimicrobials, such as metronidazole, rifabutin and tetracycline, potential genetic determinants of the resistant status need further investigation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng-Kang Tang ◽  
Chih-Hsuan Tsai ◽  
Carol-P. Wu ◽  
Yu-Hsien Lin ◽  
Sung-Chan Wei ◽  
...  

AbstractTo avoid inducing immune and physiological responses in insect hosts, parasitoid wasps have developed several mechanisms to inhibit them during parasitism, including the production of venom, specialized wasp cells, and symbioses with polydnaviruses (PDVs). These mechanisms alter the host physiology to give the wasp offspring a greater chance of survival. However, the molecular mechanisms for most of these alterations remain unclear. In the present study, we applied next-generation sequencing analysis and identified several miRNAs that were encoded in the genome of Snellenius manilae bracovirus (SmBV), and expressed in the host larvae, Spodoptera litura, during parasitism. Among these miRNAs, SmBV-miR-199b-5p and SmBV-miR-2989 were found to target domeless and toll-7 in the host, which are involved in the host innate immune responses. Microinjecting the inhibitors of these two miRNAs into parasitized S. litura larvae not only severely decreased the pupation rate of Snellenius manilae, but also restored the phagocytosis and encapsulation activity of the hemocytes. The results demonstrate that these two SmBV-encoded miRNAs play an important role in suppressing the immune responses of parasitized hosts. Overall, our study uncovers the functions of two SmBV-encoded miRNAs in regulating the host innate immune responses upon wasp parasitism.


2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 526-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Mangino

Ageing is a complex multifactorial process, reflecting the progression of all degenerative pathways within an organism. Due to the increase of life expectancy, in recent years, there is a pressing need to identify early-life events and risk factors that determine health outcomes in later life. So far, genetic variation only explains ~20–25 % of the variability of human survival to age 80+. This clearly implies that other factors (environmental, epigenetic and lifestyle) contribute to lifespan and the rate of healthy ageing within an individual. Twin studies in the past two decades proved to be a very powerful tool to discriminate the genetic from the environmental component. The aim of this review is to describe the basic concepts of the twin study design and to report some of the latest studies in which high-throughput technologies (e.g. genome/epigenome-wide assay, next generation sequencing, MS metabolic profiling) combined with the classical twin design have been applied to the analysis of novel ‘omics’ to further understand the molecular mechanisms of human ageing.


2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongji Sun ◽  
Xianbo Zuo ◽  
Long Sun ◽  
Peng Yan ◽  
Fang Zhang ◽  
...  

The Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) is an endemic and rare species in China, and is considered to be one of the most endangered vertebrates in the world. It is known to hibernate, an energy-saving strategy against cold temperatures and food deprivation. Changes in gene expression during hibernation remain largely unknown. To understand these complex seasonal adaptive mechanisms, we performed a comprehensive survey of differential gene expression in heart, skeletal muscle, and kidney of hibernating and active Chinese alligators using RNA-Sequencing. In total, we identified 4780 genes differentially expressed between the active and hibernating periods. GO and KEGG pathway analysis indicated the likely role of these differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The upregulated DEGs in the active Chinese alligator, CSRP3, MYG and PCKGC, may maintain heart and skeletal muscle contraction, transport and storage of oxygen, and enhance the body’s metabolism, respectively. The upregulated DEGs in the dormant Chinese alligator, ADIPO, CIRBP and TMM27, may improve insulin sensitivity and glucose/lipid metabolism, protect cells against harmful effects of cold temperature and hypoxia, regulate amino acid transport and uptake, and stimulate the proliferation of islet cells and the secretion of insulin. These results provide a foundation for understanding the molecular mechanisms of the seasonal adaptation required for hibernation in Chinese alligators, as well as effective information for other non-model organisms research.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori A. McEachern

Non-model organisms are generally more difficult and/or time consuming to work with than model organisms. In addition, epigenetic analysis of model organisms is facilitated by well-established protocols, and commercially-available reagents and kits that may not be available for, or previously tested on, non-model organisms. Given the evolutionary conservation and widespread nature of many epigenetic mechanisms, a powerful method to analyze epigenetic phenomena from non-model organisms would be to use transgenic model organisms containing an epigenetic region of interest from the non-model. Interestingly, while transgenic Drosophila and mice have provided significant insight into the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary conservation of the epigenetic processes that target epigenetic control regions in other model organisms, this method has so far been under-exploited for non-model organism epigenetic analysis. This paper details several experiments that have examined the epigenetic processes of genomic imprinting and paramutation, by transferring an epigenetic control region from one model organism to another. These cross-species experiments demonstrate that valuable insight into both the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary conservation of epigenetic processes may be obtained via transgenic experiments, which can then be used to guide further investigations and experiments in the species of interest.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 6166
Author(s):  
Alessandro Mussa ◽  
Diana Carli ◽  
Simona Cardaropoli ◽  
Giovanni Battista Ferrero ◽  
Nicoletta Resta

Congenital disorders of lateralized or segmental overgrowth (LO) are heterogeneous conditions with increased tissue growth in a body region. LO can affect every region, be localized or extensive, involve one or several embryonic tissues, showing variable severity, from mild forms with minor body asymmetry to severe ones with progressive tissue growth and related relevant complications. Recently, next-generation sequencing approaches have increased the knowledge on the molecular defects in LO, allowing classifying them based on the deranged cellular signaling pathway. LO is caused by either genetic or epigenetic somatic anomalies affecting cell proliferation. Most LOs are classifiable in the Beckwith–Wiedemann spectrum (BWSp), PI3KCA/AKT-related overgrowth spectrum (PROS/AROS), mosaic RASopathies, PTEN Hamartoma Tumor Syndrome, mosaic activating variants in angiogenesis pathways, and isolated LO (ILO). These disorders overlap over common phenotypes, making their appraisal and distinction challenging. The latter is crucial, as specific management strategies are key: some LO is associated with increased cancer risk making imperative tumor screening since childhood. Interestingly, some LO shares molecular mechanisms with cancer: recent advances in tumor biological pathway druggability and growth downregulation offer new avenues for the treatment of the most severe and complicated LO.


Author(s):  
Daniel P. Depledge ◽  
Tomohiko Sadaoka ◽  
Werner J. D. Ouwendijk

Primary varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection causes varicella (chickenpox) and the establishment of a lifelong latent infection in ganglionic neurons. VZV reactivates in about one-third of infected individuals to cause herpes zoster, often accompanied by neurological complications. The restricted host range of VZV and, until recently, the lack of suitable in vitro models to study VZV latency have seriously hampered molecular studies of viral latency. Nevertheless, recent technological advances facilitated a series of exciting studies that resulted in the discovery of a VZV latency-associated transcript (VLT) and have redefined our understanding of VZV latency and factors that initiate reactivation. Together, these findings pave the way for a new era of research that may finally unravel the precise molecular mechanisms that govern latency. In this review, we will summarize the implications of recent discoveries in the VZV latency field from both a virus and host perspective and provide a roadmap for future studies.


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