Issues

Summary: Identifying which gene is the target of an enhancer is often accomplished by assigning it to the nearest gene, here we discuss how this heuristic can lead to incorrect predictions.

Summary: Without stabilizing muscles, a standing horse is unstable. The bigger the spacing between fore and hind hooves, the less muscular effort needed for stabilization.

Summary: Comparing closely related non-pathogenic trypanosomes, we highlight differential investment in cell-surface protein encoding genes and predict this differential investment is associated with the life histories of their hosts and vectors.

Summary: Honeybees can be quickly trained to identify SARS-CoV2 infected samples. SARS-CoV2 positive sample detection by bees reached a diagnostic sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 86%. Honeybee-based diagnostics can offer a reliable and rapid test that provides a readily available, low-input addition to the currently available testing methods.

Summary: Male mice could discriminate the smell of cancerous congeners even when the tumour was hardly detectable by other means; however, females did not discriminate against the smell of males carrying cancerous tumours. Odorant molecules other than volatile organic compounds analysed here might explain the observed behaviour.

Summary: Autonomic development of fetal mice is analyzed through electrocardiography. Saline infusion does not alter maternal and fetal heart rate variation and coupling significantly. Atropine increases maternal heart rate, while propranolol lowers fetal heart rate.

Summary: This study demonstrated that NANOS3 functions as a timekeeper to prevent premature differentiation in order to initiate synchronized differentiation upon retinoic acid stimulation.

Summary: Breeding zebra finches chronically exposed to aversive traffic noise, compared to behaviourally neutral noise, had longer nest attendance but the reproductive outcomes did not improve.

Summary: We present a detailed, comprehensive scoring system for murine models of NPC, and likely other neurodegenerative diseases, presenting with motor incoordination. This easy, relatively quick assessment yields high inter-rater reliability.

Summary: The presented method and its associated R-package (torpor) enable the assignment of metabolic rate measurements to torpor or euthermy, ultimately improving the standardization of respirometry analyses in heterotherms.

Summary: Dirichlet mixture models (LDA and HDP) are applied for clustering cells in scRNA-Seq data. Here we made a comprehensive comparison of LDA and HDP model-based clustering for scRNA-seq data.