Biology subjects

Fallon, B.

Publications and source records attributed to Fallon, B..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

A high-resolution diel survey of surface ocean metagenomes, metatranscriptomes, and transfer RNA transcripts

The roles of marine microbes in ecosystem processes are inherently linked to their ability to sense, respond, and ultimately adapt to environmental change. Capturing the nuances of this perpetual dialogue and its long-term implications requires insight into the subtle drivers of microbial responses to environmental change that are most accessible at the shortest scales of time. Here, we present a multi-omics dataset comprising surface ocean metagenomes, metatranscriptomes, tRNA transcripts, and biogeochemical measurements, collected every 1.5 hours for 48 hours at two stations within coastal and adjacent offshore waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean. We expect that this integrated dataset of multiple sequence types and environmental parameters will facilitate novel insights into microbial ecology, microbial physiology, and ocean biogeochemistry and help investigate the different mechanisms of adaptation that drive microbial responses to environmental change.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2024

SK609, a novel dopamine D3 receptor agonist and norepinephrine transporter blocker with pro-cognitive actions, does not induce psychostimulant-like increases in risky choice during probabilistic discounting

RationalePsychostimulants, such as amphetamine (AMPH) and methylphenidate (MPH), non-selectively elevate extracellular concentrations of the catecholamine neurotransmitters, dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE), and are common pharmacological strategies used to improve prefrontal cortex (PFC)-dependent cognitive dysfunction. However, this approach can be problematic given AMPH has been shown to increase preference for risky choices in a rodent assay of risk/reward decision making. SK609 is a novel NE reuptake blocker that selectively activates DA D3 receptors without affinity for the DA transporter. SK609 has been shown to improve cognitive performance without increasing psychostimulant-like spontaneous locomotor activity, suggesting SK609 may benefit neurocognitive function without psychostimulant-like side effect liability. ObjectivesWe compared AMPH, MPH, and SK609 within dose ranges that display their cognitive enhancing properties in a probabilistic discounting task (PDT) of risk/reward decision making behavior to assess their potential to increase risky choice preference. MethodsRats chose between small/certain rewards delivered with 100% certainty and large/risky rewards delivered with descending probabilities across a session (100-6.25%) following administration of AMPH (0.25-1 mg/kg), MPH (2-8 mg/kg), and SK609 (4 mg/kg). ResultsAMPH and MPH increased risky choice behavior at doses previously reported to enhance cognition, whereas SK609 did not. AMPH and MPH also reduced sensitivity to non-rewarded risky choices. ConclusionsThese data highlight the combination of NE transporter blockade and selective D3 activation in pro-cognitive action without psychostimulant-like side effect liability. The absence of DA transporter blockade and non-selective dopaminergic activation are beneficial properties of SK609 that differentiates it from the traditional pro-cognitive psychostimulants.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2021

Linguistic laws are not the law in chimpanzee sexual solicitation gestures.

Two language laws have been identified as consistent patterns shaping animal behaviour, both acting on the organisational level of communicative systems. Zipfs law of brevity describes a negative relationship between behavioural length and frequency. Menzeraths law defines a negative correlation between the number of behaviours in a sequence and average length of the behaviour composing it. Both laws have been linked with the information-theoretic principle of compression, which tends to minimise code length. We investigated their presence in a case study of male chimpanzee sexual solicitation gesture. We failed to find evidence supporting Zipfs law of brevity, but solicitation gestures followed Menzeraths law: longer sequences had shorter average gesture duration. Our results extend previous findings suggesting gesturing may be limited by individual energetic constraints. However, such patterns may only emerge in sufficiently-large datasets. Chimpanzee gestural repertoires do not appear to manifest a consistent principle of compression previously described in many other close-range systems of communication. Importantly, the same signallers and signals were previously shown to adhere to these laws in subsets of the repertoire when used in play; highlighting that, in addition to selection on the signal repertoire, ape gestural expression appears shaped by factors in the immediate socio-ecological context.

animal behavior and cognition↗