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Biology subjects

Hu, Z.

Publications and source records attributed to Hu, Z..

At least 271 records · Page 15Linked to original sources

Dissecting the subtropical adaptation traits and cuticle synthesis pathways via the genome of the subtropical blueberry Vaccinium darrowii

Vaccinium darrowii is a subtropical wild blueberry species, which was used to breed economically important southern highbush cultivars. The adaptation traits of V. darrowii to subtropical climate would provide valuable information for breeding blueberry and perhaps other plants, especially against the background of global warming. Here, we assembled the V. darrowii genome into 12 pseudochoromosomes using Oxford Nanopore long reads complemented with Hi-C scaffolding technologies, and predicted 41 815 genes using RNAseq evidence. Syntenic analysis across three Vaccinium species revealed a highly conserved genome structure, with the highest collinearity between V. darrowii and V. corymbosum. This conserved genome structure may explain the high fertilization during crossbreeding between V. darrowii and other blueberry cultivars. Gene expansion and tandem duplication analysis indicated possible roles of defense and flowering associated genes in adaptation of V. darrowii to the subtropics. The possible SOC1 genes in V. darrowii were identified with phylogeny and expression analysis. Blueberries are covered in a thick cuticle layer and contain anthocyanins, which confer their powdery blue color. Using RNA-sequencing, the cuticle biosynthesis pathways of Vaccinium species were delineated here in V. darrowii. This result could serve as a reference for breeding berries with customer-desired colors. The V. darrowii reference genome, together with the unique traits of this species, including diploid genome, short vegetative phase, and high compatibility in hybridization with other blueberries, make V. darrowii a potential research model for blueberry species.

plant biology↗

Small proline-rich proteins 1 and 2 function as antimicrobial proteins in the skin

Human skin functions as a physical barrier, preventing the entry of foreign pathogens while also accommodating a myriad of commensal microorganisms. A key contributor to the skin landscape is the sebaceous gland. Mice devoid of sebocytes are prone to skin infection, yet our understanding of how sebocytes function in host defense is incomplete. Here we show that the small proline-rich proteins, SPRR1 and SPRR2 are bactericidal in skin. SPRR1B and SPPR2A were induced in human sebocytes by exposure to the bacterial cell wall component lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Further, LPS injected into mouse skin triggered the expression of the mouse SPRR orthologous genes, Sprr1a and Sprr2a, through stimulation of MYD88. Both mouse and human SPRR proteins displayed potent bactericidal activity against MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and skin commensals. Thus, Sprr1a-/-;Sprr2a-/- mice are more susceptible to MRSA and Pseudomonas aeruginosa skin infection. Lastly, mechanistic studies demonstrate that SPRR proteins exert their bactericidal activity through binding and disruption of the bacterial membrane. Taken together, these findings provide insight into the regulation and antimicrobial function of SPRR proteins in skin and how the skin defends the host against systemic infection.

immunology↗

A TET1-PSPC1-Neat1 molecular axis modulates PRC2 functions in controlling stem cell bivalency

TET1 maintains hypomethylation at bivalent promoters through its catalytic activity in embryonic stem cells (ESCs). However, whether and how TET1 exerts catalytic activity-independent functions in regulating bivalent genes is not well understood. Using a proteomics approach, we mapped the TET1 interactome in mouse ESCs and identified PSPC1 as a novel TET1 partner. Genome-wide location analysis reveals that PSPC1 functionally associates with TET1 and Polycomb repressive complex-2 (PRC2) complex. We establish that PSPC1 and TET1 repress, and Neat1, the PSPC1 cognate lncRNA, activates the bivalent gene expression. In ESCs, Neat1 tethers the TET1-PSPC1 pair with PRC2 at bivalent promoters. During the ESC-to-formative epiblast-like stem cell (EpiLC) transition, PSPC1 and TET1 promote PRC2 chromatin occupancy at bivalent gene promoters while restricting Neat1 functions in facilitating PRC2 binding to bivalent gene transcripts. Our study uncovers a novel TET1-PSPC1-Neat1 molecular axis that modulates PRC2 binding affinity to chromatin and bivalent gene transcripts in controlling stem cell bivalency. In BriefTET1 is a transcriptional repressor for bivalent genes in pluripotent stem cells, but its mechanistic action on stem cell bivalency is unclear. Huang et al. use proteomics and genetic approaches to reveal that catalytic activity-independent functions of TET1, coordinated with the paraspeckle components PSPC1 and its cognate lncRNA Neat1, dynamically regulates stem cell bivalency by modulating PRC2 binding affinity to chromatin and bivalent gene transcripts in pluripotent state transition. HighlightsO_LIThe TET1 interactome identifies PSPC1 as a novel partner in ESCs C_LIO_LITET1 and PSPC1 repress bivalent genes by promoting PRC2 chromatin occupancy C_LIO_LINeat1 facilitates bivalent gene activation by promoting PRC2 binding to their mRNAs C_LIO_LINeat1 bridges the TET1-PSPC1 and PRC2 complexes in regulating bivalent gene transcription C_LI

developmental biology↗

Structure of benzothiadiazine at zwitterionic phospholipid cell membranes

The use of drugs derived from benzothiadiazine, which is a bicyclic heterocyclic benzene derivative, has become a widespread treatment for diseases such as hypertension (treated with diuretics such as bendroflumethiazide or chlorothiazide), low blood sugar (treated with non-diuretic diazoxide) or the human immunodeficiency virus, among others. In this work we have investigated the interactions of benzothiadiazine with the basic components of cell membranes and solvents such as phospholipids, cholesterol, ions and water. The analysis of the mutual microscopic interactions is of central importance to elucidate the local structure of benzothiadiazine as well as the mechanisms responsible for the access of benzothiadiazine to the interior of the cell. We have performed molecular dynamics simulations of benzothiadiazine embedded in three different model zwitterionic bilayer membranes made by dimyristoilphosphatidylcholine, dioleoylphosphatidylcholine, 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoserine and cholesterol inside aqueous sodium-chloride solution in order to systematically examine microscopic interactions of benzothiadiazine with the cell membrane at liquid-crystalline phase conditions. From data obtained through radial distribution functions, hydrogen-bonding lengths and potentials of mean force based on reversible work calculations, we have observed that benzothiadiazine has a strong affinity to stay at the cell membrane interface although it can be fully solvated by water in short periods of time. Furthermore, benzothiadiazine is able to bind lipids and cholesterol chains by means of single and double hydrogen-bonds of different characteristic lengths.

biophysics↗

Self-supervised contrastive learning for integrative single cell RNA-seq data analysis

Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) has become a powerful tool to reveal the complex biological diversity and heterogeneity among cell populations. However, the technical noise and bias of the technology still have negative impacts on the downstream analysis. Here, we present a self-supervised Contrastive LEArning framework for scRNA-seq (CLEAR) profile representation and the downstream analysis. CLEAR overcomes the heterogeneity of the experimental data with a specifically designed representation learning task and thus can handle batch effects and dropout events. In the task, the deep learning model learns to pull together the representations of similar cells while pushing apart distinct cells, without manual labeling. It achieves superior performance on a broad range of fundamental tasks, including clustering, visualization, dropout correction, batch effect removal, and pseudo-time inference. The proposed method successfully identifies and illustrates inflammatory-related mechanisms in a COVID-19 disease study with 43,695 single cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Further experiments to process a million-scale single-cell dataset demonstrate the scalability of CLEAR. This scalable method generates effective scRNA-seq data representation while eliminating technical noise, and it will serve as a general computational framework for single-cell data analysis.

bioinformatics↗

Effects of Frontoparietal Theta tACS on Verbal Working Memory: Behavioral and Neurophysiological Analysis

Left-lateralized frontoparietal theta oscillations are thought to play an important role in verbal working memory. We causally tested this idea by stimulating the frontoparietal theta network at individual theta frequencies (4 to 8 Hz) during verbal working memory and observing the subsequent behavioral and neurophysiological effects. Weak electric currents were delivered via two 4x1 HD electrode arrays centered at F3 and P3. Three stimulation configurations, including in-phase, anti-phase, or sham, were tested on three different days in a cross-over design. On each test day, the subject underwent three experimental sessions: pre-, during- and post-stimulation sessions. In all sessions, the subject performed a Sternberg verbal working memory task with three levels of memory load (load 2, 4 and 6), imposing three levels of cognitive demand. Analyzing behavioral, EEG, and pupillometry data from the post-stimulation sessions, we report three results. First, in-phase stimulation improved task performance only in subjects with higher working memory capacity (WMC) and under higher memory load (load 6). Second, in-phase stimulation enhanced frontoparietal theta synchrony during working memory retention only in subjects with higher WMC under higher memory loads (load 4 and load 6), and the enhanced frontoparietal theta synchronization is mainly driven by enhanced frontal[->]parietal theta Granger causality. Third, the pupil diameter was not different irrespective of whether the preceding stimulation was in-phase, anti-phase, or sham. These findings suggest that theta tACS effects on verbal working memory were load- and subject-dependent, rooted in tACS-induced changes in frontoparietal network interactions, and not driven by changes in arousal levels.

neuroscience↗

Eosinophils are an integral component of the pulmonary granulocyte response in Tuberculosis and promote host resistance in mice

Host resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection requires the activities of multiple leukocyte subsets, yet the roles of the different innate effector cells during tuberculosis are incompletely understood. Here we uncover an unexpected association between eosinophils and Mtb infection. In humans, eosinophils are decreased in the blood but enriched in resected human tuberculosis lung lesions and autopsy granulomas. Influx of eosinophils is also evident in infected zebrafish, mice, and nonhuman primate granulomas, where they are functionally activated and degranulate. Importantly, employing complementary genetic models of eosinophil deficiency, we demonstrate that, in mice, eosinophils are required for optimal pulmonary bacterial control and host survival after Mtb infection. Collectively, our findings uncover an unexpected recruitment of eosinophils to the infected lung tissue and a protective role for these cells in the control of Mtb infection in mice.

immunology↗

Interferon-armed RBD dimer enhances the immunogenicity of RBD for sterilizing immunity against SARS-CoV-2

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a global crisis, urgently necessitating the development of safe, efficacious, convenient-to-store, and low-cost vaccine options. A major challenge is that the receptor-binding domain (RBD)-only vaccine fails to trigger long-lasting protective immunity if used solely for vaccination. To enhance antigen processing and cross-presentation in draining lymph nodes (DLNs), we developed an interferon (IFN)-armed RBD dimerized by immunoglobulin fragment (I-R-F). I-R-F efficiently directs immunity against RBD to DLN. A low dose of I-R-F induces not only high titer long-lasting neutralizing antibodies but also comprehensive T cell responses than RBD, and even provides comprehensive protection in one dose without adjuvant. This study shows that the I-R-F vaccine provides rapid and complete protection throughout upper and lower respiratory tracts against high dose SARS-CoV-2 challenge in rhesus macaques. Due to its potency and safety, this engineered vaccine may become one of the next-generation vaccine candidates in the global race to defeat COVID-19.

immunology↗

Reduced virulence and enhanced host adaption during antibiotics therapy: A story of a within-host carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae sequence type 11 evolution in a fatal scrotal abscess patient

Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) has disseminated globally and become a major threat to human life. The sequence type (ST) 11 CRKP is a dominant clone in Asia, especially China, but how this clone evolves in vivo, then adapts to host and facilitates dissemination remain largely unknown. We analyzed the genomic dynamics of 4 ST11-CRKP isolates sequencially isolated from the urine of a patient with initial fatal scrotal abscess and finally recovered without effective medication. Genomic differences were identified and their implications for pathogenesis and host adaptation were investigated. The related transcriptional pathways were further explored by RNA-Seq. Genomic analysis identified 4-24 mutations and 94%-100% were synonymous or intergenic. The mutation rate of ST11-CRKP was 2.1x10-6-1.7x10-5 substitutions/site/year over 47 days of antibiotics therapy. During this period, CRKP underwent several adaptive changes including tigecycline resistance and virulence attenuation. Tigecycline resistance was caused by ramR ribosomal binding site (RBS) deletion, which has been described by us previously. In this study, we demonstrated that mutations associated with acyltransferase (act) and ompK26 caused the virulence attenuation of ST11-CRKP. act deletion reduced the production of capsular polysaccharide and enhanced biofilm formation. RNA-Seq analysis revealed that act influenced the expression of ldhA, bglX, mtnK and metE which likely participate in capsular synthesis and biofilm formation. ompK26 affected the virulence by its overexpression caused by the deletion of upstream repressor binding site. Our finding suggested that the broad genomic diversity, high evolutionary capacity and rapid within-host adaptability of ST11-CRKP might contribute to the worldwide dissemination of this clone. IMPORTANCECarbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) has disseminated worldwide and can cause life threatening infections, including pneumonia, bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections, intra-abdominal infection, liver abscess and meningitis. CRKP infection is the leading cause of high mortality in clinical. The sequence type (ST) 11 CRKP is a dominant clone and accounts for 60% of CRKP infections in China. Recently, the ST11-CRKP with high transmissibility are increasingly identified. Understanding how this clone evolved is crucial in controlling its further dissemination. The significance of our research is identifying the in vivo genomic dynamics of ST11-CRKP and the genetic basis for ST11-CRKP to facilitate persistence and dissemination, which will has broader biomedical impacts on understanding of ST11-CRKP dissemination. Furthermore, our study also highlights the importance of monitoring the development of variation in antibiotics susceptibility and virulence of bacteria in clinical practice, considering that pathogens can rapidly adapt to host during the treatment.

microbiology↗

Marginal cost of contextualizing stigma of zoonotic diseases

BackgroundIn the medical sphere, understanding naming conventions strengthen the integrity of naming human diseases remains nominal rather than substantial yet. Since the current nosology-based standard for human diseases could not offer a one-size-fits-all corrective mechanism, many idiomatic but flawed names frequently appear in scientific literature and news outlets at the cost of sociocultural impacts. ObjectiveWe attempt to examine the ethical oversights of current naming practices and propose heuristic rationales and approaches to determine a pithy name instead of an inopportune nosology. MethodsFirst, we examined the compiled global online news volumes and emotional tones on some inopportune nosology like German measles, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish flu, Hong Kong flu, and Huntingtons disease in the wake of COVID-19. Second, we prototypically scrutinize the lexical dynamics and pathological differentials of German measles and common synonyms by leveraging the capacity of the Google Books Ngram Corpus. Third, we demonstrated the empirical approaches to curate an exclusive substitute for an anachronistic nosology German measles based on deep learning models and post-hoc explanations. ResultsThe infodemiological study shows that the public informed the offensive names with extremely negative tones in textual and visual narratives. The findings of the historiographical study indicate that many synonyms of German measles did not survive, while German measles became an anachronistic usage, and rubella has taken the dominant place since 1994. The PubMedBERT model could identify rubella as a potential substitution for German measles with the highest semantic similarity. The results of the semantic drift experiments further indicate that rubella tends to survive during the ebb and flow of semantic drift. ConclusionsOur findings indicate that the nosological evolution of anachronistic names could result in sociocultural impacts without a corrective mechanism. To mitigate such impacts, we introduce some ethical principles for formulating an improved naming scheme. Based on deep learning models and post-hoc explanations, our illustrated experiments could provide hallmark references to the remedial mechanism of naming practices and pertinent credit allocations.

scientific communication and education↗

Membrane surfaces regulate assembly of a ribonucleoprotein condensate

Biomolecular condensates organize biochemistry in time and space, yet little is known about how cells control either the position or scale of these assemblies. In cells, condensates often appear as dispersed, relatively small assemblies that do not grow (coarsen) into a single droplet despite their propensity to coalesce. Here we report that ribonucleoprotein condensates of the Q-rich protein Whi3 interact with the endoplasmic reticulum, prompting us to hypothesize that membrane association controls the position and size of condensates. Reconstitution of Whi3 condensates on supported lipid bilayers reveals that association with a diffusive lipid surface promotes condensation at both physiological ionic strength and protein concentration. Notably, these assemblies rapidly arrest, matching size distributions seen in cells. The timing of the arrest is influenced by the ordering of protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions and controlled by the slow diffusion of complexes induced by the membrane. This slowed diffusion limits both transfer of small protein-RNA complexes between condensates and their coalescence, thus driving coarsening to arrest. Our experiments reveal a tradeoff between locally-enhanced protein concentration at membranes, which favors condensation, and an accompanying reduction in diffusion, which restricts coarsening. Thus, membranes can maintain a population of small condensates in the absence of active mechanisms. Given that many condensates are bound to endomembranes, we predict that the biophysical properties of lipid bilayers are key for controlling condensate sizes throughout the cell. One sentence summaryAssembly on a membrane surface positions and scales biomolecular condensates by controlling relative diffusion rates of proteins and nucleic acids.

biophysics↗

An interpretable meta-clustering framework for single-cell RNA-Seq data integration and evaluation

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) datasets that are produced from clinical samples are often confounded by batch effects and inter-patient variability. Existing batch effect removal methods typically require strong assumptions on the composition of cell populations being near identical across patients. Here we present a novel meta-clustering workflow, CIDER, based on inter-group similarity measures. We demonstrate that CIDER outperforms other scRNA-Seq clustering methods and integration approaches in both simulated and real datasets. Moreover, we show that CIDER can be used to assess the biological correctness of integration in real datasets, while it does not require the existence of prior cellular annotations.

bioinformatics↗

Case study of a rhizosphere microbiome assay on a bamboo rhizome with excessive shoots

Young Moso bamboo shoots are a very popular seasonal food. Bamboo is an important source of income for farmers and the value for cultivation has recently been estimated to $30,000 per hectare. A rare and valuable phenomenon has recently appeared where dozens of adjacent buds within a single Moso bamboo rhizome have grown into shoots. Due to its rarity, this phenomenon, which is of practical importance for the production of edible shoots, has not been scientifically studied. We report the occurrence of a rhizome with 18 shoots, of which the microbiome were analyzed, using rhizomes having one or no shoots as controls. The community of prokaryotes, but not fungi, correlated with the shoot numbers. Burkholderia was the most abundant genus, which negatively correlated with rhizome shoot number, while Clostridia and Ktedonobacteria positively correlated with many shoots. Two Burkholderia strains were isolated and their plant-growth promoting activity was tested. The isolated Burkholderia strains attenuated the growth of bamboo seedlings. Analysis of collected events of enhanced shoot production in China showed no evidence that enhanced shoot development was heritable. Overall, our data provides a firsthand study on excessive shoot development of bamboo.

plant biology↗

Metapopulation Structure of Diatom-associated Marine Bacteria

Marine bacteria-phytoplankton interaction ultimately shapes ecosystem productivity. The biochemical mechanisms underlying their interactions become increasingly known, yet how these ubiquitous interactions drive bacterial evolution has not been illustrated. Here, we sequenced genomes of 294 bacterial isolates associated with 19 coexisting diatom cells. These bacteria constitute eight genetically monomorphic populations of the globally abundant Roseobacter group. Six of these populations are members of Sulfitobacter, arguably the most prevalent bacteria associated with marine diatoms. A key finding is that populations varying at the intra-specific level have been differentiated and each are either associated with a single diatom host or with multiple hosts not overlapping with those of other populations. These closely related populations further show functional differentiation; they differ in motility phenotype and they harbor distinct types of secretion systems with implication for mediating organismal interactions. This interesting host-dependent population structure is even evident for demes within a genetically monomorphic population but each associated with a distinct diatom cell, as shown by a greater similarity in genome content between isolates from the same host compared to those from different hosts. Importantly, the intra- and inter-population differentiation pattern remains when the analyses are restricted to isolates from intra-specific diatom hosts, ruling out distinct selective pressures and instead suggesting coexisting microalgal cells as physical barriers of bacterial gene flow. Taken together, microalgae-associated bacteria display a unique microscale metapopulation structure, which consists of numerous small populations whose evolution is driven by random genetic drift.

microbiology↗

A topological approach to DNA similarity analysis from 5-dimensional representation

In this paper, we propose another topological approach for DNA similarity analysis. For each DNA sequence, we transform it into a collection of vectors in 5-dimensional space in which all nucleotides of the same type, say A, C, G, T are on the same line in this 5D space. Based on this special geometric property, we combine this representation with tools in persistent homology to obtain only zeroth persistence diagrams as a topological representation of DNA sequences. Similarities between DNA sequences are signified via how close the representing zeroth persistence diagrams of the DNA sequences are, based on the Wasserstein distance of order zero, which provides a new method for analyzing similarities between DNA sequences. We test our methods on the datasets of Human rhinovirus (HRV) and Influenza A virus.

genomics↗

Tankyrase-mediated ADP-ribosylation is a novel regulator of TNF-induced death

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is an inflammatory cytokine that, upon binding to its receptor TNFR1, can drive cytokine production, cell survival, or cell death and is a major component of an organisms anti-pathogen repetoire1,2. TNF stimulation leads to the formation of two distinct signalling complexes, a well-defined membrane bound complex (complex 1), and a less well characterised cytosolic death inducing complex (complex 2). Using mass spectrometry, we identified the ADP-ribosyltransferase, tankyrase-1 (TNKS1/TNKS/ARTD5/PARP5a) as a novel native complex 2 component. Following a TNF-induced death stimulus TNKS1 is recruited to complex 2, resulting in complex 2 poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation (PARylation). Tankyrase inhibitors sensitise cells to TNF-induced death, which is correlated with increased complex 2 assembly. Tankyrase-mediated PARylation promotes recruitment of the E3 ligase RNF146 and RNF146 deficiency or proteasome inhibition results in increased levels of complex 2, suggesting that RNF146 causes proteasomal degradation of complex 2. Several viruses express ADP-ribose binding macrodomain proteins, and expression of the SARS-CoV-2 or VEEV macrodomain markedly sensitises cells to TNF-induced death. This suggests that ADP-ribosylation serves as yet another mechanism to detect pathogenic interference of TNF signalling and retaliate with an inflammatory cell death.

cell biology↗

Male pheromones modulate synaptic transmission at the C. elegans neuromuscular junction in a sexually dimorphic manner

The development of functional synapses in the nervous system is important for animal physiology and behaviors. The synaptic transmission efficacy can be modulated by the environment to accommodate external changes, which is crucial for animal reproduction and survival. However, the underlying plasticity of synaptic transmission remains poorly understood. Here we show that in C. elegans, the male pheromone increases the hermaphrodite cholinergic transmission at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), which alters hermaphrodites locomotion velocity and mating efficiency in a developmental stage-dependent manner. Dissection of the sensory circuits reveals that the AWB chemosensory neurons sense those male pheromones and further transduce the information to NMJ using cGMP signaling. Exposure of hermaphrodites to male pheromones specifically increases the accumulation of presynaptic CaV2 calcium channels and clustering of postsynaptic receptors at cholinergic synapses of NMJ, which potentiates cholinergic synaptic transmission. Thus, our study demonstrates a circuit mechanism for synaptic modulation by sexual dimorphic pheromones.

neuroscience↗

Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 VOC 501Y.V2 by human antisera elicited by both inactivated BBIBP-CorV and recombinant dimeric RBD ZF2001 vaccines

Recently, the emerged and rapidly spreading SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (VOC) 501Y.V2 with 10 amino acids in spike protein were found to escape host immunity induced by infection or vaccination. Global concerns have been raised for its potential to affect vaccine efficacy. Here, we evaluated the neutralization activities of two vaccines developed in China against 501Y.V2. One is licensed inactivated vaccine BBIBP-CorV and the other one is recombinant dimeric receptor-binding domain (RBD) vaccine ZF2001. Encouragingly, both vaccines largely preserved neutralizing titres, with slightly reduction, against 501Y.V2 authentic virus compare to their titres against both original SARS-CoV-2 and the currently circulating D614G virus. These data indicated that 501Y.V2 variant will not escape the immunity induced by vaccines targeting whole virus or RBD.

microbiology↗