Biology subjects

Joseph, D. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Joseph, D. M..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Sociality Drives Sex Differences in Auditory Brainstem Processing Across Rodent Species

Although social behavior has been predicted to correlate with increased complexity in vocal signals, its relationship with auditory sensitivity between the sexes remains poorly understood. Here, we used phylogenetic comparative analyses to examine sex-specific differences in auditory processing across rodent species representing different social lifestyle strategies. We detected significant sex differences in click and frequency evoked auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds across sociality, with social female rodents exhibiting lower thresholds than solitary males. Males generally exhibited higher ABR wave I and IV amplitude ratios than females, whereas interpeak latencies were similar between the sexes across social groups. Females exhibited significantly higher binaural interaction component (BIC) relative amplitudes and faster BIC normalized latencies than males across tested interaural time differences (ITDs). Together, these findings demonstrate that sociality plays an important role in shaping differences in auditory physiology between male and female rodents and highlights the potential influence of social behavior on the evolution of mammalian auditory systems.

physiology↗

bioRxiv2025

Differences in Auditory Brainstem Responses between Laboratory-reared and Wild-caught Prairie Voles (Microtus ochrogaster)

Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) are a semi-fossorial rodent that are an emerging model in social neuroscience. Comparing laboratory-reared and wild-caught individuals is essential for understanding how environmental history shapes neural and sensory traits and for assessing the ecological validity of laboratory findings. Despite this, relatively few studies have taken this approach. We used auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) to compare ABR thresholds and ABR wave characteristics between laboratory-reared and wild-caught prairie voles. ABR recordings show that, similar to other semi-fossorial rodents, M. ochrogaster exhibit a hearing range of 1 - 46 kHz with peak sensitivity around 8 to 32 kHz. However, wild-caught prairie voles displayed significantly lower ABR thresholds at 1, 4, 8, 16, and 24 kHz compared to laboratory-reared prairie voles. There were significant differences in interpeak latency between both tested groups, with laboratory-reared prairie voles showing faster interpeak latency responses than wild-caught voles. However, there were no differences in amplitude ratios between groups. Laboratory-reared prairie voles showed faster normalized latencies and higher relative amplitude of the binaural interaction component (BIC) of the ABR than wild-caught voles. There were no significant differences in ABR thresholds, interpeak latency, amplitude ratio, normalized latency, and relative amplitude between the sexes. These differences in auditory processing support the importance of integrating both wild and captive populations to advance comparative auditory research. SUMMARY STATEMENTWild and laboratory-reared prairie voles show distinct auditory processing, highlighting how environment history shapes hearing and underscoring the need for comparative studies.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Glycan Atlassing: Nanoscale analysis of glycocalyx architecture enables functional tracing of cell state

The glycocalyx is a complex layer of glycosylated biomolecules surrounding all cells in the human body. It is involved in the regulation of critical cellular processes such as immune response modulation, cell adhesion, and host-pathogen interactions. Despite these insights, the functional relationship between glycocalyx architecture and cellular state has remained elusive so far, mainly attributable to the structural diversity of glycocalyx constituents and their nanoscale organization. Here, we show that DNA-tagged lectin labeling and metabolic oligosaccharide engineering enables multiplexed super-resolution microscopy of glycocalyx constituents, yielding an atlas of glycocalyx architecture with nanometer resolution. Quantitative analysis of the obtained nanoscale map of glycocalyx constituents facilitates the extraction of characteristic spatial relationships that accurately report on cellular state. We demonstrate the capacity of our approach, which we term Glycan Atlassing, across cell and tissue types, ranging from cultured cell lines to primary immune cells, neurons, and primary patient tissue. Glycan Atlassing establishes a powerful strategy for investigating glycocalyx remodeling in development and disease, potentially enabling the development of new glycocalyx-centered targets in diagnosis and therapy.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2024

Sex Differences in Auditory Brainstem Responses in the Hispid Pocket Mouse (Chaetodipus hispidus)

The hispid pocket mouse (C. hispidus) is a solitary semi-fossorial rodent that has been the subject of various ecological and genetic studies. However, no previous studies have characterized its hearing ability, which is important for its survival and fitness. We collected auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) from C. hispidus and measured craniofacial and pinna morphological features to assess hearing ability and test differences in hearing thresholds, monaural and binaural ABR amplitudes and latencies between the sexes. ABR recordings revealed that similar to other small mammals, C. hispidus displayed the lowest threshold to sounds between 8-16 kHz, indicating best hearing across those frequencies. We found significant differences in auditory thresholds of the ABRs between the sexes, with females showing lower frequency hearing compared to males. However, no significant differences were detected in monaural and binaural ABR amplitudes and latencies between the sexes. We also found no significant differences in craniofacial and pinna dimensions between the sexes. These findings shed novel insights into the auditory systems across species and highlighted for the first time sex differences in auditory thresholds for this rodent species.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Hearing in Two Closely Related Peromyscus Species (Peromyscus maniculatus and P. leucopus)

The genus Peromyscus has been extensively used as a model for ecological, behavioral, and evolutionary studies. We used auditory brainstem responses (ABRs), craniofacial morphology, and pinna measurements to compare characteristics that could impact the threshold, amplitude, and latency of ABRs in two wild-caught species, P. leucopus and P. maniculatus. We observed significant differences in craniofacial and pinna attributes between species, with P. leucopus exhibiting larger features and bigger overall size compared to P. maniculatus. ABR recordings showed similar hearing thresholds with peak sensitivity between 8 to 46 kHz for both species. We found that amplitude of ABR wave I and IV increased significantly with increasing intensity, while no main effect of species was detected. Latency of wave I and IV significantly decreased with increasing intensity in both species. Finally, we observed longer latencies of the binaural interaction component (BIC) at longer interaural time differences (ITDs) in P. leucopus, while no differences were observed across relative BIC amplitude between species. These results provide additional ABR related data that expands the use of both Peromyscus species as future models for auditory research.

neuroscience↗