Biology subjects

Matte, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Matte, A..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

High-throughput phenomics of global ant biodiversity

The big data era in biology is underway, but the study of organismal form has been slow to capitalize on advances in imaging and computation. Modern imaging can digitize whole organisms, but low throughput has limited the effort to document morphological diversity. Within the open science initiative Antscan, we applied high-throughput synchrotron X-ray microtomography to capture phenotypes across a diverse and ecologically dominant insect group -- ants. We provide 2193 whole-body 3D ant datasets from 792 species to broadly cover the ant phylogeny with a global scope, also pairing phenomic data with genome sequencing projects. Scans acquired with standardized parameters facilitate automated analysis and free access to data can broaden the audience and incentivize methods development. Antscan presents a scalable approach to create libraries of diverse anatomies, heralding a new era of studies on the evolution, structure, and function of organismal phenotypes.

zoology↗

bioRxiv2025

The origins and molecular evolution of sperm

Sperm is a nearly universal cell type among animals, yet its evolutionary origins remain unclear. Using comparative proteomics and phylogenomics across 32 species, we reconstruct the 700+ million year evolutionary history of sperm to define the Last Universal Common Sperm (LUCS), a conserved core of 301 gene families enriched in motility and energy metabolism. We found that most of the LUCS toolkit was developed in filozoan unicellular ancestors approximately 400 Ma before animals, revealing sperm as a reconfigured legacy from our unicellular past rather than an invention of multicellularity. Sperm shows a within-cell evolutionary gradient, both spatial and temporal, where ancient proteins dominate the tail, while younger innovations concentrate in the head. The oldest sperm components are disproportionately associated with human infertility, establishing an empirical bridge between evolutionary depth and clinical relevance. Together, our findings reveal how evolutionary history is inscribed within a single cell and can guide clinical insights.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Ruling the unruly: Larval passiveness enabled size inequality between ant queens and workers

Building differences between genetically equivalent units is a fundamental challenge for every (super)organism with reproductive division of labor. In ants, reproductive or worker fate is typically determined during the larval stage. However, the methods by which adults feed their larvae, thus controlling their development, vary widely across ant species. Similarly, the body size gap between queen and worker is highly heterogeneous, ranging from species with similar-sized individuals to species with queens over 300 times larger than their smallest workers. To investigate the role of alloparental feeding control in caste dimorphism and the evolution of social complexity, we assembled data for queen:worker dimorphism, alloparental care, and larval morphology for a phylogenetically comprehensive sample of several hundred species, along with ecological and life-history traits. Using comparative phylogenetic methods, we analyzed the macroevolution of ant larvae and queen:worker dimorphism on a large scale. Our findings indicate that both extended alloparental feeding care and dimorphism are associated with the evolution of passive larval morphologies. Furthermore, greater queen:worker dimorphism co-evolved with several traits indicative of social complexity, including larger colony sizes, distinct worker subcastes, and the loss of full reproductive potential in workers. In sum, change in larval feeding habits were promoted by dietary shifts from prey to foods necessitating individualized distribution. These innovations granted adults greater capacity to manipulate larval nutrition, and consequently, caste size inequality, with significant implications for social complexity. Significance statementAnts are among the rare organisms to have extended reproductive division labor beyond the cells of a multicellular organism. However, the degree of specialization between reproductive and worker castes varies considerably between ant lineages. In this study, we demonstrate that strong caste dimorphism in ants co-evolved with complex eusociality traits, and this strong caste dimorphism was achieved by asserting adult control over larvae development. We conclude that this enhanced control over larval caste fate was a critical junction in the major evolutionary transition of ants toward caste specialization. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=125 SRC="FIGDIR/small/519655v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (21K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@9347dborg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1528464org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@71c2f0org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@b52a2d_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Identification and characterization of human CD34+ and CD34dim/- neutrophil committed progenitors

We report the identification of human CD66b-CD64dimCD115- neutrophil-committed progenitors within SSClowCD45dimCD34+ and CD34dim/- bone marrow cells, that we named neutrophil myeloblast (NMs). CD34+ and CD34dim/-NMs resulted as either CD45RA+ or CD45RA-, with CD34+CD45RA-NMs found as selectively expanded in chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia patients. By scRNA-seq experiments, CD34+ and CD34dim/-NMs were found to consist of combinations of four cell clusters, characterized by different maturation stages and distributed along two differentiation routes. Cell clusters were identified by neutrophil-specific gene profiles, one of them associated to an interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) signature, hence supporting recently identified expansions of mature neutrophil subsets expressing ISGs in blood of diseased individuals. Altogether, our data shed light on the very early phases of neutrophil ontogeny.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2018

Fyn Is Involved In Erythropoietin Signaling Pathway And Interfaces Oxidation To Regulate Erythropoiesis

Erythropoiesis is a complex multistep process responsible of the production of circulating mature erythrocytes and involved the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during erythroid differentiation. Here, we document that Fyn, a Src-family-kinase, participates in erythropoietin (EPO) signaling pathway, by the reducing extent of Tyr-phosphorylation of EPO-R and by decreasing STAT5 activity. The importance of Fyn in EPO cascade is also supported by the increased sensitivity of Fyn-/- mice to stress erythropoiesis. Fyn -/- mouse erythroblasts adapt to the induced stress by the activation of the redox-related-transcription-factor Nrf2. However, the absence of the Nrf2 physiologic repressor Fyn resulted in the persistent activation of Nrf2 and accumulation of non-functional proteins. This is paralleled by ROS induced over-activation of Jak2-Akt-mTOR pathway and repression of autophagy and perturbation of lysosomal-clearance during Fyn -/- reticulocyte maturation. Treatment with Rapamycin, a mTOR inhibitor and autophagy activator, ameliorates Fyn-/- mouse baseline erythropoiesis and restored the erythropoietic response to phenylhydrazine. Taken together these findings have enabled to identify the novel multimodal action of Fyn in the developmental program of erythropoiesis.

cell biology↗