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Biology subjects

van Schaik, B.

Publications and source records attributed to van Schaik, B..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

AbSolution: interactive exploration of sequence-derived features in AIRR-seq repertoires

High-throughput sequencing of B-cell and T-cell immune receptor repertoires provides unprecedented insight into adaptive immune responses. The data produced are structured by clonal relationships and somatic mutation signatures, and yield extremely rich information in sequence-derived features, including physicochemical properties and compositional patterns. However, integrated analysis across datasets, conditions, and time points remains challenging. Current analytical tools typically focus only on certain features within individual repertoires, without enabling integrated, multivariable comparisons across datasets, conditions, and time points to address their diversity and variability. Here we present AbSolution, a user-friendly and flexible interactive application for comprehensive exploration of immune repertoires and their sequence-based properties. AbSolution enables multiscale analysis of thousands of sequence-derived features across receptor regions, while accounting for V(D)J usage, clonal composition and experimental groupings. We demonstrate its utility by identifying distinct sequence-based profiles associated with dominant (highly abundant) and non-dominant B-cell clones in peripheral blood BCR repertoires from patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, and with antigen-responsive T-cell populations over time in a longitudinal in vitro antigen-stimulation dataset. Through interactive, interlinked visualizations, statistical feature selection and multi-sample comparisons, AbSolution facilitates integrated feature profiling that supports the interpretation of immune selection processes and enables systematic analysis of complex repertoire datasets.

bioinformatics↗

Temperature-modulated maternal effects vary with offspring developmental stage in Drosophila melanogaster

An organisms phenotype has the potential to vary in response to environmental factors, allowing it to adjust to environmental fluctuations. Maternal effects on offspring phenotypes have been recognized as important contributors to this phenotypic plasticity, although the extent and duration of this contribution remain elusive. At more advanced developmental stages, offspring may be able to assess their current environment more accurately than at earlier developmental stages, and therefore their reliance on maternal effects may decline over time. This study investigates how the magnitude and direction of maternal effects change between early and late development using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model. We employed a split brood design to disentangle the effects of maternal ambient temperature from the effects of offspring ambient temperature at the larval vs. the pupal or early adulthood stage. We subsequently measured offspring phenotypes such as heat shock and cold shock recovery times, survival, and developmental time. Maternal effects on these traits were often substantial during early offspring development, but these effects either diminished in magnitude or even changed direction as development progressed. In conclusion, our study reveals a dynamic shift in the magnitude and direction of maternal effects on offspring phenotypes in D. melanogaster, highlighting the interplay between maternal influence and offspring developmental stage in shaping adaptive responses to environmental variation.

ecology↗