bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the Combined Effect of rs699 and rs5051 on Angiotensinogen Expression and Hypertension
Authors: Powell Nicholas R. , Shugg Tyler , Leighty Jacob , Martin Matthew , Kreutz Rolf P. , Eadon Michael T. , Lai Dongbing , Lu Tao , Skaar Todd C. 
Published: April 2023

ABSTRACTHypertension (HTN) involves genetic variability in the renin-angiotensin system and characterizing this variability will help advance precision antihypertensive treatments. We previously reported that angiotensinogen (AGT) mRNA is endogenously bound by mir-122-5p and that rs699 A>G significantly decreases reporter mRNA in the functional mirSNP assay PASSPORT-seq. TheAGTpromoter variant rs5051 C>T is in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with rs699 A>G and increasesAGTtranscription. We hypothesized that the increasedAGTby rs5051 C>T counterbalancesAGTdecrease by rs699 A>G, and when these variants occur independently, would translate to HTN-related phenotypes. The independent effect of each of these variants is understudied due to their LD, therefore, we usedin silico, in vitro, in vivo, and retrospective clinical and biobank analyses to assess HTN andAGTexpression phenotypes where rs699 A>G occurs independently from rs5051 C>T.In silico, rs699 A>G is predicted to increase mir-122-5p binding strength by 3%. Mir-eCLIP assay results show that rs699 is 40-45 nucleotides from the strongest microRNA binding site in theAGTmRNA. Unexpectedly, rs699 A>G increasesAGTmRNA in a plasmid cDNA HepG2 expression model. GTEx and UK Biobank analyses demonstrate that liverAGTexpression and HTN phenotypes were not different when rs699 A>G occurs independently from rs5051 C>T, allowing us to reject the original hypothesis. However, both GTEx and ourin vitroexperiments suggest rs699 A>G confers cell-type specific effects onAGTmRNA abundance. We found that rs5051 C>T and rs699 A>G significantly associate with systolic blood pressure in Black participants in the UK Biobank, demonstrating a 4-fold larger effect than in White participants. Further studies are warranted to determine if the altered antihypertensive response in Black individuals might be due to rs5051 C>T or rs699 A>G. Studies like this will help clinicians move beyond the use of race as a surrogate for genotype.
Lustro: High-throughput optogenetic experiments enabled by automation and a yeast optogenetic toolkit
Authors: Harmer Zachary P , McClean Megan N 
Published: April 2023

AbstractOptogenetic systems use genetically-encoded light-sensitive proteins to control cellular processes. This provides the potential to orthogonally control cells with light, however these systems require many design-build-test cycles to achieve a functional design and multiple illumination variables need to be laboriously tuned for optimal stimulation. We combine laboratory automation and a modular cloning scheme to enable high-throughput construction and characterization of optogenetic split transcription factors inSaccharomyces cerevisiae. We expand the yeast optogenetic toolkit to include variants of the cryptochromes and Enhanced Magnets, incorporate these light-sensitive dimerizers into split transcription factors, and automate illumination and measurement of cultures in a 96-well microplate format for high-throughput characterization. We use this approach to rationally design and test an optimized Enhanced Magnet transcription factor with improved light-sensitive gene expression. This approach is generalizable to high-throughput characterization of optogenetic systems across a range of biological systems and applications.
Targeted RNA Condensation in Living Cells via Genetically Encodable Triplet Repeat Tags
Authors: Xue Zhaolin , Ren Kewei , Wu Rigumula , Sun Zhining , Zheng Ru , Tian Qian , Ali Ahsan Ausaf , Mi Lan , You Mingxu 
Published: April 2023

AbstractLiving systems contain various functional membraneless organelles that can segregate selective proteins and RNAs via liquid–liquid phase separation. Inspired by nature, many synthetic compartments have been engineered in vitro and in living cells, mostly focused on protein-scaffolded systems. Herein, we introduce a nature-inspired genetically encoded RNA tag to program cellular condensate formations and recruit non-phase-transition target RNAs to achieve functional modulation. In our system, different lengths of CAG-repeat tags were tested as the self-assembled scaffold to drive multivalent condensate formation. Various selective target messenger RNAs and noncoding RNAs can be compartmentalized into these condensates. With the help of fluorogenic RNA aptamers, we have systematically studied the formation dynamics, spatial distributions, sizes, and densities of these cellular RNA condensates. The regulation functions of these CAG-repeat tags on the cellular RNA localization, lifetime, RNA–protein interactions, and gene expression have also been investigated. Considering the importance of RNA condensation in both health and disease conditions, these genetically encodable modular and self-assembled tags can be potentially widely used for chemical biology and synthetic biology studies.
Robust Removal of Slow Artifactual Dynamics Induced by Deep Brain Stimulation in Local Field Potential Recordings using SVD-based Adaptive Filtering
Authors: Bahador Nooshin , Saha Josh , Rezaei Mohammad R. , Saha Utpal , Ghahremani Ayda , Chen Robert , Lankarany Milad 
Published: April 2023

AbstractDeep brain stimulation (DBS) is widely used as a treatment option for patients with movement disorders. In addition to its clinical impact, DBS has been utilized in the field of cognitive neuroscience wherein the answers to several fundamental questions underpinning the mechanisms of neuromodulation in decision making rely on how a burst of DBS pulses, usually delivered at clinical frequency, i.e., 130 Hz, perturb participants’ choices. It was observed that neural activities recorded during DBS were contaminated with stereotype large artifacts, which lasts for a few milliseconds, as well as a low-frequency (slow) signal (∼1-2 Hz) that can persist for hundreds of milliseconds. While the focus of the most of methods for removing DBS artifact was on the former, the artifact removal of the slow signal has not been addressed. In this work, we propose a new method based on combining singular value decomposition (SVD) and normalized adaptive filtering to remove both large (fast) and slow artifacts in local field potentials recorded during a cognitive task in which bursts of DBS were utilized. Using synthetic data, we show that our proposed algorithm outperforms four commonly used techniques in the literature, namely, (1) Normalized least mean square adaptive filtering, (2) Optimal FIR Wiener filtering, (3) Gaussian model matching, and (4) Moving average. The algorithm’s capabilities are further demonstrated by its ability to effectively remove DBS artifacts in local field potentials recorded from the subthalamic nucleus during a verbal Stroop task, highlighting its utility in real-world applications.
Resolving the temporal splenic proteome during fungal infection for discovery of putative dual perspective biomarker signatures
Authors: Muselius Benjamin , Roux-Dalvai Florence , Droit Arnaud , Geddes-McAlister Jennifer 
Published: April 2023

AbstractFungal pathogens are emerging threats to global health with the rise of incidence associated with climate change and increased geographical distribution; factors also influencing host susceptibility to infection. Accurate detection and diagnosis of fungal infections is paramount to offer rapid and effective therapeutic options. For improved diagnostics, the discovery and development of protein biomarkers presents a promising avenue; however, this approach requires aprioriknowledge of infection hallmarks. To uncover putative novel biomarkers of disease, profiling of the host immune response and pathogen virulence factor production is indispensable. In this study, we use mass spectrometry-based proteomics to resolve the temporal proteome ofCryptococcus neoformansinfection of the spleen following a murine model of infection. Dual perspective proteome profiling defines global remodeling of the host over a time course of infection, confirming activation of immune associated proteins in response to fungal invasion. Conversely, pathogen proteomes detect well-characterizedC. neoformansvirulence determinants, along with novel mapped patterns of pathogenesis during the progression of disease. Together, our innovative systematic approach confirms immune protection against fungal pathogens and explores the discovery of putative biomarker signatures from complementary biological systems to monitor the presence and progression of cryptococcal disease.
Bioorthogonal photocatalytic quinone methide decaging for cell-cell interaction labeling
Authors: Zhang Yan , Liu Shibo , Guo Fuhu , Qin Shan , Zhou Nan , Fan Xinyuan , Chen Peng R. 
Published: April 2023

AbstractCell-cell interactions (CCIs) play crucial roles in directing diverse biological processes in multicellular organisms, making the high-sensitivity and selectivity characterization of the diverse CCIs in high demand yet still challenging. We herein introduced a bioorthogonal photocatalytic quinone methide decaging-enabled cell-cell interaction labeling strategy (CAT-Cell) for sensitive and spatiotemporally resolved profiling of multitype CCIs. By adapting an optimized quinone methide probe for interacting cell labeling, we demonstrated the excellent capacity of CAT-Cell for capturing CCIs directed by various receptor-ligand pairs (e.g., CD40-CD40L, TCR-pMHC) and further showed its compatibility with tumor-specific targeting systems. Finally, we used CAT-Cell to detect cytotoxic cells (e.g., antigenspecific T cells, Natural Killer cells) in mouse models containing splenocyte mixtures and tumor samples. By leveraging the bioorthogonal photocatalytic decaging chemistry, CAT-Cell offers as a nongenetic, non-invasive and universal toolbox for profiling diverse CCIs under physiological-relevant settings.
Exploiting rodent cell blocks for intrinsic resistance to HIV-1 gene expression in human T cells
Authors: Behrens Ryan T. , Rajashekar Jyothi Krishnaswamy , Bruce James W. , Evans Edward L. , Hansen Amelia M. , Salazar-Quiroz Natalia , Simons Lacy M. , Ahlquist Paul , Hultquist Judd F. , Kumar Priti , Sherer Nathan M. 
Published: April 2023

AbstractHIV-1 virion production is inefficient in cells derived from mice and other rodents reflecting cell-intrinsic defects to interactions between the HIV-1 auxiliary proteins Tat and Rev and host dependency factors CCNT1 (Cyclin T1) and XPO1 (Exportin-1, also known as CRM1), respectively. In human cells, Tat binds CCNT1 to enhance viral RNA transcription and Rev recruits XPO1 to mediate the nuclear export of intron-containing viral RNA. In mouse cells, Tat’s interactions with CCNT1 are inefficient, mapped to a single species-specific residue Y261 instead of C261 in human. Rev interacts poorly with murine XPO1, mapped to a trio of amino acids T411/V412/S414 instead of P411/M412/F414 in humans. To determine if these discrete species-specific regions of otherwise conserved housekeeping proteins represent viable targets for inhibiting Tat and Rev function in humans, herein we recoded (“mousified”) each in human CD4+ T cells using precision CRISPR/Cas9-facilitated gene editing. Both edits yielded cells refractory to Rev or Tat activity, respectively, with isolated, isogenic CCNT1.C261Y cell lines remarkable in their capacity to exhibit near total inactivation of viral gene expression for all X4 and R5-tropic HIV-1 strains tested, and even the more distantly related lentiviruses including HIV-2 and SIVagm. These studies validate minor and naturally-occurring, species-specific differences in otherwise conserved human host factors as compelling targets for achieving broad-acting cell-intrinsic resistance to HIV’s post-integration phases.ImportanceUnlike humans, mice are unable to support HIV-1 infection. This is due, in part, to a constellation of defined minor, species-specific differences in conserved host proteins needed for viral gene expression. Here, we used precision CRISPR/Cas9 editing to engineer “mousified” versions of two of these proteins, CCNT1 and XPO1, in human T cells. CCNT1 and XPO1 are essential for efficient HIV-1 transcription and viral RNA transport, respectively, making them intriguing targets for gene-based inactivation of virus replication. Targeting either gene yielded antiviral phenotypes, with isogenic CCNT1-modified cell lines confirmed to exhibit potent, durable, and broad-spectrum resistance to HIV-1 and other pathogenic lentiviruses, and with no discernible impact on host cells. These results provide proof of concept for targeting CCNT1 (and potentially XPO1) in the context of one or more functional HIV-1 cure strategies.
A coarse-grained bacterial cell model for resource-aware analysis and design of synthetic gene circuits
Authors: Sechkar Kirill , Perrino Giansimone , Stan Guy-Bart 
Published: April 2023

AbstractSynthetic genes compete among themselves and with the host cell’s genes for expression machinery, exhibiting resource couplings that affect the dynamics of cellular processes. The modeling of such couplings can be facilitated by simplifying the kinetics of resource-substrate binding. Model-guided design allows to counter unwanted indirect interactions by using biomolecular controllers or tuning the biocircuit’s parameters. However, resource-aware biocircuit design in bacteria is complicated by the interdependence of resource availability and cell growth rate, which significantly affects biocircuit performance. This phenomenon can be captured by coarse-grained models of the whole bacterial cell. The level of detail in these models must balance accurate representation of metabolic regulation against model simplicity and interpretability.We propose a coarse-grainedE. colicell model that combines the ease of simplified resource coupling analysis with the appreciation of bacterial growth regulation mechanisms. Reliably capturing known growth phenomena, it enables numerical prototyping of biocircuits and derivation of analytical relations which can guide the design process. By reproducing several distinct empirical laws observed in prior studies, our model provides a unifying framework for previously disjoint experimental observations. Finally, we propose a novel biomolecular controller that achieves near-perfect adaptation of cell-wide ribosome availability to changes in synthetic gene expression. Showcasing our model’s usefulness, we use it to determine the controller’s setpoint and operation range from its constituent genes’ parameters.
scART: recognizing cell clusters and constructing trajectory from single-cell epigenomic data
Authors: Guo Jingxin , Li Jingyu , Huang Fei , Chen Jiadong , Shen Li 
Published: April 2023

SUMMARYThe development of single-cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing data (scATAC-seq) has allowed the characterization of epigenetic heterogeneity at single-cell resolution. However, the sparse and noisy nature of scATAC-seq data poses unique computational challenges. To address this, we introduce scART, a novel bioinformatics tool specifically designed for scATAC-seq data analysis. scART utilizes analytical methods highly stable for processing sparse and noisy data, such as k-nearest neighbor (KNN) imputation, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) weighting scheme, and the cosine similarity metric to identify underlying cellular heterogeneity in scATAC-seq data. It accurately and robustly identifies cell identities, particularly in data with low sequencing depth, and constructs the trajectory of cellular states. As a demonstration of its utility, scART successfully reconstructed the development trajectory of the embryonic mouse forebrain and uncovered the dynamics of layer-specific neurogenesis. scART is available at GitHub.
Archaeal self-activating GPN-loop GTPases involve a lock-switch-rock mechanism for GTP hydrolysis
Authors: Korf Lukas , Ye Xing , Vogt Marian S. , Steinchen Wieland , Watad Mohamed , Tourte Maxime , Sivabalasarma Shamphavi , Albers Sonja-Verena , Essen Lars-Oliver 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThree GPN-loop GTPases, GPN1-GPN3, are central to the maturation and trafficking of eukaryotic RNA polymerase II. This GTPase family is widely represented in archaea but typically occurs as single paralogs. Structural analysis of the GTP- and GDP-bound states of theSulfolobus acidocaldariusGPN enzyme (SaGPN) showed that this central GPN-loop GTPase adopts two distinct quaternary structures. In the GTP-bound form the γ-phosphate induces a tensed dimeric arrangement by interacting with the GPN region that is relaxed upon hydrolysis to GDP. Consequently, a rocking-like motion of the two protomers causes a major allosteric structural change towards the roof-like helices. Using a lock-switch-rock (LSR) mechanism, homo- and heterodimeric GPN-like GTPases are locked in the GTP-bound state and undergo large conformational changes upon GTP hydrolysis. AΔsaGPNstrain ofS. acidocaldariuswas characterized by impaired motility and major changes in the proteome underscoring its functional relevance forS. acidocaldarius in vivo.Significance StatementGPN-loop GTPases have been found to be crucial for eukaryotic RNA polymerase II assembly and nuclear trafficking. Despite their ubiquitous occurrence in eukaryotes and archaea the mechanism by which these self-activating GTPases mediate their function is unknown. Our study on an archaeal representative fromSulfolobus acidocaldariusshowed that these dimeric GTPases undergo large-scale conformational changes upon GTP hydrolysis, which can be summarized as a lock-switch-rock mechanism. The observed requirement ofSaGPN for motility appears to be due to its large footprint on the archaeal proteome.
Evolutionary druggability: leveraging low-dimensional fitness landscapes towards new metrics for antimicrobial applications
Authors: Guerrero Rafael F. , Dorji Tandin , Harris Ra’Mal M. , Shoulders Matthew D. , Ogbunugafor C. Brandon 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThe term “druggability” describes the molecular properties of drugs or targets in pharmacological interventions and is commonly used in work involving drug development for clinical applications. There are no current analogues for this notion that quantify the drug-target interaction with respect to a given target variant’s sensitivity across a breadth of drugs in a panel, or a given drug’s range of effectiveness across alleles of a target protein. Using data from low-dimensional empirical fitness landscapes composed of 16β-lactamase alleles and sevenβ-lactam drugs, we introduce two metrics that capture (i) the average susceptibility of an allelic variant of a drug target to any available drug in a given panel (“variant vulnerability”), and (ii) the average applicability of a drug (or mixture) across allelic variants of a drug target (“drug applicability”). Finally, we (iii) disentangle the quality and magnitude of interactions between loci in the drug target and the seven drug environments in terms of their mutation by mutation by environment (G x G x E) interactions, offering mechanistic insight into the variant variability and drug applicability metrics. Summarizing, we propose that our framework can be applied to other datasets and pathogen-drug systems to understand which pathogen variants in a clinical setting are the most concerning (low variant vulnerability), and which drugs in a panel are most likely to be effective in an infection defined by standing genetic variation in the pathogen drug target (high drug applicability).
Dose-dependent progression of multiple low dose streptozotocin-induced diabetes in mice
Authors: Bauer Brandon M. , Bhattacharya Supriyo , Bloom-Saldana Elizabeth , Irimia Jose M. , Fueger Patrick T. 
Published: April 2023

AbstractThis study investigated the effects of different multiple low doses of streptozotocin (STZ), namely 35 and 55 mg/kg, on the onset and progression of diabetes in mice. Both doses are commonly used in research, and while both induced a loss of beta cell mass, they had distinct effects on whole glucose tolerance, beta cell function and gene transcription. Mice treated with 55 mg/kg became rapidly glucose intolerant, whereas those treated with 35 mg/kg had a slower onset and remained glucose tolerant for up to a week before becoming equally glucose intolerant as the 55 mg/kg group. Beta cell mass loss was similar between the two groups, but the 35 mg/kg-treated mice had improved glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in gold-standard hyperglycemic clamp studies. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that the 55 mg/kg dose caused disruptions in nearly five times as many genes as the 35 mg/kg dose in isolated pancreatic islets. Pathways that were downregulated in both doses were more downregulated in the 55 mg/kg-treated mice, while pathways that were upregulated in both doses were more upregulated in the 35 mg/kg treated mice. Moreover, we observed a differential downregulation in the 55 mg/kg-treated islets of beta cell characteristic pathways, such as exocytosis or hormone secretion. On the other hand, apoptosis was differentially upregulated in 35 mg/kg-treated islets, suggesting different transcriptional mechanisms in the onset of STZ-induced damage in the islets. This study demonstrates that the two STZ doses induce distinctly mechanistic progressions for the loss of functional beta cell mass.