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  • Journal article
    Gilestro GF, 2025,

    AI reviewers are here - we are not ready.

    , Nature, Vol: 648
  • Journal article
    Demurtas M, Barnada S, van Domselaar E, Mitchell Z, Deelen L, Trizzino Met al., 2025,

    Neural crest induction requires SALL4-mediated BAF recruitment to lineage specific enhancers

    , Development, ISSN: 0950-1991

    Neural crest induction begins early during neural plate formation, requiring precise transcriptional control to activate lineage-specific enhancers. Here, we demonstrate that SALL4, a transcription factor associated with syndromes featuring craniofacial anomalies, plays a critical role in early cranial neural crest (CNCC) specification. Using SALL4-het-KO human iPSCs to model clinical haploinsufficiency, we show that SALL4 directly recruits BAF to CNCC-lineage specific enhancers at the neuroectodermal stage, specifically when neural crest gene expression is induced at the neural plate border. Without functional SALL4, BAF is not loaded at chromatin, leaving CNCC enhancers inaccessible. Consequently, the cells cannot undergo proper CNCC induction and specification due to persistent enhancer repression, despite normal neuroectodermal and neural plate progression. Moreover, by performing SALL4 isoform-specific depletion, we demonstrate that the SALL4A is the isoform essential for CNCC induction and specification, and that SALL4B cannot compensate for SALL4A loss in this developmental process. In summary, our findings reveal SALL4 as essential regulator of BAF-dependent enhancer activation during early stages of neural crest development, providing molecular insights into SALL4-associated craniofacial anomalies.
  • Journal article
    Dhar A, Sengupta K, Dey S, Sarkar S, Garai S, Ghosh A, Kar S, Adak S, Jana S, Majumdar A, Tripathi S, Moulick Det al., 2025,

    Efficacy of seed priming and foliar application of seaweed extracts on the performance of summer mung bean [(<i>Vigna radiata</i> (L.) Wilczek]

    , Scientific Reports, Vol: 15, ISSN: 2045-2322

    In modern agricultural scenarios, the application of various seaweed-based biostimulants has been recognized for its positive effects on improving crop growth, yield, nutrient uptake, and overall quality across a wide range of crops. Hence, a 2-year field experiment (2023–2024) was conducted in the Instructional Farm of Sasya Shyamala Krishi Vigyan Kendra, RKMVERI falling under the Coastal Saline Agroclimatic Zone of West Bengal to assess the impact of Kappaphycus alvarezii seaweed extract on mung bean (cv. Virat), applied via seed priming and foliar spray under eight nutrient management treatments in a Randomized Complete Block Design. The combined application of the recommended dose of fertilizers (RDFNPK) and seaweed extract through seed priming, and two foliar sprays significantly enhanced shoot and root growth, chlorophyll content, yield-attributing traits, and seed yield, achieving a 30.03% and 28.81% increase in 2023 and 2024, respectively. This treatment also improved macronutrient (N, P, K) uptake and produced the highest crude protein content (26.67% in 2023 and 26.13% in 2024). While seed nutrient uptake was maximized, stover nutrient uptake varied between sole and combined seaweed applications. The highest net return (₹ 21,013/ha and ₹ 26,558/ha) was recorded from this treatment, whereas the best incremental cost–benefit ratio (21.49 and 25.08) was noted with seed priming and a single foliar spray of seaweed extract alongside RDFNPK. Overall, integrating seaweed extract through seed priming and foliar spray with RDFNPK presents a resource-efficient, economically viable strategy for enhancing mung bean productivity and nutritional quality in coastal saline regions.
  • Journal article
    Fountain LL, Gilliham M, Amitrano C, Arouna N, Barker RJ, Böhmer M, Braun M, Brereton NJB, Brocato RL, Bunchek JM, Canaday ELJ, Caplin N, Castaño P, Chamberlain C, Decourteix M, Del Bianco M, De Micco V, Doherty CJ, Franke MF, Fuentes S, Gilroy S, Harrison L, Hasenstein KH, Hauslage J, Herranz R, IyerPascuzzi A, Izuma DS, Junya K, Kiss JZ, Legué V, Lloyd JPB, Maffei ME, Massa GD, Meyers AD, Perera IY, Poulet L, Roychoudry S, Sena G, Shippen DE, Stoochnoff J, Takahashi H, Wyatt SE, Blancaflor EBet al., 2025,

    Expanding frontiers: harnessing plant biology for space exploration and planetary sustainability

    , New Phytologist, ISSN: 0028-646X

    Plants are critical for sustaining human life and planetary health. However, their potential to enable humans to survive and thrive beyond Earth remains unrealized. This Viewpoint presents a collective vision outlining priorities associated with plant science to support a new frontier of human existence. These priorities are drawn from the International Space Life Sciences Working Group (ISLSWG) Plants for Space Exploration and Earth Applications workshop, held at the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA) conference in September 2024. First, we highlight transformative advances gained from using the ‘laboratory of space’ in understanding how plants respond to gravity and other stressors. Second, we introduce a new crop Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS) readiness level (BRL) framework – extending the existing Crop Readiness Level (CRL) – to assist in overcoming challenges to establish resilient, sustainable crop production. Materializing the vision of plants as enablers of space exploration will require innovative approaches, including predictive modeling, synthetic biology, robust Earth-based analogue systems, and reliable space-based instruments to monitor biological processes. Success relies upon a unified international community to promote sharing of resources, facilities, expertise, and data to accelerate progress. Ultimately, this work will both advance human space exploration and provide solutions to enhance sustainable plant production on Earth.
  • Journal article
    Salis A, Martin K, Girard-Buttoz C, 2025,

    Challenges and new opportunities in deciphering the meaning of corvid call sequences

    , ANIMAL COGNITION, Vol: 28, ISSN: 1435-9448
  • Journal article
    Wyer CAS, Amaro IA, Pitcher S, Ponlawat A, Harrington LC, Wolfner MF, Hollis B, Cator Let al., 2025,

    Pickpocket315 affects male mating behavior in the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti

    , G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, ISSN: 2160-1836

    The molecular basis of mating behavior in the important disease vector mosquito, Aedes aegypti, remains poorly characterized. We investigated the functional role of a pickpocket gene, ppk315, in male mating behavior using both RNAi-mediated knockdown and CRISPR/Cas9 approaches. Behavioral assays revealed that RNAi-treated males (dsPPK315) made fewer mating attempts, were less responsive to female acoustic cues, and were less likely to achieve copulation, though their latency to initiate contact when attempts were made was comparable to controls. Males with a CRISPR/Cas9-induced disruption to ppk315 exhibited reduced success in inseminating multiple females, consistent with previous reports from RNAi knockdown males, ruling out off-target effects as the source of behavioral changes. In contrast to the results of behavioral assays with RNAi, ppk315 mutant males (ppk315⁻/⁻) attempted copulation as frequently as wild-type males (ppk315+/+) but were slower to contact females. Despite these impairments in one-on-one interactions, both dsPPK315 and ppk315⁻/⁻males displayed normal mating success under competitive swarm-like conditions, potentially due to the socially-facilitated activation of mating behavior. Collectively, our findings support a role for ppk315 in the initiation of mating behaviors via sensory detection, with context-dependent consequences for reproductive success.
  • Journal article
    Fadini A, Apostolopoulou V, Lane T, van Thor Jet al., 2025,

    Denoising and iterative phase recovery reveal low-occupancy populations in protein crystals

    , Communications Biology, ISSN: 2399-3642

    Advances in structural biology increasingly focus on uncovering protein dynamics and transient macromolecular complexes. Such studies require modeling of low-occupancy species like time-evolving intermediates and bound ligands. In protein crystallography, difference maps that compare paired perturbed and reference datasets are a powerful wayto identify and aid modeling of low-occupancy species. Current methods to generate difference maps, however, rely on manually tuned parameters and, when signals are weak due to low occupancy, can fail to extract clear, chemically interpretable signals. We address these issues, first by showing that negentropy – a measure of how different a signal looks from anticipated Gaussian noise – is an effective metric to assess difference map quality and can therefore be used to automatically determine difference map calculation parameters.Leveraging this, we apply total variation denoising, an image restoration technique that requires a choice of regularization parameter, to crystallographic difference maps. We show that total variation denoising improves map signal-to-noise and enables us to estimate thelatent phase contribution of low-occupancy states. We implement this technology in an open-source Python package, METEOR. METEOR opens new possibilities, for time-resolved and ligand-screening crystallography especially, allowing detection of low-occupancy statesthat could not previously be resolved.
  • Journal article
    Harasha N, Gava C, Lynch N, Contini C, Mallmann-Trenn Fet al., 2025,

    Modeling feasible locomotion of nanobots for cancer detection and treatment

    , PNAS Nexus, ISSN: 2752-6542

    Deploying motile nanosized particles, also known as “nanobots”, in the human body promises to improve selectivity in drug delivery and reduce side effects. We consider a swarm of nanobots locating a single cancerous region and treating it by releasing an onboard payload of drugs at the site. At nanoscale, the computation, communication, sensing, and locomotioncapabilities of individual agents are extremely limited, noisy, and/or nonexistent.We present a general model to formally describe the individual and collective behavior of agents in a colloidal environment, such as the bloodstream, for cancer detection and treatment by nanobots. This includes a feasible and precise model of agent locomotion, inspired by actual nanoparticles that, in the presence of an external chemical gradient, move towards areas of higher concentration by means of self-propulsion. We present two variants of our general model: The first variant assumes an endogenous chemical gradient that is fixed over time and centered at the targeted cancer site; the second is a more speculative and dynamicvariant in which agents themselves create and amplify a chemical gradient centered at the cancer site. In both settings, agents can sense the gradient and ascend it noisily, locating the cancer site more quickly than via simple Brownian motion.For the first variant of the model, we present simulation results to show the behavior of agents under our locomotion model, as well as analytical results to bound the time it takes for the agents to reach the cancer site. We show that the agent’s locomotion follows threedistinct phases, determined by its distance from the cancer site. For the second variant, simulation results highlight the collective benefit in having agents issue their own chemical signal. The second variant of the model, while arguably more speculative in its agent capability assumptions, shows a significant improvement in runtime performance over the first variant, resulting f
  • Journal article
    Chen H, Xu Y, Xiong Z, Wang H, Wang X, Kang Y, Wang Z, Zeng X, Liu Y, Zheng Y, Chen W, Li M, Hu Z, Xu C, Wu Y, Wang Y, Yuan Z, Yuan S, Liu H, Matthews S, Qiao N, Li Y, Liu Bet al., 2025,

    Cinnamic-Hydroxamic-Acid Derivatives Exhibit Antibiotic, Anti-Biofilm, and Supercoiling Relaxation Properties by Targeting Bacterial Nucleoid-Associated Protein HU

    , ADVANCED SCIENCE
  • Conference paper
    Millar J, Huang Y, Sethi S, Haddadi H, Madhavapeddy Aet al., 2025,

    Benchmarking Ultra-Low-Power μNPUs

    , Pages: 1060-1074

    Efficient on-device neural network (NN) inference offers predictable latency, improved privacy and reliability, and lower operating costs for vendors than cloud-based inference. This has sparked recent development of microcontroller-scale NN accelerators, also known as neural processing units (μNPUs), designed specifically for ultra-low-power applications. We present the first comparative evaluation of a number of commercially-available μNPUs, including the first independent benchmarks for multiple platforms. To ensure fairness, we develop and open-source a model compilation pipeline supporting consistent benchmarking of quantized models across diverse microcontroller hardware. Our resulting analysis uncovers both expected performance trends as well as surprising disparities between hardware specifications and actual performance, including certain μNPUs exhibiting unexpected scaling behaviors with model complexity. This work provides a foundation for ongoing evaluation of μNPU platforms, alongside offering practical insights for both hardware and software developers in this rapidly evolving space.
  • Journal article
    Keskin Erdogan Z, Desai K, Baldwin GS, Polizzi KMet al., 2025,

    Coexistence and collaboration: engineering encapsulation for whole-cell biosensors.

    , Trends Biotechnol

    The emerging field of biosensors exploits the abilities of cells to identify specific molecules, presenting improved sensitivity, specificity, and limit of detection. Whole-cell biosensors (WCB) are organisms specifically engineered to detect a target analyte and express a reporter in response. In biomanufacturing, they can be used for monitoring of key substrate and metabolite concentrations or strain engineering, while in medicine, they can be used to diagnose disease or report on human-microbe interactions. Many applications require WCB to coexist with mammalian cells where a key challenge is to keep separate cell populations viable while still allowing them to interact. In this review, we highlight key considerations when encapsulating WCB to engineer controlled microenvironments that enable collaboration and coexistence of different populations.
  • Journal article
    Yen P-S, Verkuijl SANR, Capriotti P, Del Corsano G, Yee CKG, Hoermann A, Inghilterra MG, Aramburu-Gonzalez I, Khan MA, Vlachou D, Christophides GK, Windbichler Net al., 2025,

    The nanos<SUP>d</SUP> integral gene drive enables population modification of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae

    , G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS, ISSN: 2160-1836
  • Journal article
    Strampelli A, Willis K, Gulliford HR, Gribble M, Fasulo B, Burt A, Crisanti A, Bernardini Fet al., 2025,

    A male-drive female-sterile system for the self-limited control of the malaria mosquito <i>Anopheles gambiae (vol</i>16, 9446 , 2025)

    , NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, Vol: 16
  • Journal article
    Ng PC, Adegbite O, Li T, Baslé A, Marles-Wright J, Liu L-Net al., 2025,

    Structure and encapsulation of carbonic anhydrase within the α-carboxysome.

    , Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Vol: 122

    Carboxysomes in cyanobacteria and certain proteobacteria enable efficient CO2 fixation by encapsulating ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) and carbonic anhydrase (CA) within a semipermeable shell. Sequestered CA catalyze the rapid interconversion of CO2 and HCO3-, supplying elevated levels of CO2 to boost Rubisco carboxylation. Despite its essential role, the structure and encapsulation of CA within carboxysomes remain poorly understood. Here, we determined the molecular structure of α-carboxysomal CA from the model chemoautotrophic bacterium Halothiobacillus neapolitanus (HnCsoSCA). HnCsoSCA adopts a trimer-of-dimers oligomeric structure without the incorporation of a zinc ion at its symmetric center. Using synthetic minishells, we demonstrate that HnCsoSCA interacts with the CsoS1A shell hexamer and is incorporated into the minishells at the inner surface, independent of the CsoS2 linker protein. HnCsoSCA truncations suggest nonspecific interactions between HnCsoSCA and CsoS1A. We further show that HnCsoSCA bridges Rubisco and the shell facets. Our study offers insights into the assembly and encapsulation mechanisms of α-carboxysomes and provides the framework for reprogramming carboxysome structures for synthetic biology and biotechnological applications.
  • Journal article
    Modiba MP, Bell T, Babalola OO, 2025,

    Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria and Bacterial Biocontrol Agents in Tomato Disease Management: Mechanisms, Applications, and Omics Perspectives

    , GLOBAL CHALLENGES
  • Journal article
    Abuhamdah R, Moore G, Djama D, Zirpel F, Edge C, Ennaceur A, Chazot P, Cash D, Kim E, Vernon AC, Chadderton P, Brickley SGet al., 2025,

    Longitudinal Testing of Exploratory Behaviour in Mice Reveals Stable Cognitive Traits Across the Adult Lifespan

    , AGING CELL, ISSN: 1474-9718
  • Journal article
    Rallis D, Tsoumani KT, Krsticevic F, Papathanos PA, Gouvi G, Meccariello A, Mathiopoulos KD, Papanicolaou Aet al., 2025,

    Detection of sex chromosomes in Tephritid pests using R-CQ and KAMY, two computational methods to support generic pest management applications

    , INSECT SCIENCE, ISSN: 1672-9609
  • Journal article
    Macaulay SJ, 2025,

    Synthesizing stressor-biodiversity relationships Freshwater ecology

    , NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, ISSN: 2397-334X
  • Journal article
    Hindley HJ, Gong Z, Moradian S, Giuliano MG, Sapelkin A, Kotta-Loizou I, Buck M, Engl C, Weiße AYet al., 2025,

    Heterogeneity in responses to ribosome-targeting antibiotics mediated by bacterial RNA repair

    , Nature Communications, Vol: 16, ISSN: 2041-1723

    RNA repair is critical for cellular function. The Rtc system maintains RNA integrity within the translational machinery of bacteria. In E. coli, Rtc expression enables cells to rescue growth and survive treatment by conferring transient resistance to ribosome-targeting antibiotics, yet the mechanisms underpinning this resistance remain obscure. Here, we present a computational model of Rtc-regulated repair of translational RNAs. Integrating model predictions with experimental validations, we uncover notable cell-to-cell heterogeneity in rtc expression that impacts on translational capacity, indicating that rtc may induce a form of heteroresistance. We moreover identify Rtc targets that may reduce the translational capacity of cells and so potentiate antibiotic effects. Our findings elucidate a complex response underpinning resistance conferred by Rtc, offering alternate routes for addressing resistance in E. coli and other relevant pathogens.
  • Journal article
    Ishimoto N, He S, Bogdanov M, Smith TK, Frankel G, Beis Ket al., 2025,

    Phospholipid-independent biogenesis of a functional RP4 conjugation pilus.

    , bioRxiv

    Conjugation, the process of DNA transfer between bacteria, is initiated universally by the formation of a mating pair formation (MPF) via a conjugative pilus. Conjugation of the IncP RP4 plasmid is mediated by short, non-retractable, rigid mating pili. Here, we report the cryo-EM structure of the RP4 pilus at 2.75 Å resolution. Uniquely, and consistently with quantitative mass spectral analysis, this revealed that the cyclic TrbC pilin subunit is not lipidated. Consistently, an E. coli pgsA mutant lacking phosphatidylglycerol (PG) can serve as a donor of RP4 but not of R27, encoding the H-pilus consisting of PG-associated cyclic pilin subunits (TrhA). The RP4 is the first example of a lipid-independent functional mating pilus. This discovery not only challenges the long-held assumption that an amphipathic lipid moiety is essential for the construction of conjugative pili and for MPF, but also expanding our understanding of the diverse mechanisms that bacteria employ to transfer genetic material.
  • Journal article
    Schäfer RB, Baikova D, Bayat HS, Beermann AJ, Berger SA, Boenigk J, Brauns M, BurfeidCastellanos A, Cardinale BJ, David GM, Feckler A, Feld CK, Fink P, Gessner MO, Hadziomerovic U, Hering D, Le TTY, Macaulay SJ, Madariaga GM, Serge Mayombo NA, Pimentel IM, Orr JA, Osakpolor S, Schlenker A, Sures B, Vermiert A, Vos M, Weitere M, Schürings Cet al., 2025,

    Effects of biodiversity loss on freshwater ecosystem functions increase with the number of stressors

    , Global Change Biology, Vol: 31, ISSN: 1354-1013

    A multitude of anthropogenic stressors drive biodiversity loss and alter ecosystem functioning. Freshwaters, which contribute disproportionally to global biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles, are particularly threatened. Although the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functions (BEF) is generally well-established, especially in terrestrial ecosystems, the role of multiple, co-occurring stressors in modulating the relationship remains unclear. We conducted a meta-analysis to address this knowledge gap by assessing the effect of multiple stressors on the relationship between taxon richness and four measures of ecosystem function. The relationship was generally positive, with the slope becoming steeper as the number of stressors increased, suggesting that exposure to multiple stressors exacerbates impacts of biodiversity loss on ecosystem function. Multiple stressor effects on both taxon richness and ecosystem functions were largely predictable from individual stressor effects, although antagonistic effects on ecosystem functions emerged in 14% of the considered cases. The type of stressor and ecosystem function, along with taxonomic group, exerted no influence on the BEF relationship, contrary to our expectations. Microbial production and biomass declined most strongly in response to stressors, despite notable variability. Overall, our findings imply that functional consequences of freshwater biodiversity loss are more severe under multifaceted environmental change than previously assumed.
  • Journal article
    Grima LL, Haberkern H, Mohanta R, Morimoto MM, Rajagopalan AE, Scholey EVet al., 2025,

    Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience

    , Trends in Neurosciences, Vol: 48, Pages: 877-890, ISSN: 0166-2236

    The study of foraging is central to a renewed interest in naturalistic behavior in neuroscience. Applying a foraging framework grounded in behavioral ecology has enabled probing of the mechanisms underlying cognitive processes such as decision-making within a more ecological context. Yet, foraging also involves myriad other aspects, including navigation of complex environments, sensory processing, and social interactions. Here, we first provide a brief overview of the neuroscience of foraging decisions, and then combine insights from behavioral ecology and neuroscience to review the role of these additional dimensions of foraging. We conclude by highlighting four opportunities for the continued development of foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience: integrating normative and implementation-level models, developing new tools, enabling cross-species comparisons, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.
  • Journal article
    Reynolds JJ, Koufopanou V, Burt A, 2025,

    Identifying Single-Origin Rare Variants in Population Genomic Data

    , MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, Vol: 42, ISSN: 0737-4038
  • Journal article
    Murphy J, Clarke S, Strutton P, Morgan C, Bannister K, Hughes SWet al., 2025,

    Recommendations for the Neurophysiological Assessment of Conditioned Pain Modulation: A Systematic Review of Nociceptive Blink Reflex and Nociceptive Withdrawal Reflex Protocols

    , EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PAIN, Vol: 29, ISSN: 1090-3801
  • Journal article
    Jones SEI, Freeman BG, Tobias JA, Portugal SJet al., 2025,

    Testing the thermal physiology, habitat and competition hypotheses for elevational range limits in four tropical songbirds

    , PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Vol: 292, ISSN: 0962-8452
  • Journal article
    Bannister K, Patel R, Hughes S, 2025,

    The descending modulation of pain

    , PAIN, Vol: 166, Pages: S55-S59, ISSN: 0304-3959
  • Journal article
    Chan Wah Hak C, Patin EC, Patrikeev A, Nicastri A, Kozik Z, Baldock H, Kyula-Currie JN, Roulstone V, Wongariyapak A, Gifford V, Tenev T, Appleton ES, Hubbard LC, Foo S, Pedersen M, Choudhary JS, Ono M, Melcher AA, Rullan A, Harrington KJet al., 2025,

    Xevinapant plus Chemoradiotherapy Negatively Sculpts the Tumor-Immune Microenvironment in Head and Neck Cancer

    , CANCER RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS, Vol: 5, Pages: 2079-2091
  • Journal article
    Granville NR, Pigot AL, Howes B, Dos Anjos L, Arroyo-rodriguez V, Barbaro L, Barlow J, Betts MG, Cerezo A, Develey PF, Hatfield JH, Jactel H, Karubian J, Kormann UG, Lasky JR, Marsh CJ, Mestre LAM, Morante-filho JC, Olivier P, Pidgeon AM, Possingham H, Proenca V, Terraube J, Uezu A, Wood EM, Banks-leite Cet al., 2025,

    Soft Range Limits Shape Sensitivity to Forest Cover More Strongly Than Hard Range Limits

    , GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY, Vol: 34, ISSN: 1466-822X
  • Journal article
    Lopez-Cobollo R, Altmann S, Thorpe P, Douglas N, Shih P-Y, Eccleston L, Lord M, Hong E, Klug E, Iqbal J, Bos J, Carolan J, Turnbull Cet al., 2025,

    A novel chitinase-like family of candidate effectors unique to aphids

    , Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, ISSN: 0894-0282

    Molecular interactions between aphids and plants include delivery of salivary effector proteins into host cells, acting as virulence factors to suppress host immunity, or as avirulence functions triggering immune activation. However, understanding of virulence and avirulence mechanisms in aphid-plant systems is currently limited. Here, we report discovery of an effector candidate family that is unique to aphids. Using functional genomics data on divergent pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) genotypes and their F1 progeny, we filtered for differentially expressed saliva proteins that co-segregated with virulence or avirulence phenotypes. LOC100575698 (ACPISUM_029930), annotated as an uncharacterized protein, was the sole candidate effector for which RNA-Seq and saliva proteomics data showed significantly different expression both between avirulent and virulent parents and between their segregating F1 progeny, with this gene upregulated in avirulent genotypes. BLASTP searches revealed multiple divergent homologs only in genomes of the Aphidomorpha infra-order, suggesting a hitherto undefined ancient aphid-specific gene family. AlphaFold models indicate strong structural similarities but weak sequence homology to chitinases. Because the aphid-specific clade all lack canonical DxxDxDxE motifs for catalytic activity, we designate the proteins as a novel CHitinase-Like (CHL) family. Association of ACPISUM_029930 (ApCHL1) with avirulence was further supported by co-segregating SNPs and a genotype-specific alternatively spliced isoform. We hypothesise that CHL proteins may function similarly to phylogenetically unrelated chitin-binding fungal effectors that sequester chitin, also present in aphid stylets, potentially preventing defence activation through plant chitin receptors and/or blocking chitin degradation by host-secreted chitinases.
  • Journal article
    Lee S, Bai M, Zhu C-D, Lee S, Zhang YM, Mosyakin SL, Vogler AP, Orr Met al., 2025,

    Rethinking Changing "Unethical" Names in Taxonomy: An Asian Perspective

    , BIOSCIENCE, ISSN: 0006-3568

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