Proteases from diverse viruses, the first described pathogen-encoded activators of human NLRP1, cleave NLRP1 at a sequence that mimics the viral polyprotein, resulting in inflammasome activation and pro-inflammatory cytokine release.
Genetic variations that underlie common autoimmune disease genes are predominantly regulatory and modify the expression of multiple genes within the HLA gene complex and throughout the immune system.
The first genomic view of beetle luciferase evolution indicates evolutionary independence of luciferase between fireflies and click-beetles, and provide valuable datasets which will accelerate the discovery of new biotechnological tools.
Tn5 transposase has direct tagmentation activity towards RNA/DNA hybrids, which is harnessed as a more convenient and faster RNA-seq library construction method and will benefit RNA and chromatin research.
A gain-of-function in a new chemical defense resulted in no trade-offs and and independent evolution between novel and ancestral defenses, suggesting low redundancy among different defensive chemicals.
Physiological differentiation during symbiosis leads to division of labor between smaller and larger cells in an uncultured bacterial tubeworm symbiont population and results in remarkable metabolic diversity and complexity.