Showing papers in "Current Biology in 2021"

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the first global reassessment of 1,199 species in Class Chondrichthyes (sharks, rays, and chimeras) and conclude that overfishing is the universal threat affecting all 391 threatened species and is the sole threat for 67.3% of species and interacts with three other threats for the remaining third: loss and degradation of habitat (31.2% of threatened species), climate change (10.2%), and pollution (6.9%).

TL;DR: One year into the global COVID-19 pandemic, the focus of attention has shifted to the emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: A uniquely comprehensive checklist of bee species distributions and >5,800,000 public bee occurrence records are combined to describe global patterns of bee biodiversity, providing a new baseline and best practices for studies on bees and other understudied invertebrates.

TL;DR: A robust phylogenomic framework to explore the tempo and mode of fungal evolution and offer directions for future fungal phylogenetic and taxonomic studies is provided.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide evidence through systematic literature searches and queries that parachute science practices are still widespread in marine research and make some recommendations to help change the current status quo.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors leverage 155 genome assemblies from 149 species to generate a fossil-calibrated phylogeny and conduct multilocus tests for introgression across 9 monophyletic radiations within the genus Drosophila.

TL;DR: Parkinson's disease-causing mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene hyperactivate it and cause increased phosphorylation of Rab GTPases, important regulators of intracellular trafficking as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: It is shown that the replication band (RB) in spirotrich ciliates can take unique forms in different species, from polar bands to a "replication envelope," where replication initiates at the nuclear periphery before advancing inward.

TL;DR: A new mechanism for mechanically induced DNA damage is uncovered, linking mechanical deformation of the nucleus to DNA replication stress, which could not only increase genomic instability in metastasizing cancer cells but could also cause DNA damage in non-migrating cells and tissues that experience mechanical compression during development, thereby contributing to tumorigenesis and DNA damage response activation.

TL;DR: It is shown that phasic 5-HT neuron stimulation causes transient PS changes and is observed that the effect of 5- HT on PS depended on the level of environmental uncertainty, consistent with the idea that5-HT could report a surprise signal.

TL;DR: The role of septins at the interface of microtubules and membranes with molecular motors is discussed in this article, which points to a "septin code" for the regulation of membrane traffic.

TL;DR: A review of advances in the study of sleep in Drosophila, discuss their implications for understanding the fundamental functions of sleep that are likely to be conserved among animal species and identify important unanswered questions in the field.

TL;DR: The superior colliculus is a part of the brain that registers events in the surrounding space, often through vision and hearing, but also through electrosensation, infrared detection, and other sensory modalities in diverse vertebrate lineages as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed large-scale optical and electrophysiological recordings from six visual cortical areas in behaving mice that were repeatedly presented with the same natural movies and found representational drift over timescales spanning minutes to days across multiple visual areas, cortical layers, and cell types.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors quantify the extent of this missed conservation and financial opportunity, showing that the protection of ∼20% of the world's mangrove forests (2.6 Mha) can be funded through carbon financing.

TL;DR: This paper provided an extended, comprehensive framework for accumbal dopamine release in behavioral control and showed that dopamine release not only conforms to reward prediction error (RPE) predictions in a subset of learning scenarios but fits valence-independent perceived saliency encoding across conditions.

TL;DR: Astrocytes transmit this sleep need to a sleep drive circuit by upregulating and releasing the interleukin-1 analog Spätzle, which then acts on Toll receptors on R5 neurons, revealing dynamic properties of the sleep homeostatic control system.

TL;DR: The results show that, though the four specimens represent extinct wolf lineages, they do not form a monophyletic group, and each Pleistocene Siberian canid branched off the lineage that gave rise to present-day wolves and dogs.

TL;DR: In this paper, the regulation and functions of cytoskeletal assembly and remodeling during macropinocytosis and phagocytotic cell engulfment are described.

TL;DR: In this paper, a broad view of bacterial and archaeal symbioses with protist hosts, focusing on their evolution, ecology, and cell biology, and also explore what functions (if any) the symbionts provide to their hosts.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the largest dataset compiled on adult TEE and basal energy expenditure (BEE) of people living normal lives to find that energy compensation by a typical human averages 28% due to reduced BEE; this suggests that only 72% of the extra calories we burn from additional activity translates into extra calories burned that day.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented the highly modified genome of the iconic endophytic parasite Sapria himalayana Griff (Rafflesiaceae), which lacks a typical plant body.

TL;DR: The authors applied evolutionary analyses to human genomic datasets to recover selection events involving tens of human genes that interact with coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, that likely started more than 20,000 years ago.

TL;DR: In this article, the role of forces as instructive signals in organ morphogenesis is considered, and it is shown that the three elemental shapes behind plant organs - spheres, cylinders and lamina - can be actively maintained by such a mechanical feedback.

TL;DR: N fertilization effect on rice flowering time shows genetically controlled diversity, and single-nucleotide polymorphism in Nhd1 promoter may relate to different responses of flowering time to N application, which balances flowering time and N use efficiency in addition to photoperiod in rice.

TL;DR: The Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) family is a ubiquitous regulator of actin dynamics as discussed by the authors, including N-WASPs, WAVE, WASH, WHAMM, JMY, and WHIMP.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors demonstrate that consolidated mouse NREMS is a brain state with recurrent fluctuations of the wake-promoting neurotransmitter noradrenaline on the ∼50-s timescale in the thalamus.

TL;DR: This paper showed that self-pollen triggers high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in stigma papilla cells to mediate self-incompatibility in heading Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis).

TL;DR: In this paper, the Setaphyta clade of liverworts and mosses, within monophyletic bryophytes, were investigated and it was shown that many vascular plant (tracheophytes) novelties were already present in a comparatively complex last common ancestor of living land plants.

TL;DR: It is found that spontaneous sleep typically transitions from an active "wake-like" stage to a less active stage, and optogenetic activation of the dFB promotes sustained wake-like levels of neural activity even though flies become unresponsive to mechanical stimuli.