Chinese pop singer Jay Chou is renowned for his musical versatility, with his songs bringing to mind romance, nostalgia and the charm of traditional culture. However, when his fans listen to his songs these days, they might bring something new to mind: spiders. A recent scientific paper, featured on an international academic journal, has thrilled music lovers in China by naming 16 newly discovered spiders after iconic songs by the 45-year-old pop star.

These findings expand the known ranges of these species and underscore the importance of continued surveys and monitoring in the Himalayan region to discover more unique wildlife.

We examined the global biogeography of the Scytodes thoracica group of spitting spiders based on 23 years of sampling at the species level (61 species in the thoracica group and 84 species of Scytodes) using DNA data from six loci. Our results indicated that the thoracica group initially dispersed from Southeast Asia to East Africa between 46.5 and 33.0 million years ago, and dispersal events intensified between Southeast/South Asia and East/South Africa from the early to late Miocene. The timing of these events indicates that Asian-African faunal exchange of the thoracica group was driven by the Indian monsoon, and the pattern of dispersal suggests that colonialization took root when the Indian monsoon shifted from a North-South direction to an East-West direction from the middle Eocene.

The insect mitogenome is typically a compact circular molecule with highly conserved gene contents. Nonetheless, mitogenome structural variations have been reported in specific taxa, and gene rearrangements, usually the tRNAs, occur in different lineages. Because synapomorphies of mitogenome organizations can provide information for phylogenetic inferences, comparative analyses of mitogenomes have been given increasing attention. However, most studies use a very few species to represent the whole genus, tribe, family, or even order, overlooking potential variations at lower taxonomic levels, which might lead to some incorrect inferences.

Mitogenome evidence disclosed Ice Age Human migrations from northern coastal China to the Americas and Japan

Increasing evidence suggests that interspecific hybridization is crucial to speciation. However, chromatin incompatibility during interspecific hybridization often renders this process. Genomic imbalances such as chromosomal DNA loss and rearrangements leading to infertility have been commonly noted in hybrids. The mechanism underlying reproductive isolation of interspecific hybridization remains elusive. Here, we identified that modification of maternally defined H3K4me3 in Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis hybrids determines the different fates of the two types of hybrids as te×ls with developmental arrest and viable le×ts. Transcriptomics highlighted that the P53 pathway was overactivated, and the Wnt signaling pathway was suppressed in te×ls hybrids. Moreover,

Contact:Dr. LAI Ren, Principal InvestigatorKunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650201, Chinarlai@mail.kiz.ac.cn.

Maintaining genomic stability is crucial for embryonic stem cells (ESCs). ESCs with unrepaired DNA damage are eliminated through differentiation and apoptosis. To date, only tumor suppressor p53 is known to be implicated in this quality control process. Here, we identified a p53-independent quality control factor lncRNA NONMMUT028956 (Lnc956 for short) in mouse ESCs. Lnc956 is prevalently expressed in ESCs and regulates the differentiation of ESCs after DNA damage. Mechanistically, Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) activation drives m6A methylation of Lnc956, which promotes its interaction with Krüppel-like factor4 (KLF4). Lnc956-KLF4 association sequestrates the KLF4 protein and prevents KLF4’s transcriptional regulation on pluripotency.

cGAS senses microbial and host-derived double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) in cytoplasm to trigger cellular innate immune response in a STING-dependent manner. Here we demonstrated the detectable binding of the cGAS-dsDNA in cytoplasm and the activation of microglial cGAS-STING pathway in brains of human AD and aged mice. Cgas–/–;5×？FAD mice were largely protected from cognitive impairment, amyloid-β (Aβ) pathology, neuroinflammation and other sequelae associated with AD. Finally, administration of STING inhibitor H-151 potently suppressed the activation of the cGAS-STING pathway and ameliorated AD pathogenesis in 5×FAD mice. In conclusion, our present study has identified a critical molecular link between innate immunity and AD, and suggests that therapeutic targeting of the cGAS-STING pathway activity might effectively interfere with the progression of AD.

Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau represents one of the extreme environments for human habitation. Tibetans are the ideal population to study genetic adaptation to such extreme environment. Strong ultraviolet radiation at high altitude imposes a serious selective pressure, which may induce skin pigmentation adaptation of Tibetans. We conducted skin pigmentation phenotyping and genome-wide analysis of Tibetans to understand the underlying mechanism of adaptation to UV radiation. We observe that Tibetans have darker baseline skin color compared to lowland Han Chinese, as well as an improved tanning ability. The adaptive variant of GNPAT promotes melanin synthesis, likely through the interactions of CAT and ACAA1 in peroxisome with other pigmentation genes, leading to an improved tanning ability in Tibetans for UV protection.