Project description:Free-breeding dogs have occupied the Galápagos islands at least since the 1830s, however, it was not until the 1900s that dog populations grew substantially, endangering wildlife and spreading disease. In 1981, authorities sanctioned the culling of free-roaming dogs. Yet there are currently large free-roaming dog populations of unknown ancestry on the islands of Isabela and Santa Cruz, whose ancestry has never been assessed on a genome-wide scale. Thus, we performed a complete genomic analysis of the current Galápagos dog population as well as historical Galápagos dogs sampled between 1969 and 2003, testing for population structure, admixture, and shared ancestry. Our dataset included samples from 187 modern and six historical Galápagos dogs, together with whole genome sequence from over 2,000 modern purebred and village dogs. Our results indicate that modern Galápagos dogs are recently admixed with purebred dogs but show no evidence of a population bottleneck related to the culling. Additionally, IBD analyses reveal evidence of shared shepherd-dog ancestry in the historical Galápagos dogs. Overall, our results demonstrate that the 1980s culling of dogs was ineffective in controlling population size and did little to reduce genetic diversity, instead producing a stable and expanding population with genomic signatures of historical dogs remaining today. The insights from this study can be used to improve population control strategies for the Galápagos Islands and other endangered endemic communities worldwide.
Project description:The Kashmiri population is an ethno-linguistic group that resides in the Kashmir Valley in northern India. A longstanding hypothesis is that this population derives ancestry from Jewish and/or Greek sources. There is historical and archaeological evidence of ancient Greek presence in India and Kashmir. Further, some historical accounts suggest ancient Hebrew ancestry as well. To date, it has not been determined whether signatures of Greek or Jewish admixture can be detected in the Kashmiri population. Using genome-wide genotyping and admixture detection methods, we determined there are no significant or substantial signs of Greek or Jewish admixture in modern-day Kashmiris. The ancestry of Kashmiri Tibetans was also determined, which showed signs of admixture with populations from northern India and west Eurasia. These results contribute to our understanding of the existing population structure in northern India and its surrounding geographical areas.
Project description:Natural history museum specimens of historical honeybees have been successfully used to explore the genomic past of the honeybee, indicating fast and rapid changes between historical and modern specimens, possibly as a response to current challenges. In our study we explore a potential untapped archive from natural history collections - specimens of beeswax. We examine an Apis mellifera mellifera queen cell specimen from the 19th century. The intact and closed cell was analysed by X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) to reveal a perfectly preserved queen bee inside her cell. Subsequently, a micro-destructive approach was used to evaluate the possibility of protein extraction from the cell. Our results show that studies on specimens such as these provide valuable information about the past rearing of queens, their diet and development, which is relevant for understanding current honeybee behaviour. In addition we evaluate the feasibility of using historical beeswax as a biomolecular archive for ancient proteins to study honeybees.
Project description:Senolytic drugs are designed to selectively clear senescent cells (SnCs) that accumulate with injury or aging. In a mouse model of osteoarthritis (OA), senolysis yields a pro-regenerative response. However, recent research studies showed that the therapeutic benefit is reduced in aged mice. Increased oxidative stress (redox) mediates metabolic dysregulation and accumulation of posttranslational modifications (PTM) on proteins from the cartilage and is one of the major hallmarks of advanced age. This research investigated whether the senolytic treatment differentially affects oxidative load in the joints from young and aged animals. We employed label-free quantitative (LFQ) analysis of changes in the protein expression profiles and associated carbonylated PTMs in the extracted joint proteins. Our proteomic survey focused to a set of PTMs described as advanced glycation-end products (AGEs) or advanced lipooxidation-end products (ALEs), known to accumulate during aging and age-associated diseases. AGEs and ALEs are the result of non-enzymatic reactions of protein with reducing sugars, or with oxidized sugar or lipid degradation products, which may alter and sometimes crosslink the positively charged amino acids lysine and arginine on proteins. Our proteomic dataset supported detection of several AGEs and ALEs, including the adducts 4-ONE (4-oxononenal), 4-ONE+Delta:H(-2)O(-1) (dehydrated 4-oxononenal Michael adduct), carboxyethyl, carboxymethyl, 3-deoxyglucosone derived dihydroxyimidazoline, G-H1 (glyoxal-derived hydroimidazolone), HNE (4-hydroxynonenal), several carbonylated adducts including proline to pyrrolidinone or pyrrolidone Other detected modifications of note include mono-oxidation and di-oxidation products, including tryptophan to kynurenine. We also detected lysine-epsilon-gly-gly (GlyGly), which marks ubiquitylated sites, indicating potential substrates of proteasome-dependent degradation. The grand total PTM change was negative for treated aged OA mice but positive for treated young OA mice, regardless of whether summed across modifications or across proteins. In other words, senolytic treatment reduced oxidation associated PTMs more effectively in aged OA mice than in young OA mice. The LFQ proteomics analysis was complemented with new biophysical computational tools aimed to predict the stability of carbonylated proteins extracted from the joints. The biophysical model predicted divergent proteomic responses between young and aged animals. Altogether, our results showed that senolysis reduces overall oxidative stress in the aged arthritic joints in vivo.
2023-09-26 | PXD031782 | Pride
Project description:Whole genome sequencing of Brettanomyces isolates from sour/farmhouse ales
| PRJNA1260512 | ENA
Project description:Modulation of intestinal metabolic profile in mice by dietary ALEs