Article describes how taxonomic profiling of ancient metagenomic samples is challenging due to the accumulation of specific damage patterns on DNA over time. The authors performed a comprehensive evaluation on simulated metagenomes representing human dental calculus microbiome, with the level of DNA damage successively raised to mimic modern to ancient metagenomes.

This article is a review examining the characteristics that make an animal model attractive for developmental research and explores opportunities presented by the embryo to adult continuum of alternative bird models including quail, ratites, songbirds, birds of prey, and corvids.

Article describing an approach to expand biocuration through crowdsourcing with undergraduates in the community-oriented wiki framework for GO annotation called the Gene Ontology Normal Usage Tracking System (GONUTS). This multiplies the number of high-quality annotations in international databases, enriches the coverage of the literature on normal gene function, and pushes the field in new directions.

Data management plan for the grant "Elucidating Cyclic Fatty Acid Biosynthesis and Compartmentalization to Improve Cottonseed Value." Cotton is an important oilseed crop in the U.S. economy. Cotton seed and other vegetative tissues produce unusual chemicals called cyclic fatty acids that have wide-ranging potential uses from high-value industrial properties to nutrition-oriented uses. This project focuses on identifying genes that contribute to the production and storage of these high value bioproducts.

Article claims antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the healthcare system worldwide with the rise of emerging drug resistant infectious agents. To infer novel resistance genes, we used complete gene sets of several bacterial strains known to be susceptible or resistant to specific drugs and associated phenotypic information within a machine learning framework that enabled prioritizing genes potentially involved in resistance.

Data management plan for the grant, "LLELA Quail Program: Quail in the Park Cities? Restoring a functional quail population to a small rangeland system in the Dallas Metroplex."

Article is a study that aims to identify actionable clinical and culture characteristics of IVF treatment that influence blastocyst developmental rate, with the goal of acquiring optimal success.

Article describes how postmenopausal women are severely affected by recurrent urinary tract infection (rUTI). The authors perform shotgun metagenomics and advanced culture on urine from a controlled cohort of postmenopausal women to identify urogenital microbiome compositional and function changes linked to rUTI susceptibility.

This article finds that the transcript profile of the laccase gene ChLAC8 parallels the accumulation of C-lignin during seed coat development. Recombinant ChLAC8 oxidizes caffeyl and sinapyl alcohols, generating their corresponding dimers or trimers in vitro, but cannot oxidize coniferyl alcohol. The authors propose a basis for this substrate preference based on molecular modeling/docking experiments. Suppression of ChLAC8 expression led to significantly reduced C-lignin content in the seed coats of transgenic Cleome plants. Feeding of 13C-caffeyl alcohol to the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) caffeic acid o-methyltransferase mutant resulted in no incorporation of 13C into C-lignin, but expressing ChLAC8 in this genetic background led to appearance of C-lignin with >40% label incorporation. These results indicate that ChLAC8 is required for C-lignin polymerization and determines lignin composition when caffeyl alcohol is available.

Article describes how rapid urbanization has influenced the transformation of local and global food systems, altering the availability, access to, and distribution of healthy food. Micronutrient deficiency and hunger have been exacerbated worldwide. The author's research proposes a simulation strategy to evaluate the impact of agricultural land use and crop choices on nutritional production in rapidly growing urban areas.

Article describes how induction of high photosynthetic capacity is a key acclimation response to high light for many herbaceous dicot plants. Here, a systems biology approach was utilized to characterize the induction of high photosynthetic capacity in strongly and weakly acclimating Arabidopsis thaliana accessions.

Article using zebrafish as a model and identifies that trypsin induces an aversive response in zebrafish larvae and adult zebrafish. Results show that the trypsin activates PAR2 on keratinocytes signaling the brain, and this pathway of trypsin-induced escape response will provide a unique communication mechanism in zebrafish.