Month: September 2022

REGRESSION. “After mating, females with an evolutionary history of monogamy exhibited lower relative expression of genes that were up regulated in response to mating and higher expression of genes that were down-regulated – in other words, their post-mating transcriptome appeared more virgin-like.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.12763/full View in LinkedIn

ALTERED FLY RESPONSES. “Both premating and post-mating gene expression profiles of monogamous females were more virgin-like than those of females from polygamous populations. Specifically, genes that are up regulated after mating showed on average lower expression in both virgin and mated monogamous females. The opposite was the case for genes down-regulated after mating (although for virgin females this difference was only marginally significant).” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.12763/full View in LinkedIn

ROLE OF SEXUAL CONFLICT. “Surprisingly, these genes showed a similar pattern even before mating, suggesting that monogamous females evolved to be less poised for mating and the accompanying receipt of male seminal fluid proteins. This reduced investment by both monogamous males and females in molecules involved in post-copulatory interactions points to a pervasive role of sexual conflict in shaping these interactions.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.12763/full View in LinkedIn

SEXUAL ECONOMICS. “These results support the notion that the receipt of SFPs comes at a net cost to female fitness and, under monogamy, males have evolved to reduce these costs to their single reproductive partner.” (SFPs = male seminal fluid proteins). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.12763/full View in LinkedIn

ANTAGONISTIC SEX. “Overall, our results provide strong evidence that much of the molecular interplay between the sexes that occurs after mating has been shaped by conflict between the sexes and is generally not cooperative in nature. The idea that antagonism dominates male–female interactions has received support from many previous experimental evolution studies. Our results add to this body of work by demonstrating the breadth of this antagonism in the expression of genes involved in post-copulatory interactions.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.12763/full View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this short weekend looking at the difference between the agendas of sexual partners in fruit flies. Not only is the rate of evolution of proteins involved in sexual reproduction faster than somatic proteins, but the triggering of reproductive readiness in the two sexes is very different. The female gets massively changed. At least in fruit flies, the male and female are quite divergent biologically, behaviorally, and genetically, and continue to evolve in different but complementary trajectories. View in LinkedIn

"MOLECULAR DEVICES made of nucleic acids show great potential for applications ranging from bio-sensing to intelligent nanomedicine. They allow computation to be performed at the molecular scale, while also interfacing directly with the molecular components of living systems. They form structures that are stable inside cells, and their interactions can be precisely controlled by modifying their nucleotide sequences." https://lnkd.in/dGaUYNR View in LinkedIn

ADAPTING DNA. "Given the large computational power of DNA systems, one challenge would be to adapt them to intracellular operation. Potential solutions could include the move from DNA to RNA building blocks (thus making them amenable to genetic encoding) or even developing peptide-based circuits that recapitulate some nucleic acids features." http://www.dna.caltech.edu/Papers/Denmark_Workshop_2013.pdf View in LinkedIn

BIOCHIP IMPLANTS. "Molecular computing circuits...will be embedded in a biological host." http://www.dna.caltech.edu/Papers/Denmark_Workshop_2013.pdf View in LinkedIn

CREATING GENETIC MACHINES. "If genetic sequencing is about reading DNA, and genetic engineering as we know it is about copying, cutting and pasting it, synthetic biology is about writing and programming new DNA with two main goals: create genetic machines from scratch and gain new insights about how life works." https://lnkd.in/dgV87Ca View in LinkedIn