Regionalization, constraints, and the ancestral ossification patterns in the vertebral column of amniotes - Scientific Reports

The development of the vertebral column has been studied extensively in modern amniotes, yet many aspects of its evolutionary history remain enigmatic. Here we expand the existing data on four major vertebral developmental patterns in amniotes based on exceptionally well-preserved specimens of the early Permian mesosaurid reptile Mesosaurus tenuidens: (i) centrum ossification, (ii) neural arch ossification, (iii) neural arch fusion, and (iv) neurocentral fusion. We retrace the evolutionary history of each pattern and reconstruct the ancestral condition in amniotes. Despite 300 million years of evolutionary history, vertebral development patterns show a surprisingly stability in amniotes since their common ancestor. We propose that this stability may be linked to conservatism in the constraints posed by underlying developmental processes across amniotes. We also point out that birds, mammals, and squamates each show specific trends deviating from the ancestral condition in amniotes, and that they remain rather unchanged within these lineages. The stability of their unique patterns demonstrates a certain homogeneity of vertebral developmental constraints within these lineages, which we suggest might be linked to their specific modes of regionalization. Our research provides a framework for the evolution of axial development in amniotes and a foundation for future studies.

Multiplexed mapping of chromatin features at single-cell resolution - Nature Biotechnology

Single-cell nanobody-tethered transposition followed by sequencing (scNTT-seq) is a new assay that measures the genome-wide presence of multiple histone modifications and protein–DNA binding sites at single-cell resolution. scNTT-seq generates high-resolution multimodal maps of chromatin states with high accuracy and sensitivity.

Explore your options at TU/e's department of Mathematics and Computer Science

TU/e's department of Mathematics and Computer Science rings in the new year with 24 new tenure track faculty positions. Open soon for all academic levels!

Powerful, scalable and resource-efficient meta-analysis of rare variant associations in large whole genome sequencing studies - Nature Genetics

MetaSTAAR enables functionally informed rare variant association analysis in biobank-scale cohorts using an efficient, sparse matrix approach for summary statistic storage.

LongTREC: long-reads transcriptome - LongTREC

Immediate Open Access without restrictions – changes as of 1 January 2023

Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)