🧬 biology

Bacterial metabolism of synthetic steroids across ecosystems reveals diverse biotransformation products, reactions, and enzymes

This study systematically maps the diverse biotransformation of 22 synthetic and natural steroids across 12 bacterial species, revealing novel enzymes, aerobic side-chain cleavage mechanisms, and cooperative cross-feeding interactions that collectively define the molecular basis of microbial steroid metabolism in gut and environmental ecosystems.

Michael Zimmermann, Mariia Beliaeva, Matthias Gross, Dimitrios Papagiannidis, Anoop Singh, Mikhail Savitski2026-09-04
🧬 biology

CLIC4 activated by IRF4 transcription intensifies the apoptosis of myelodysplastic syndrome SKM-1 cells via the TGF-β/Smad and p38MAPK pathways

This study demonstrates that the transcription factor IRF4 suppresses myelodysplastic syndrome progression by transcriptionally activating CLIC4, which in turn intensifies apoptosis and inhibits proliferation in SKM-1 cells through the TGF-β/Smad and p38MAPK signaling pathways.

Xiaoyong Wang, Yamei Chen, Xuemei Zhao, Lingling Jiang, Jun Wu2026-09-04
🧬 biology

Temporal precision of sparse highly reliable neurons anchors sequential activity underlying short-term memory encoding in posterior parietal cortex

This study reveals that short-term memory in the posterior parietal cortex relies on a sparse temporal code anchored by a small subset of highly reliable neurons, whose precise spike timing is critical for maintaining information fidelity and guiding behavioral decisions beyond what firing rates alone can provide.

Joon Ho Choi, Minsu Yoo, Sungwon Bae, Jiho Park, Ji-Woong Choi, Jong-Cheol Rah2026-09-04
🧬 biology

Biofilm formation and maturation dynamics of Mycobacterium wolinskyi, an emerging device-associated pathogen

This study provides the first quantitative evidence that the emerging pathogen *Mycobacterium wolinskyi* forms a mature, stable, and EPS-rich biofilm under static in vitro conditions, with biomass significantly increasing over the first three weeks before plateauing by week six, thereby confirming its capacity for environmental persistence and device-associated infections.

Valentina Dimartino, Ivano Petriccione, Paola Dal Monte, Angela Cannas, Francesco Bisognin, Carla Nisii, Laura Falasca (…)2026-09-04
🧬 biology

Automated Detection of Sickled Erythrocytes in Peripheral Blood Smear Images Using YOLO-Based Object Detection

This paper presents a clinically grounded, YOLO-based framework for the automated detection of sickled erythrocytes in peripheral blood smears, achieving high accuracy (mAP50-95 = 0.857) through optimized imaging and annotation strategies to enable scalable disease monitoring.

Juhair Fiaz Alam, Linh Nguyen T Tran, Daniel Agrawal, Abrar Faiaz Bari, Reagan Phariss, Karla Mercedes Paz Gonzalez, Gif (…)2026-09-04
🧬 biology

Genome skimming resolves Neotropical population structure and mitonuclear discordance in the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus)

By employing nanopore-based genome skimming on 67 common vampire bats across nine Neotropical countries, this study reveals significant mitonuclear discordance driven by male-mediated gene flow, identifying Panama as a critical genetic corridor and the Andes as a major barrier that has shaped the species' evolutionary history and population structure.

Lexi E. Frank, Marissa S. Milstein, Christopher Shaffer, Philip Suse, Steven Suse, Achaicus Chekema, Evan J. Kipp, Roxan (…)2026-09-04