Tximeta: Reference sequence checksums for provenance identification in RNA-seq.

Correct annotation metadata is critical for reproducible and accurate RNA-seq analysis. When files are shared publicly or among collaborators with incorrect or missing annotation metadata, it becomes difficult or impossible to reproduce bioinformatic analyses from raw data. It also makes it more difficult to locate the transcriptomic features, such as transcripts or genes, in their proper genomic context, which is necessary for overlapping expression data with other datasets. We provide a solution in the form of an R/Bioconductor package tximeta that performs numerous annotation and metadata gathering tasks automatically on behalf of users during the import of transcript quantification files. The correct reference transcriptome is identified via a hashed checksum stored in the quantification output, and key transcript databases are downloaded and cached locally. The computational paradigm of automatically adding annotation metadata based on reference sequence checksums can greatly facilitate genomic workflows, by helping to reduce overhead during bioinformatic analyses, preventing costly bioinformatic mistakes, and promoting computational reproducibility. The tximeta package is available at https://bioconductor.org/packages/tximeta.

Marine Natural Product Honaucin A Attenuates Inflammation by Activating the Nrf2-ARE Pathway.

The cyanobacterial marine natural product honaucin A inhibits mammalian innate inflammation in vitro and in vivo. To decipher its mechanism of action, RNA sequencing was used to evaluate differences in gene expression of cultured macrophages following honaucin A treatment. This analysis led to the hypothesis that honaucin A exerts its anti-inflammatory activity through activation of the cytoprotective nuclear erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)-antioxidant response element/electrophile response element (ARE/EpRE) signaling pathway. Activation of this pathway by honaucin A in cultured human MCF7 cells was confirmed using an Nrf2 luciferase reporter assay. In vitro alkylation experiments with the natural product and N-acetyl-l-cysteine suggest that honaucin A activates this pathway through covalent interaction with the sulfhydryl residues of the cytosolic repressor protein Keap1. Honaucin A presents a potential therapeutic lead for diseases with an inflammatory component modulated by Nrf2-ARE.

Transcriptome-wide patterns of divergence during allopatric evolution.

Recent studies have revealed repeated patterns of genomic divergence associated with species formation. Such patterns suggest that natural selection tends to target a set of available genes, but is also indicative that closely related taxa share evolutionary constraints that limit genetic variability. Studying patterns of genomic divergence among populations within the same species may shed light on the underlying evolutionary processes. Here, we examine transcriptome-wide divergence and polymorphism in the marine copepod Tigriopus californicus, a species where allopatric evolution has led to replicate sets of populations with varying degrees of divergence and hybrid incompatibility. Our analyses suggest that relatively small effective population sizes have resulted in an exponential decline of shared polymorphisms during population divergence and also facilitated the fixation of slightly deleterious mutations within allopatric populations. Five interpopulation comparisons at three different stages of divergence show that nonsynonymous mutations tend to accumulate in a specific set of proteins. These include proteins with central roles in cellular metabolism, such as those encoded in mtDNA, but also include an additional set of proteins that repeatedly show signatures of positive selection during allopatric divergence. Although our results are consistent with a contribution of nonadaptive processes, such as genetic drift and gene expression levels, generating repeatable patterns of genomic divergence in closely related taxa, they also indicate that adaptive evolution targeting a specific set of genes contributes to this pattern. Our results yield insights into the predictability of evolution at the gene level.

Large-scale sequence comparisons with sourmash.

The sourmash software package uses MinHash-based sketching to create "signatures", compressed representations of DNA, RNA, and protein sequences, that can be stored, searched, explored, and taxonomically annotated. sourmash signatures can be used to estimate sequence similarity between very large data sets quickly and in low memory, and can be used to search large databases of genomes for matches to query genomes and metagenomes. sourmash is implemented in C++, Rust, and Python, and is freely available under the BSD license at http://github.com/dib-lab/sourmash.

Development of Embryonic Market Squid, Doryteuthis opalescens, under Chronic Exposure to Low Environmental pH and [O2].

The market squid, Doryteuthis opalescens, is an important forage species for the inshore ecosystems of the California Current System. Due to increased upwelling and expansion of the oxygen minimum zone in the California Current Ecosystem, the inshore environment is expected to experience lower pH and [O2] conditions in the future, potentially impacting the development of seafloor-attached encapsulated embryos. To understand the consequences of this co-occurring environmental pH and [O2] stress for D. opalescens encapsulated embryos, we performed two laboratory experiments. In Experiment 1, embryo capsules were chronically exposed to a treatment of higher (normal) pH (7.93) and [O2] (242 µM) or a treatment of low pH (7.57) and [O2] (80 µM), characteristic of upwelling events and/or La Niña conditions. The low pH and low [O2] treatment extended embryo development duration by 5-7 days; embryos remained at less developed stages more often and had 54.7% smaller statolith area at a given embryo size. Importantly, the embryos that did develop to mature embryonic stages grew to sizes that were similar (non-distinct) to those exposed to the high pH and high [O2] treatment. In Experiment 2, we exposed encapsulated embryos to a single stressor, low pH (7.56) or low [O2] (85 µM), to understand the importance of environmental pH and [O2] rising and falling together for squid embryogenesis. Embryos in the low pH only treatment had smaller yolk reserves and bigger statoliths compared to those in low [O2] only treatment. These results suggest that D. opalescens developmental duration and statolith size are impacted by exposure to environmental [O2] and pH (pCO2) and provide insight into embryo resilience to these effects.