Micro and macroevolution of sea anemone venom phenotype.

Venom is a complex trait with substantial inter- and intraspecific variability resulting from strong selective pressures acting on the expression of many toxic proteins. However, understanding the processes underlying toxin expression dynamics that determine the venom phenotype remains unresolved. By interspecific comparisons we reveal that toxin expression in sea anemones evolves rapidly and that in each species different toxin family dictates the venom phenotype by massive gene duplication events. In-depth analysis of the sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, revealed striking variation of the dominant toxin (Nv1) diploid copy number across populations (1-24 copies) resulting from independent expansion/contraction events, which generate distinct haplotypes. Nv1 copy number correlates with expression at both the transcript and protein levels with one population having a near-complete loss of Nv1 production. Finally, we establish the dominant toxin hypothesis which incorporates observations in other venomous lineages that animals have convergently evolved a similar strategy in shaping their venom.

After Detection: The Improved Accuracy of Lung Cancer Assessment Using Radiologic Computer-aided Diagnosis.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the improved accuracy of radiologic assessment of lung cancer afforded by computer-aided diagnosis (CADx). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Inclusion/exclusion criteria were formulated, and a systematic inquiry of research databases was conducted. Following title and abstract review, an in-depth review of 149 surviving articles was performed with accepted articles undergoing a Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS)-based quality review and data abstraction. RESULTS: A total of 14 articles, representing 1868 scans, passed the review. Increases in the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area under the curve of .8 or higher were seen in all nine studies that reported it, except for one that employed subspecialized radiologists. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review demonstrated improved accuracy of lung cancer assessment using CADx over manual review, in eight high-quality observer-performance studies. The improved accuracy afforded by radiologic lung-CADx suggests the need to explore its use in screening and regular clinical workflow.