A re-analysis of classic psychology studies suggests that tyranny does not result from blind conformity to rules and roles, but may involve identification with authorities who represent vicious acts a...

Spillover of influenza A viruses from animals to humans represents a threat to our health. This Perspective discusses emerging research that suggests some influenza A viruses can enter host cells via…

Spillover of influenza A viruses from animals to humans represents a threat to our health. This Perspective discusses emerging research that suggests some influenza A viruses can enter host cells via…

by Romuald Haase, Bingjian Ren, Albert Tell i Puig, Alessandro Bonavoglia, Jean-Baptiste Marq, Rémy Visentin, Nicolas Dos Santos Pacheco, Bohumil Maco, Ricardo Mondragón-Flores, Oscar Vadas, Dominique Soldati-Favre The conoid is a dynamic, tubulin-based structure conserved across the Apicomplexa that undergoes extrusion during egress, gliding motility, and invasion in Toxoplasma gondii. This organelle traverses the apical polar ring (APR) in response to calcium waves and plays a critical role in controlling parasite motility. While the actomyosin-dependent extrusion of the conoid is beginning to be elucidated, the mechanism by which it remains apically anchored to the APR is still unclear. RNG2, a protein localized to both the conoid and the APR, has emerged as a strong candidate for mediating this connection. Biochemical analysis revealed that RNG2 is an unstable protein, undergoing extensive proteolytic cleavage both in the parasite and in heterologous expression systems. Its biochemical properties, with the presence of large coiled-coil domains, likely facilitate the formation of concatenated assemblies, enabling RNG2 to serve as a dynamic and resilient bridge between the conoid and the APR. Using a combination of iterative ultrastructure expansion microscopy and immunoelectron microscopy, we confirmed the localization of RNG2 to the 22 tethering elements bridging the APR and the conoid. Conditional depletion of RNG2 led to the striking detachment of the intact conoid organelle from the APR, supporting an essential role for RNG2 as a tether. Cryo-electron tomography of conoid-less parasites revealed that, in the absence of RNG2, the apical vesicle remains anchored to the plasma membrane, while the rhoptries follow the detached conoid. Although RNG2 depletion only mildly reduces microneme secretion, the parasites are immotile and exhibit impaired rhoptry discharge, highlighting the critical role of proper conoid anchorage in motility and host cell invasion. Comprehensive mutagenesis of RNG2 identified distinct regions responsible for binding to the conoid and the APR, and demonstrated that the full-length, intact protein is essential for bridging these two structures and for its functional activity. Altogether, RNG2 emerges as a pivotal protein that ensures conoid functionality and coordination in Coccidia.

Spillover of influenza A viruses from animals to humans represents a threat to our health. This Perspective discusses emerging research that suggests some influenza A viruses can enter host cells via…

Is all conservation good? This Perspective argues that the prevalent strategy of focusing on charismatic species may be counterproductive if conservation impact measures are oversimplistic and do not ...

Ever experienced a moment of flow when working with another human to achieve a common goal, almost as if you and your collaborator are tuned in to each other's brains? You may have literally been 'in ...

Author summary The protein p27 is a nuclear cell cycle inhibitor that can be shuttled to the cytoplasm to inactivate its inhibitory role, and this mechanism is thought to be used by cancer cells to un...

Syndromes caused by chromosome amplification, such as Down syndrome, are characterized by premature aging, but the reason behind this is unclear. This study shows that chromosome amplification in yeas...

by Denise Moerel, Tijl Grootswagers, Genevieve L. Quek, Sophie Smit, Manuel Varlet Social interactions shape our perception of the world, influencing how we interpret incoming information. Alignment between interacting individuals’ sensory and cognitive processes is key to successful cooperation and communication, but the neural processes underlying this alignment remain unknown. Here, we leveraged Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) on electroencephalography (EEG) hyperscanning data to investigate information alignment in 24 pairs of participants who performed a categorization task together based on agreed-upon rules. Significant interbrain information alignment emerged within 45 ms of stimulus presentation and persisted for hundreds of milliseconds. Early alignment (45–180 ms) occurred in both real and randomly matched pseudo-pairs, reflecting shared sensory responses. Importantly, alignment after 200 ms strengthened with practice and was unique to real pairs, driven by shared representations associated with, and extending beyond, the categorization rules they formed. Together, these findings highlight distinct processes underpinning interbrain information alignment during social interactions, that can be effectively captured and disentangled with Interbrain RSA.

Des scientifiques dévoilent dans PLOS Biology comment le cerveau communique grâce à des assemblées de neurones capables d’activer sélectivement d'aut