Project description:microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs, are key regulators of gene expression at post-transcriptional level and play essential roles in fundamental biological processes such as development and metabolism. Here, we perform a comprehensive analysis of miRNAs in the zoonotic parasite E. canadensis G7, one of the causative agents of the neglected disease cystic echinococcosis. Small RNA libraries from protoscoleces and cyst walls of E. canadensis G7 and protoscoleces of E. granulosus sensu stricto G1 were sequenced using Illumina technology. As a result, we found transcriptional evidence of 37 miRNAs thus expanding the miRNA repertoire of E. canadensis G7. Differential expression analysis showed significant regulated miRNAs between life cycle stages of E. canadensis G7. We confirmed the remarkable loss of conserved miRNA families in E. canadensis, reflecting their low morphological complexity and high adaptation to parasitism. This study will provide valuable information for better understanding the complex biology of this parasite and could help to find new potential targets for therapy and/or diagnosis.
Project description:microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs, are key regulators of gene expression at post-transcriptional level and play essential roles in fundamental biological processes such as development and metabolism. Here, we perform a comprehensive analysis of miRNAs in the zoonotic parasite E. canadensis G7, one of the causative agents of the neglected disease cystic echinococcosis. Small RNA libraries from protoscoleces and cyst walls of E. canadensis G7 and protoscoleces of E. granulosus sensu stricto G1 were sequenced using Illumina technology. As a result, we found transcriptional evidence of 37 miRNAs thus expanding the miRNA repertoire of E. canadensis G7. Differential expression analysis showed significant regulated miRNAs between life cycle stages of E. canadensis G7. We confirmed the remarkable loss of conserved miRNA families in E. canadensis, reflecting their low morphological complexity and high adaptation to parasitism. This study will provide valuable information for better understanding the complex biology of this parasite and could help to find new potential targets for therapy and/or diagnosis. Small RNA libraries from protoscoleces and cyst walls of E. canadensis G7 and protoscoleces of E. granulosus sensu stricto G1 were sequenced using Illumina technology. For each sample type, two libraries were constructed from two independent samples in order to have biological replicates.
Project description:In the past 20 years, research in animal cognition has challenged the belief that complex cognitive processes are uniquely human. At the forefront of these challenges has been research on mental time travel and future planning in jays. We tested whether Canada jays (Perisoreus canadensis) demonstrated future planning, using a procedure that has produced evidence of future planning in California scrub-jays. Future planning in this procedure is caching in locations where the bird will predictably experience a lack of food in the future. Canada jays showed no evidence of future planning in this sense and instead cached in the location where food was usually available, opposite to the behaviour described for California scrub-jays. We provide potential explanations for these differing results adding to the recent debates about the role of complex cognition in corvid caching strategies.