Biology subjects

Szabo, N.

Publications and source records attributed to Szabo, N..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Enhancing Retrieval Capacity of the Predictive Brain through Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Intervention

The ability to extract spatial or temporal regularities across experiences is crucial for skill development and predictive processes. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role in modulating competitive memory systems, supporting declarative/episodic memory as opposed to statistical learning. This regulatory role may explain findings of improved acquisition and consolidation of statistical regularities following the suppression of dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). This raises a key question: Is access to models and prior statistical knowledge also modulated by the DLPFC? This preregistered study provides new insights by examining the role of the DLPFC in retrieving pre-existing knowledge of temporally distributed statistical regularities. Using a probabilistic learning task, healthy participants engaged in implicit statistical learning for 25 minutes. After a 24-hour consolidation period, participants received either 1 Hz rTMS or sham stimulation over the left, right, or bilateral DLPFC for 10 minutes before retesting. We found more effective access to statistical regularities in the bilateral DLPFC group compared to the sham group. Our results suggest that DLPFC suppression enhances the retrieval of statistical knowledge, particularly when interhemispheric compensatory mechanisms are prevented. These findings contribute to understanding competitive memory systems and offer implications for cognitive enhancement strategies.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

The reference genome of the paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis)

Over the decades, a small number of model species, each representative of a larger taxa, have dominated the field of biological research. Amongst fishes, zebrafish (Danio rerio) has gained popularity over most other species and while their value as a model is well documented, their usefulness is limited in certain fields of research such as behavior. By embracing other, less conventional experimental organisms, opportunities arise to gain broader insights into evolution and development, as well as studying behavioral aspects not available in current popular model systems. The anabantoid paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis), an "air-breather" species from Southeast Asia, has a highly complex behavioral repertoire and has been the subject of many ethological investigations, but lacks genomic resources. Here we report the reference genome assembly of Macropodus opercularis using long-read sequences at 150-fold coverage. The final assembly consisted of {approx}483 Mb on 152 contigs. Within the assembled genome we identified and annotated 20,157 protein coding genes and assigned {approx}90% of them to orthogroups. Completeness analysis showed that 98.5% of the Actinopterygii core gene set (ODB10) was present as a complete ortholog in our reference genome with a further 1.2 % being present in a fragmented form. Additionally, we cloned multiple genes important during early development and using newly developed in situ hybridization protocols, we showed that they have conserved expression patterns.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2023

Experimental evolution of hybrid populations to identify Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibility loci

Epistatic interactions between loci that reduce fitness in inter-species hybrids, Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibilities (DMIs), contribute genetically to the inviability and infertility within hybrid populations. It remains a challenge, however, to identify the loci that contribute to DMIs as causes of reproductive isolation between species. Here, we assess through forward simulation the power of evolve and resequence experimental evolution of hybrid populations to map DMI loci. We document conditions under which such a mapping strategy may be most feasible and demonstrate how mapping power is sensitive to biologically relevant parameters such as one-way versus two-way incompatibility type, selection strength, recombination rate, and dominance interactions. We also assess the influence of parameters under direct control of an experimenter, including duration of experimental evolution and number of replicate populations. We conclude that an evolve and re-sequence strategy for mapping DMI loci, and other cases of epistasis, can be a viable option under some circumstances for study systems with short generation times like Caenorhabditis nematodes.

evolutionary biology↗