A team led by investigators at Charles University in Prague this week present salivary gland transcriptomes and proteomes for Phlebotomus tobbi and Phlebotomus sergenti, two sand fly species that are vectors of leishmaniasis. "These transcriptomic and proteomic analyses provide a better understanding of sand fly salivary proteins across species and subgenera that will be vital in vector-pathogen and vector-host research," the authors write in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Over in PLoS One, Emory University School of Medicine's Peng Jin and his colleagues report on mRNAs and miRNAs that show circadian rhythm-dependent altered expression in dfmr1 mutant Drosophila.
And in PLoS Genetics, researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine and elsewhere show that a duplication in 17p11.2 is obesity-opposing in the Dp(11)17 mouse strain that shows this copy-number alteration. "When fed with a high-fat diet, Dp(11)17/+ mice display much less weight gain and metabolic change than WT [wild-type] mice, demonstrating that the Dp(11)17 CNV [copy-number variant] protects against metabolic syndrome," the authors write.