March 2025 · 7 Articles · Pages 1–99
March 2025
Open Access7 Articles · Pages 1–99
As the Journal of Life Science enters its twelfth year of publication, we reflect on the remarkable growth of both the journal and the broader life sciences community. This editorial highlights milestones in our publication history, acknowledges the contributions of our reviewers and editorial board, and outlines our strategic vision for expanding interdisciplinary research and global representation among our authors.
Non-coding RNAs, including microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and circular RNAs, have emerged as critical regulators of plant responses to abiotic and biotic stress. This review consolidates recent findings on the roles of these regulatory molecules in drought, salinity, heat, and pathogen defense across model and crop species. We discuss the potential for leveraging non-coding RNA pathways to engineer stress-resilient crops through both transgenic and non-transgenic approaches.
Urban wastewater treatment plants serve as critical nodes in the environmental dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Using shotgun metagenomic sequencing of influent and effluent samples from six municipal treatment facilities, we identified over 340 unique ARGs spanning all major resistance classes. Our analysis reveals that conventional treatment processes reduce but do not eliminate ARG diversity, with certain beta-lactamase and fluoroquinolone resistance genes persisting through tertiary treatment stages.
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is implicated in value-based decision-making, yet causal evidence for specific neuronal population contributions remains limited. Using cell-type-specific optogenetic activation and inhibition in mice performing a probabilistic reward task, we demonstrate that excitatory neurons in layer 5 of the mPFC are necessary and sufficient for adaptive switching behavior. These results establish a causal link between prefrontal circuit activity and flexible decision-making.
Phylogenetic relationships within the family Canidae have been debated due to rapid radiation events and incomplete lineage sorting. We assembled and analyzed complete mitochondrial genomes from 34 canid species, including several previously unsequenced taxa. Our maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses resolve several long-standing polytomies and suggest a revised divergence timeline that places the origin of the South American canid clade approximately 2 million years earlier than previous estimates.
Bottom-up construction of minimal cells represents a grand challenge in synthetic biology. We describe the in vitro assembly of membrane-enclosed compartments containing a reconstituted transcription-translation system, energy regeneration machinery, and a minimal genome of 153 genes. These synthetic cells sustain protein expression for up to 72 hours and undergo limited growth, representing a significant step toward fully self-replicating artificial cells.
We present a simplified and cost-effective protocol for extracting ancient DNA from permafrost sediment samples. Our method incorporates a novel silica-based purification step that reduces co-extraction of humic acid inhibitors by 85% compared to standard protocols. Validation on Pleistocene permafrost cores from Siberia demonstrates improved library complexity and mapping rates for both mammalian and microbial ancient DNA recovery.