To understand the mystery of life, it is important to accumulate genomic information for various organisms because the whole genome encodes the commands for all the genes. Since the genome of Strongylocentrotus purpratus was sequenced in 2006 as the first sequenced genome in echinoderms, the genomic resources of other North American sea urchins have gradually been accumulated, but no sea urchin genomes are available in other areas, where many scientists have used the local species and reported important results. In this manuscript, we report a draft genome of the sea urchin Hemincentrotus pulcherrimus because this species has a long history as the target of developmental and cell biology in East Asia. The genome of H. pulcherrimus was assembled into 16,251 scaffold sequences with an N50 length of 143 kbp, and approximately 25,000 genes were identified in the genome. The size of the genome and the sequencing coverage were estimated to be approximately 800 Mbp and 100×, respectively. To provide these data and information of annotation, we constructed a database, HpBase (http://cell-innovation.nig.ac.jp/Hpul/). In HpBase, gene searches, genome browsing, and blast searches are available. In addition, HpBase includes the "recipes" for experiments from each lab using H. pulcherrimus. These recipes will continue to be updated according to the circumstances of individual scientists and can be powerful tools for experimental biologists and for the community. HpBase is a suitable dataset for evolutionary, developmental, and cell biologists to compare H. pulcherrimus genomic information with that of other species and to isolate gene information.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells are highly dependent on oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) for survival and continually adapt to fluctuations in nutrient and oxygen availability in the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment. We investigated how the BM microenvironment affects the response to OxPhos inhibition in AML by using a novel complex I OxPhos inhibitor, IACS-010759. Cellular adhesion, growth, and apoptosis assays, along with measurements of mtDNA expression and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species generation, indicated that direct interactions with BM stromal cells triggered compensatory activation of mitochondrial respiration and resistance to OxPhos inhibition in AML cells. Mechanistically, OxPhos inhibition induced (1) transfer of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived mitochondria to AML cells via tunneling nanotubes under direct-contact coculture conditions, and (2) mitochondrial fission with an increase in functional mitochondria and mitophagy in AML cells. Mitochondrial fission is known to enhance cell migration, and we observed mitochondrial transport to the leading edge of protrusions of migrating AML cells toward MSCs by electron microscopy analysis. We further demonstrated that cytarabine, a commonly used antileukemia agent, increased OxPhos inhibition-triggered mitochondrial transfer from MSCs to AML cells. Our findings indicate an important role of exogenous mitochondrial trafficking from BM stromal cells to AML cells as well as endogenous mitochondrial fission and mitophagy in the compensatory adaptation of leukemia cells to energetic stress in the BM microenvironment.

A major challenge in analyzing the data from high-throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) is how to handle the huge amounts of data and variety of NGS tools and visualize the resultant outputs. To address these issues, we developed a cloud-based data analysis platform, Maser (Management and Analysis System for Enormous Reads), and an original genome browser, Genome Explorer (GE). Maser enables users to manage up to 2 terabytes of data to conduct analyses with easy graphical user interface operations and offers analysis pipelines in which several individual tools are combined as a single pipeline for very common and standard analyses. GE automatically visualizes genome assembly and mapping results output from Maser pipelines, without requiring additional data upload. With this function, the Maser pipelines can graphically display the results output from all the embedded tools and mapping results in a web browser. Therefore Maser realized a more user-friendly analysis platform especially for beginners by improving graphical display and providing the selected standard pipelines that work with built-in genome browser. In addition, all the analyses executed on Maser are recorded in the analysis history, helping users to trace and repeat the analyses. The entire process of analysis and its histories can be shared with collaborators or opened to the public. In conclusion, our system is useful for managing, analyzing, and visualizing NGS data and achieves traceability, reproducibility, and transparency of NGS analysis. Database URL: http://cell-innovation.nig.ac.jp/maser/

know of no comparative cross-cultural research on vocal rates of infant boys and girls nor on possible differences in caregiver speech to boys and girls across cultures. A non-signifi cant tendency for caregivers to speak more to boys was seen in our data (see Supplemental Results), and other possible cultural factors could also infl uence sex differences in infant vocal rates (see Supplemental Discussion).It is possible that the sex difference is not closely related to language capability -the CBR did not show a sex difference -but rather to a difference in the tendency to vocalize, perhaps owing to sex differences in motoric activity level in infancy [7]. Boys might be said to show higher quantity but not quality in protophone production. Another hypothesis can be formulated in conjunction with a proposed explanation for the high rate (thousands per day throughout the fi rst year) of human protophone production in both sexes (see Supplemental Discussion). The protophones appear to be produced largely endogenously -they are most commonly not directed toward other speakers, occurring at a rate of approximately four per minute even when infants are alone [8]. Even infants born more than two months prematurely and still in neonatal intensive care produce prodigious numbers of protophones [2]. Furthermore, as noted above, there is no sign that deafness reduces protophone rates [5].This audible endogenous motoric activity, usually produced by infants in comfort, might be motivated by its value as a fi tness signal for the altricial human infant, competing for parental investment [9]. One might then suggest that evolution has led to boys signaling their fi tness more frequently than girls because they are more vulnerable to death in the fi rst year [10]. This fi tness signaling hypothesis could be explored, for example, by correlating parental investment with infant protophone rates. We are, however, seeking other possible explanations for this unexpected sex difference in infant vocal rates (see Supplemental Discussion).

To clarify the morphological variety of larval skeletons, a detailed morphological comparison among the species of the family Echinometridae was performed. Through conspeci¢c comparison of larval skeletons among di¡erent ages, we found ¢ve skeletal characters of the body skeleton that are stable in the fourarmed pluteus and thus useful in homologous comparison among the species. The morphological variation was summarized as the di¡erence in the number of spines and posteroventral transverse rods, and di¡erences in the shape of the body skeleton. Signi¢cant correlations were found between some skeletal characters, such as between upper body length and bottom width of body skeleton and between lower body length and the number of spines. We found that the larval skeletons of tropical species tend to have fewer spines and rods than those of temperate species, which is consistent with the hypothesis that a reduction in skeletal elements decreases the speci¢c gravity of larvae as an adaptation to tropical waters.