Sparse coding is thought to improve discrimination of sensory stimuli by reducing overlap between their representations. Two factors, however, can offset sparse coding's advantages. Similar sensory stimuli have significant overlap, and responses vary across trials. To elucidate the effect of these two factors, we analyzed odor responses in the fly and mouse olfactory regions implicated in learning and discrimination --- the Mushroom Body (MB) and the Piriform Cortex (PCx). In both species, we show that neuronal responses fall along a continuum from extremely reliable across trials to extremely variable or stochastic. Computationally, we show that the range of observed variability arises from probabilistic synapses in inhibitory feedback connections within central circuits rather than sensory noise, as is traditionally assumed. We propose this coding scheme to be advantageous for coarse- and fine-odor discrimination. More reliable cells enable quick discrimination between dissimilar odors. For similar odors, however, these cells overlap, and do not provide distinguishing information. By contrast, more unreliable cells are decorrelated for similar odors, providing distinguishing information, though this requires extended training with more trials. Overall, we have uncovered a stochastic coding scheme that is conserved in vertebrates and invertebrates, and we identify a candidate mechanism, based on variability in a winner-take-all inhibitory circuit, that improves discrimination with training.

Nondestructive chemical processing of porous samples such as fixed biological tissues typically relies on molecular diffusion. Diffusion into a porous structure is a slow process that significantly delays completion of chemical processing. Here, we present a novel electrokinetic method termed stochastic electrotransport for rapid nondestructive processing of porous samples. This method uses a rotational electric field to selectively disperse highly electromobile molecules throughout a porous sample without displacing the low-electromobility molecules that constitute the sample. Using computational models, we show that stochastic electrotransport can rapidly disperse electromobile molecules in a porous medium. We apply this method to completely clear mouse organs within 1–3 days and to stain them with nuclear dyes, proteins, and antibodies within 1 day. Our results demonstrate the potential of stochastic electrotransport to process large and dense tissue samples that were previously infeasible in time when relying on diffusion.

Our ability to unambiguously image and track individual molecules in live cells is limited by packing of multiple copies of labeled molecules within the resolution limit. Here we devise a universal genetic strategy to precisely control protein copy number in a cell. This system has a dynamic titration range of more than 10,000 fold, enabling sparse labeling of proteins expressed at widely different levels. Combined with fluorescence signal amplification tags, this system extends the duration of automated single-molecule tracking by 2 orders of magnitude. We demonstrate long-term imaging of synaptic vesicle dynamics in cultured neurons as well as in live zebrafish. We found that axon initial segment utilizes a waterfall mechanism gating synaptic vesicle transport polarity by promoting anterograde transport processivity. Long-time observation also reveals that transcription factor Sox2 samples clustered binding sites in spatially-restricted sub-nuclear regions, suggesting that topological structures in the nucleus shape local gene activities by a sequestering mechanism. This strategy thus greatly expands the spatiotemporal length scales of live-cell single-molecule measurements for a quantitative understanding of complex control of molecular dynamics in vivo.

This paper presents a Laser-based particle detector whose response was enhanced by modulating the Laser diode with a white-noise generator. A Laser sheet was generated to cast a shadow of the object on a 200 dots per inch, 512 x 1 pixels linear sensor array. The Laser diode was modulated with a white-noise generator to achieve stochastic resonance. The white-noise generator essentially amplified the wide-bandwidth (several hundred MHz) noise produced by a reverse-biased zener diode operating in junction-breakdown mode. The gain in the amplifier in the white-noise generator was set such that the Receiver Operating Characteristics plot provided the best discriminability. A monofiber 40 AWG (approximately 80 microm) wire was detected with approximately 88% True Positive rate and approximately 19% False Positive rate in presence of white-noise modulation and with approximately 71% True Positive rate and approximately 15% False Positive rate in absence of white-noise modulation.

MOTIVATION: Caenorhabditis elegans, a roundworm found in soil, is a widely studied model organism with about 1000 cells in the adult. Producing high-resolution fluorescence images of C.elegans to reveal biological insights is becoming routine, motivating the development of advanced computational tools for analyzing the resulting image stacks. For example, worm bodies usually curve significantly in images. Thus one must ’straighten’ the worms if they are to be compared under a canonical coordinate system. RESULTS: We develop a worm straightening algorithm (WSA) that restacks cutting planes orthogonal to a ’backbone’ that models the anterior-posterior axis of the worm. We formulate the backbone as a parametric cubic spline defined by a series of control points. We develop two methods for automatically determining the locations of the control points. Our experimental methods show that our approaches effectively straighten both 2D and 3D worm images.

C. elegans, a roundworm in soil is widely used in studying animal development and aging, cell differentiation, etc. Recentlv, high-resolution fluorescence images of C. elegans have become available, introducing several new image analysis applications. One problem is that worm bodies usually curve greatly in images, thus it is highly desired to straighten worms so that they can be compared easily under the same canonical coordinate system. We develop a worm straightening algorithm (WSA) using a cutting-plane restacking method, which aggregates the linear rotation transforms of a continuous sequence of cutting lines/planes orthogonal to the "backbone" of a worm to best approximate the nonlinearly bended worm body. We formulate the backbone as a parametric form of cubic spline of a series of control points. We develop two minimum-spanning-tree based methods to automatically determine the locations of control points. Our experimental methods show that our approach can effectively straighten both 2D and 3D worm images.

Spatiotemporal correlations in brain activity are functionally important and have been implicated in perception, learning and plasticity, exploratory behavior, and various aspects of cognition. Neurons in the cerebral cortex are strongly interacting. Their activity is temporally irregular and can exhibit substantial correlations. However, how the collective dynamics of highly recurrent and strongly interacting neurons can evolve into a state in which the activity of individual cells is highly irregular yet macroscopically correlated is an open question. Here, we develop a general theory that relates the strength of pairwise correlations to the anatomical features of networks of strongly coupled neurons. To this end, we investigate networks of binary units. When interactions are strong, the activity is irregular in a large region of parameter space. We find that despite the strong interactions, the correlations are generally very weak. Nevertheless, we identify architectural features, which if present, give rise to strong correlations without destroying the irregularity of the activity. For networks with such features, we determine how correlations scale with the network size and the number of connections. Our work shows the mechanism by which strong correlations can be consistent with highly irregular activity, two hallmarks of neuronal dynamics in the central nervous system.

The amino acid, polyamine, and organocation (APC) superfamily is the second largest superfamily of membrane proteins forming secondary transporters that move a range of organic molecules across the cell membrane. Each transporter in the APC superfamily is specific for a unique subset of substrates, even if they possess a similar structural fold. The mechanism of substrate selectivity remains, by and large, elusive. Here, we report two crystal structures of an APC member from , the alanine or glycine:cation symporter (AgcS), with l- or d-alanine bound. Structural analysis combined with site-directed mutagenesis and functional studies inform on substrate binding, specificity, and modulation of the AgcS family and reveal key structural features that allow this transporter to accommodate glycine and alanine while excluding all other amino acids. Mutation of key residues in the substrate binding site expand the selectivity to include valine and leucine. These studies provide initial insights into substrate selectivity in AgcS symporters.

The phenotypical severity of sickle cell disease (SCD) can be mitigated by modifying mutant hemoglobin S (Hb S, Hb α2β2s) to contain embryonic ζ globin in place of adult α-globin subunits (Hb ζ2β2s). Crystallographical analyses of liganded Hb ζζ2β2s, though, demonstrate a tense (T-state) quaternary structure that paradoxically predicts its participation in--rather than its exclusion from--pathological deoxyHb S polymers. We resolved this structure-function conundrum by examining the effects of α → ζ exchange on the characteristics of specific amino acids that mediate sickle polymer assembly. Superposition analyses of the βs subunits of T-state deoxyHb α2β2s and T-state CO-liganded Hb ζ2β2s reveal significant displacements of both mutant βsVal6 and conserved β-chain contact residues, predicting weakening of corresponding polymer-stabilizing interactions. Similar comparisons of the α- and ζ-globin subunits implicate four amino acids that are either repositioned or undergo non-conservative substitution, abrogating critical polymer contacts. CO-Hb ζ2βs2 additionally exhibits a unique trimer-of-heterotetramers crystal packing that is sustained by novel intermolecular interactions involving the pathological βsVal6, contrasting sharply with the classical double-stranded packing of deoxyHb S. Finally, the unusually large buried solvent-accessible surface area for CO-Hb ζ2β2s suggests that it does not co-assemble with deoxyHb S in vivo  . In sum, the antipolymer activities of Hb ζ2β2s appear to arise from both repositioning and replacement of specific α- and βs-chain residues, favoring an alternate T-state solution structure that is excluded from pathological deoxyHb S polymers. These data account for the antipolymer activity of Hb ζ2β2s, and recommend the utility of SCD therapeutics that capitalize on α-globin exchange strategies.

Mitochondrial antiviral signaling (MAVS) protein is required for innate immune responses against RNA viruses. In virus-infected cells MAVS forms prion-like aggregates to activate antiviral signaling cascades, but the underlying structural mechanism is unknown. Here we report cryo-electron microscopic structures of the helical filaments formed by both the N-terminal caspase activation and recruitment domain (CARD) of MAVS and a truncated MAVS lacking part of the proline-rich region and the C-terminal transmembrane domain. Both structures are left-handed three-stranded helical filaments, revealing specific interfaces between individual CARD subunits that are dictated by electrostatic interactions between neighboring strands and hydrophobic interactions within each strand. Point mutations at multiple locations of these two interfaces impaired filament formation and antiviral signaling. Super-resolution imaging of virus-infected cells revealed rod-shaped MAVS clusters on mitochondria. These results elucidate the structural mechanism of MAVS polymerization, and explain how an α-helical domain uses distinct chemical interactions to form self-perpetuating filaments. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01489.001.