Deadly surge in Delhi: In the spring of 2021, Delhi, India experienced a wave of coronavirus cases that overwhelmed healthcare services despite the population showing a high level of immune positivity. Dhar et al . collated a mixture of serosurveillance, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and genomic data, finding that waves of variants had passed through the Delhi population during 2020 and 2021. The alpha (B.1.1.7) variant dominated in March 2021 and was rapidly replaced by the delta (B.1.617.2) variant in April and May 2021. The delta variant outcompeted its predecessors by mutations that enhanced replication, immune evasion, and host receptor avidity, thus increasing transmissibility, reinfection, and vaccination breakthrough. —CA

The box jellyfish, Chironex fleckeri, is the largest and most dangerous cubozoan jellyfish to humans. It produces potent and rapid-acting venom and its sting causes severe localized and systemic effects that are potentially life-threatening. In this study, a combined transcriptomic and proteomic approach was used to identify C. fleckeri proteins that elicit toxic effects in envenoming. More than 40,000,000 Illumina reads were used to de novo assemble ∼ 34,000 contiguous cDNA sequences and ∼ 20,000 proteins were predicted based on homology searches, protein motifs, gene ontology and biological pathway mapping. More than 170 potential toxin proteins were identified from the transcriptome on the basis of homology to known toxins in publicly available sequence databases. MS/MS analysis of C. fleckeri venom identified over 250 proteins, including a subset of the toxins predicted from analysis of the transcriptome. Potential toxins identified using MS/MS included metalloproteinases, an alpha-macroglobulin domain containing protein, two CRISP proteins and a turripeptide-like protease inhibitor. Nine novel examples of a taxonomically restricted family of potent cnidarian pore-forming toxins were also identified. Members of this toxin family are potently haemolytic and cause pain, inflammation, dermonecrosis, cardiovascular collapse and death in experimental animals, suggesting that these toxins are responsible for many of the symptoms of C. fleckeri envenomation. This study provides the first overview of a box jellyfish transcriptome which, coupled with venom proteomics data, enhances our current understanding of box jellyfish venom composition and the molecular structure and function of cnidarian toxins. The generated data represent a useful resource to guide future comparative studies, novel protein/peptide discovery and the development of more effective treatments for jellyfish stings in humans. (Length: 300).

Heterogeneity amidst healthy individuals at genomic level is being widely acknowledged. This, in turn, is modulated by differential response to environmental cues and treatment regimens, necessitating the need for stratified/personalized therapy. We intend to understand the molecular determinants of Ayurvedic way (ancient Indian system of medicine) of endo-phenotyping individuals into distinct constitution types termed “Prakriti,” which forms the basis of personalized treatment. In this study, we explored and analyzed the healthy human gut microbiome structure within three predominant Prakriti groups from a genetically homogenous cohort to discover differentially abundant taxa, using 16S rRNA gene based microbial community profiling. We found Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes as major gut microbial components in varying composition, albeit with similar trend across Prakriti. Multiple species of the core microbiome showed differential abundance within Prakriti types, with gender specific signature taxons. Our study reveals that despite overall uniform composition of gut microbial community, healthy individuals belonging to different Prakriti groups have enrichment of specific bacteria. It highlights the importance of Prakriti based endo-phenotypes to explain the variability amongst healthy individuals in gut microbial flora that have important consequences for an individual's health, disease and treatment.