ORFanID: A web-based search engine for the discovery and identification of orphan and taxonomically restricted genes.

With the numerous genomes sequenced today, it has been revealed that a noteworthy percentage of genes in a given taxon of organisms in the phylogenetic tree of life do not have orthologous sequences in other taxa. These sequences are commonly referred to as "orphans" or "ORFans" if found as single occurrences in a single species or as "taxonomically restricted genes" (TRGs) when found at higher taxonomic levels. Quantitative and collective studies of these genes are necessary for understanding their biological origins. However, the current software for identifying orphan genes is limited in its functionality, database search range, and very complex algorithmically. Thus, researchers studying orphan genes must harvest their data from many disparate sources. ORFanID is a graphical web-based search engine that facilitates the efficient identification of both orphan genes and TRGs at all taxonomic levels, from DNA or amino acid sequences in the NCBI database cluster and other large bioinformatics repositories. The software allows users to identify genes that are unique to any taxonomic rank, from species to domain, using NCBI systematic classifiers. It provides control over NCBI database search parameters, and the results are presented in a spreadsheet as well as a graphical display. The tables in the software are sortable, and results can be filtered using the fuzzy search functionality. The visual presentation can be expanded and collapsed by the taxonomic tree to its various branches. Example results from searches on five species and gene expression data from specific orphan genes are provided in the Supplementary Information.

Research mentoring and scientist identity: insights from undergraduates and their mentors.

BACKGROUND: Mentored research apprenticeships are a common feature of academic outreach programs that aim to promote diversity in science fields. The current study tests for links between three forms of mentoring (instrumental, socioemotional, and negative) and the degree to which undergraduates psychologically identify with science. Participants were 66 undergraduate-mentor dyads who worked together in a research apprenticeship. The undergraduate sample was predominantly composed of women, first-generation college students, and members of ethnic groups that are historically underrepresented in science. RESULTS: Findings illustrated that undergraduates who reported receiving more instrumental and socioemotional mentoring were higher in scientist identity. Further, mentors who reported engaging in higher levels of negative mentoring had undergraduates with lower scientist identity. Qualitative data from undergraduates' mentors provided deeper insight into their motivation to become mentors and how they reason about conflict in their mentoring relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Discussion highlights theoretical implications and details several methodological recommendations.

I'm outgoing and she's reserved: the reciprocal dynamics of personality in close friendships in young adulthood.

Close college-age friendships provide differential opportunities for reinforcing dispositional tendencies and fostering accommodation or change. This finding was obtained from a cross-sectional study of 66 pairs of same-sex college-age friends (58% female). Each pair of friends was extreme and either very similar or different with regard to extraversion-introversion. Interviews with each friend were analyzed for references to each other's role in various friendship domains, including the setting of the friendship and position with regard to chatting, disclosing, expressing opinions about peers, and energizing the friendship. Matched friends mutually reinforced each other's similar dispositional tendencies. Friends with contrasting personalities showed patterns of personality accommodation as well as complementary reinforcement. Implications are discussed for embedding reciprocal theories of personality development in close friendships.

Caught in the Act: How Extraverted and Introverted Friends Communally Cope with Being Recorded.

This study explored how close friends who were similar or opposite on extraversion communally coped with being put on the spot to produce a recorded conversation. Participants were 50 pairs of same-sex college-age friends (54% female) who explicitly discussed the fact that their conversation was being recorded. The initial 'on-stage' episode emerged consistently earliest for extraverted dyads, and the majority of their episodes quickly diverted the on-stage moment. Dyads that included at least one introvert engaged in more extensive assortments of on-stage maneuvers, including research talk, soothing, and joking. In introvert-extravert dyads the extravert usually initiated and ended these episodes. Implications are discussed for understanding how personality is reciprocally implicated in managing shared everyday problems.