Reading · The A&P Professor Science & Education Updates

A schematic describing what Inocles do and where they’re found. It shows the kinds of roles its genes might have, and how those jobs could be connected to things happening in the human body. Credit: 2025 Kiguchi et al. CC-BY-ND

Researchers found huge circles of extrachromosomal DNA—“Inocles”—inside common oral bacteria. They average ~350 kbp and are missed by standard short-read methods. Inocles seem to help microbes adapt to shifting stresses in saliva and gums. Surveys suggest about three-quarters of people host them. Early data hint that changes in inocles may track with some cancers, raising biomarker and microbiome-therapy questions. For teaching A&P, this is a fresh example of how gene content shapes microbial fitness and oral health—perfect for tying DNA structure to real-world host–microbe interactions, and for a quick note on why long-read sequencing matters

Kevin Patton comment→ A WORD DISSECTION™ may be appropriate for the newly coined term inocles. It’s from

Insertion sequence encoded
Oral origin
Circle genomic structure
Large extrachromosomal element

There’s another way to dissect it when inocles refer to glasses that show the wearer internet content (smart glasses): in- internet, -ocles eyes

Read more→ AandP.info/qpg

Thanks for reading The A&P Professor Science & Education Updates! This issue is public so feel free to share it.

In a recent conversation I had with another A&P professor, they stated that anatomy content doesn’t change, so need not be revised as new A&P textbook editions are published. I hear this often from peers—even from professional anatomists. However, that’s not really true—for several reasons.

Evolution happens at varying rates, so some human structures can evolve (at a population level) within a human lifespan. So changes to living anatomy, rare as they are, can happen. But that’s the exception.

Another possible reason to update anatomy content in a textbook is when terminology changes. Considering the still-in-flux trends of eliminating eponyms, dealing with the growing number of students who never learned Roman numerals, use of more sensitive and inclusive language, and various quests to make anatomy terminology uniform, we have a lot of revisions to consider.

However, probably most of the many revisions to anatomy in textbooks result from improved understanding that comes from from additional research or new research techniques. Modern imaging technology, for example, reveals aspects of human anatomy that we never really “saw” before. Tagging organs and tissues with metabolic or genetic markers reveals newly discovered anatomic relationships. Including more subjects in research often reveals that the anatomy represented in textbooks, based on only one or a few specimens using old research strategies, are rare variants, rather than typical structure found in most humans.

Explore some ideas related to the “changing” nature of anatomy concepts in Episode 105 of The A&P Professor podcast, Is Anatomy Finished? | Review of New Discoveries.

To listen to this episode, click on the play button above ⏵ (if present) or this link→ theAPprofessor.org/podcast-episode-105.html

Credit: Harada, et al. **doi:** https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.02.651781 CC-BY 4.0

Scientists found an archaeal microbe, Sukunaarchaeum mirabile, living inside a marine dinoflagellate (Citharistes regius). Its genome is only ~238,000 base pairs. It lacks genes for metabolism and leans on its host for basic building blocks—yet it has ribosomes and can replicate, blurring the line between virus and cell. Global sequence scans hint at many relatives. Big takeaway: life’s essentials come in surprising packages.

A&P teaching tip: Use this story when you cover cell structure and metabolism to contrast “what cells need to be alive” with extreme genome reduction—and why definitions of life are tricky.

Science & Education News for A&P [355]

Comments