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PubMed2026

Trade-offs in avian parental care: a review of theory and meta-analysis of brood size manipulations.

The selective forces shaping parental care have been studied for over 50 years. While theoretical and experimental work has yielded qualitative progress, the large body of empirical work testing predictions about parental investment based on life-history trade-offs has yet to be synthesized. We first provide an overview of the core life-history theory exploring how selection might shape parental care. We then conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on studies that experimentally manipulated brood size in birds, a widely used experimental approach to manipulate parental investment. We extracted 313 estimates from 62 studies representing 31 species of birds from 19 different families and tested key predictions on trade-offs in parental care derived from theory. Our analysis provides strong support for some predictions about life-history trade-offs in parental care, but weak or equivocal support for others. Specifically, we found that overall, avian parents respond to brood size manipulations as predicted by life-history theory: they increased care in response to brood enlargement, and decreased care in response to brood reductions. Furthermore, for the same relative manipulation size, responses to brood reductions were greater than responses to brood enlargements. This finding is consistent with predictions derived from life-history theory based on some types of non-linear utility curves. However, many predictions derived from theory are not well supported by our comparative analysis. Species' life-history traits such as clutch size (a measure of current reproduction), adult survival, and broods per year (two measures of future reproduction), explained little, if any, among-species variation in response to brood size manipulations. Several factors may explain this. We highlight that brood size manipulations may affect more than just perception of the value of current reproduction, such as altering parents' perception of predation risk. Importantly, these unintended consequences could lead to asymmetric responses like those we observed. Other common experimental approaches - such as hormone manipulations, altering a partner's effort, and food supplementation - often affect multiple traits or fitness components simultaneously, or may involve cues that poorly match the evolved mechanisms guiding parental behaviour. Our review of both theory and experimental approaches suggests that there are multiple opportunities for more precise experiments. We offer several recommendations for effective designs. One is improved understanding of the biology underlying the functions relating to costs and benefits, with careful consideration of not only how the manipulation will affect only one of those, but also the mechanisms that might alter how parents perceive the manipulation. We also emphasize general principles, such as assessing alternative hypotheses and devising multiple independent tests. Armed with these recommendations, we believe there are new opportunities to increase the strength of inference achieved from studies aimed at understanding the trade-offs affecting the evolution of parental care.

Animals↗
PubMed2026

Trade-Offs Associated with Virulence of Soybean Cyst Nematode on the Broad-Spectrum Resistance Source PI 437654.

The soybean cyst nematode (SCN; Heterodera glycines) poses a major challenge to soybean production, intensified by the declining effectiveness of natural resistance against this pathogen. Although the use of resistant soybean varieties can be effective, their widespread and repeated use ultimately results in the emergence of virulent nematode populations that can successfully attack these resistant hosts. To assess for potential trade-offs between virulence and fitness, we investigated the hatch response, penetration rate, and reproductive potential of SCN adapted to overcome the broad-spectrum resistance source PI 437654. The hatching process is a critical phase in the life cycle of the SCN, influencing its ability to infect hosts and complete its life cycle. Our results indicated that SCN populations exhibit preferential and heightened hatch responses to their adapted host compared to alternative hosts, regardless of their virulence profile. Additionally, we found that SCN populations adapted to overcome broad-spectrum resistance showed reduced reproductive success on susceptible hosts compared to unadapted populations. This reduction in reproductive success was not attributed to differences in hatch response or penetration rates. The results from our study highlight the potential trade-offs associated with SCN virulence adaptation and emphasize the importance of considering these evolutionary dynamics in developing sustainable management strategies.

Disease Control and Pest Management↗
PubMed2026

Genetic trade-offs in fertility and longevity explain the maintenance of disease-associated alleles in humans.

Genetic variants that increase the risk for complex diseases persist in human populations, despite adverse effects on health and longevity. Life-history theory predicts that such alleles can be maintained by trade-offs arising from pleiotropy, yet direct genomic evidence has been limited. We asked whether disease-associated variants persist because they enhance reproduction, despite costs to health and lifespan. By analysing genome-wide data across 62 diseases, longevity and fertility, we show that disease-risk alleles are, on average, associated with reduced longevity and increased fertility. Moreover, the subset of alleles that increase both fertility and disease risk appear to have been favoured by natural selection over the past 50,000 years. Using Mendelian randomization, we detect a causal effect of genetic liability to disease on longevity, but no robust evidence for a causal effect on fertility; importantly, these estimates remain stable after adjusting for socioeconomic factors. At the individual level, we compared offspring numbers between affected and unaffected individuals with high polygenic disease risk. For most diseases, affected individuals had more children than unaffected ones. But for early-onset diseases, the pattern reverses, indicating reproductive costs of early morbidity. Together, these results support antagonistic pleiotropy and help explain the persistence of disease-risk alleles in human populations.

Humans↗
PubMed2026

Engineering the Vero Cell Lineage: Toward a Programmable Vaccine Manufacturing Platform.

Vero cells remain an indispensable continuous substrate for human viral vaccine manufacturing. Despite decades of empirical process optimization, intrinsic genomic instability, including segmental aneuploidy and dynamic chromatin rearrangements, continues to limit the durability of engineered phenotypes under sustained viral burden and bioreactor stress. Here, we review the expanding engineering toolkit for the Vero lineage across a three-layered functional framework: the membrane interface, cytoplasmic foundry, and nuclear blueprint, evaluating translational prospects at each level. Receptor transplantation and morphological reprogramming have broadened viral entry range and enabled suspension-adapted culture formats, while metabolic flux management and temporally controlled apoptosis modulation have addressed intracellular production bottlenecks, albeit often with trade-offs between productivity, biosafety, and long-term population stability. At the genomic level, targeted perturbations of transcriptional regulators and emerging epigenetic interventions offer more durable gains, yet expression drift, clonal heterogeneity, and karyotypic instability during extended passaging highlight the need for locus-level precision rather than constitutive trait installation. Looking forward, infection-responsive dynamic logic circuits and the systematic identification of Vero-specific genomic safe harbors could shift the paradigm toward a conditionally responsive manufacturing architecture. Collectively, these advances suggest a pathway for transitioning the Vero lineage from a passive, empirically optimized biological substrate into a conditionally responsive, genomically stable, and programmable platform for modern vaccine preparedness.

Vero cells↗
PubMed2026

Orchard netting impacts on biodiversity leading to cascading effects at the ecosystem level.

Agriculture must ensure food production without further compromising the ecosystem functions upon which it depends. Agricultural practices should therefore avoid harming farmland biodiversity, especially of taxa that supply the key ecosystem services (e.g. pollination, pest control and nutrient uptake) that ultimately support crop production. Orchards are among the largest permanent plantations worldwide and are increasingly characterised by the spread of plastic nets used to protect fruits/nuts from either abiotic (anti-hail, anti-rain, shade nets) or biotic (exclusion nets) hazards. Despite having received little attention to date, these nets may impact natural communities, acting both as physical barriers and as drivers of habitat changes to which biota must respond. Species-level responses to netting depend on the organism's ability to enter the netted environment and successfully exploit available resources. Net-mediated ecological filtering and plastic behavioural responses may alter species interactions, leading to cascading ecological impacts that may create species-poorer 'netted communities' with simplified ecological networks. Such changes may erode biological control potential, other ecosystem functions, and overall system stability. We conducted a systematic review on the effects of protection nets on biota, and reported novel empirical evidence on anti-hail nets' impacts on communities of orchard-dwelling birds, flower-visiting insects, and rodents. In total, we identified 48 studies from the literature, however this literature was strongly biased towards apple orchards, western countries, and pest taxa. Net deployment was highly effective in deterring target pest species, in some cases regardless of their original function, as even weather-protection nets limited pest populations. Side effects on non-target taxa were also often reported, such as decreases in pollinators and natural enemies, and/or increases in secondary pests or microbial diseases. However, most assessments largely disregarded non-pest taxa and the broader ecological consequences of netting. The few studies that addressed the effects of nets at the guild/community level, including our empirical study, confirmed that orchard netting resulted in species-poor assemblages, with possible ecosystem-level consequences. We propose that future assessments should pay more attention to the indirect effects of netting on non-target taxa, and on the supply of crop-supporting ecosystem services mediated by wild species occurring in agroecosystems. Due to the trade-offs between these services and net-mediated crop protection, integrated alternatives should be tested to improve the environmental sustainability of food production and biodiversity conservation in farmed landscapes.

Biodiversity↗
PubMed2026

Transabdominal lumbar approach (TALA) versus retroperitoneal approach for robot-assisted renal surgery: a prospective randomised controlled trial.

PURPOSE: Common robotic nephrectomy approaches access the kidney via transperitoneal (TP) or retroperitoneal (RP) routes, each with distinct trade-offs. We developed the transabdominal lumbar approach (TALA), combining advantages of both accesses with improved visualisation and strategic trocar placement, and compared it with conventional RP in a prospective randomised controlled trial using technique-oriented intraoperative endpoints. METHODS: In this single-centre, prospective, open-label RCT, 40 patients were randomised to TALA (n = 18) or conventional RP (n = 22). Eligible patients were ≥ 18 years with a renal tumour or non-functional kidney requiring robot-assisted total or partial nephrectomy. Exclusions included prior surgery on the affected kidney, renal vein tumour thrombus, and pregnancy. Both groups were followed for 30 days. The primary endpoint was time from first skin incision to renal artery identification. RESULTS: TALA achieved a median time saving of 16 min compared to conventional RP (38 vs. 54 min, p = 0.001). Perioperative safety was comparable between groups, with three patients (7.5%) experiencing Clavien-Dindo grade III-IV complications. CONCLUSIONS: TALA met its primary endpoint with a significantly shorter time to renal artery identification than conventional RP access, and improving perceived surgical exposure and instrument handling.

Humans↗
PubMed2026

Divergent responses of the gill, hepatopancreas, and eyestalk to acute alkalinity stress in Penaeus vannamei: Osmoregulatory compromise, metabolic trade-off, and endocrine disruption.

The expansion of aquaculture into inland saline-alkali waters is constrained by high carbonate alkalinity (CA), a severe environmental stressor for crustaceans. However, the systemic molecular mechanisms underlying its lethal toxicity remain poorly understood. In this study, we employed a comparative transcriptomic approach to investigate the tissue-specific responses of Pacific white shrimp, Penaeus vannamei, under acute lethal stress (48 h-LC50). We focused on three functionally distinct organs: the gill, hepatopancreas, and eyestalk. The results revealed a systemic but highly tissue-specific transcriptomic response. The gill, as the primary interface, exhibited severe structural impairment and critical failure of osmoregulation, highlighted by the significant downregulation of delta-1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS). In contrast, the hepatopancreas initiates a profound metabolic trade-off, sacrificing growth-related pathways to bolster a robust antioxidant defense system, as evidenced by the activation of sulfur metabolism and high protein turnover. The eyestalk displayed a striking disconnect between hyperactivated stress signaling pathways (e.g., mTOR/FoxO) and the collapse of its protein secretory machinery, marked by the suppression of the ER translocon component Sec61. Collectively, our findings suggest that lethal alkalinity toxicity in P. vannamei results from systemic collapse driven by a complex interplay of osmoregulatory failure, metabolic trade-offs, and endocrine disruption. This study provides a comprehensive molecular snapshot of an organism at its physiological limit, offering novel insights into the adaptive strategies and ultimate tolerance boundaries of crustaceans in extreme environments.

Animals↗
PubMed2026

AI-driven snapshot hyperspectral imaging for on-line sorting systems in food industry: From real-time sensing to intelligent decision-making.

High-throughput food sorting requires rapid, non-destructive detection of external defects, foreign materials, and internal quality attributes in heterogeneous food matrices. Conventional scanning hyperspectral imaging may suffer from motion-induced spatial-spectral mismatches, whereas snapshot hyperspectral imaging (S-HSI) captures spectral images within a single integration time. However, its advantage is limited by trade-offs in resolution, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), reconstruction uncertainty, and calibration stability, which are further amplified by variable tissue structure, surface reflection, moisture, and fat distribution in foods. This review critically examines artificial intelligence (AI)-driven S-HSI for on-line food sorting within a sensing-representation-decision-execution framework. Compact architectures are compared according to their physical constraints, food-sorting suitability, and ability to support mapping between spectral responses and physicochemical quality attributes. AI strategies are reviewed for spectral reconstruction, image restoration, spatial-spectral representation, band selection, uncertainty-aware decision-making, and edge implementation. AI can partially compensate for snapshot-specific limitations, but current evidence remains largely limited to laboratory or prototype studies. Future work should link system performance to food safety and quality outcomes by reporting throughput, decision latency, calibration drift, missed-detection risk, false-rejection cost, and closed-loop sorting success.

Hyperspectral Imaging↗
PubMed2026

Turnip mosaic virus alters phosphorus metabolism and shoot-root allocation without resource competition.

Plant viruses affect production through symptom induction in host plants. These symptoms could partially arise from nutrient deprivation: The resource competition hypothesis posits that massive viral replication deprives hosts of essential nutrients, yet direct evidence for phosphorus (P) competition is lacking. Moreover, it is reported that biotic stresses can lead to alterations on P metabolism. Using a hydroponic system enabling separate analysis of shoots and roots in adult Arabidopsis thaliana plants, we investigated whether Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) drawed significant P internal pools leading to P competition or altered P metabolism. TuMV genomic RNA represented < 0.3% of the P pool allocated to 18S rRNA, refuting the resource competition hypothesis. Instead, TuMV induced a marked shoot-to-root P redistribution: Shoot/Root Pi and Porg changed from 1.7 to 1.04 to 0.71 and 0.68, respectively. This altered partitioning correlated with organ-specific gene expression changes: high-affinity transporters PHT1; 4 and PHT1; 5 were co-induced in shoots, whereas immunity-related PHT1; 4 was uniquely repressed in roots. The senescence-associated gene SEN1 showed opposite regulation between organs (repressed in shoots, induced in roots), distinguishing virus-induced responses from canonical senescence. Multivariate analysis revealed that shoots and roots only partially share physiological and molecular responses to TuMV. The virus reprograms phosphorus metabolism through organ-specific changes, not through resource depletion, and roots act as a distinct hub integrating infection response, senescence, and nutrient dynamics. This study advances the understanding of growth-defense trade-offs in plant mineral nutrition and identifies new targets for maintaining crop productivity under biotic stress.

Arabidopsis↗
PubMed2026

Comparative effectiveness and safety of pharmacological interventions for sleep outcomes in chronic non-cancer pain: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Sleep disturbances are highly prevalent among individuals with chronic non-cancer pain and are associated with worse pain severity and poorer prognosis. The comparative trade-offs between the effectiveness and safety of available pharmacotherapies for sleep outcomes in this population remain poorly defined. Ninety-eight RCTs involving 28,920 participants (mean age 53.2 years, 71.2% female) were included. Moderate-certainty evidence demonstrated that melatonin significantly improved sleep quality compared with placebo (standardized mean difference [SMD]&#x202f;=&#x202f;-0.60, 95%CI: -0.98, -0.22). Ten agents (e.g., amitriptyline, oxycodone, gabapentin, pregabalin, duloxetine) also showed statistically significant improvements in subjective sleep quality (SMD&#x202f;=&#x202f;-0.24 to -1.07), but most effects were supported by low-certainty evidence and were accompanied by an increased risk of adverse events (odds ratio [OR]&#x202f;=&#x202f;1.90 to 37.00). Conversely, melatonin was not associated with an increased risk (OR&#x202f;=&#x202f;0.88, 95%CI: 0.19, 3.94). Our findings indicate that melatonin shows promise as a safe, adjunctive option for improving sleep quality in this population, but larger, condition-specific trials are warranted to confirm these effects. Other pharmacological agents are limited by lower-certainty and unfavorable safety profiles. These results should be interpreted cautiously given limited direct comparisons, heterogeneous chronic pain populations, the high proportion of trials at high risk of bias, and the predominance of subjective sleep outcomes.

Humans↗
PubMed2026

Metabolic niche differentiation and napA evolution stabilize partial denitrification in wastewater ecosystems.

Although partial denitrification (PD) is increasingly applied as a nitrite-supplying strategy for anammox-based nitrogen removal, the ecological distribution, metabolic specialization, and genomic determinants of stable nitrite accumulation remain poorly understood at the ecosystem scale. Here, we reconstructed 516 high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) using high-depth metagenomic sequencing of 107 wastewater treatment plants and classified denitrifiers according to their nitrite production or consumption capacities. Of these genomes, 23% (120 MAGs) were classified as partial denitrifiers, 41% (211 MAGs) as complete denitrifiers, and 36% (185 MAGs) as nitrite-reducing denitrifiers, revealing pronounced functional partitioning rather than dominance by complete denitrification pathways. Comparative genomics showed that partial denitrifiers possess metabolic architectures favoring rapid carbon oxidation and NADH generation while exhibiting constrained NADPH production and biosynthetic investment, thereby promoting nitrate-to-nitrite conversion but limiting subsequent nitrite reduction. Nitrite accumulation does not result from incomplete denitrification pathways but from metabolic niche differentiation. These metabolic trade-offs were further associated with the evolutionary divergence of the periplasmic nitrate reductase gene, napA, which displayed distinct sequence characteristics and genomic contexts between partial and complete denitrifiers. Integration of carbohydrate-active enzyme repertoires further revealed metabolic complementarity between partial denitrifiers and anammox bacteria, supporting efficient carbon handoff without direct substrate competition. From an engineering perspective, operating conditions that impose moderate electron limitation, such as low or fluctuating C/N ratios and intermittent carbon feeding, may selectively enrich partial denitrifiers and enhance a stable nitrite supply for PD-anammox systems. Together, these findings identify PD as a predictable ecological state shaped by genome-encoded metabolic specialization and provide a mechanistic basis for designing robust, low-carbon nitrogen-removal processes.

Anammox↗
PubMed2026

Genetic legacy effects in a mungbean-wheat rotation reveal potential to breed for system-level yield gains.

Legume crops provide protein-rich food, serve as critical disease breaks in cereal rotations, and contribute to soil fertility through symbiotic nitrogen fixation. However, crop improvement programs typically focus on within-crop performance rather than system-level benefits. We hypothesize that legacy effects (the influence of one crop's genotype on subsequent crop performance) are under genetic control and could be targeted in breeding programs. To test this, we evaluated how 309 genetically diverse mungbean genotypes influenced subsequent wheat performance. The mungbean panel was grown, followed by a single wheat cultivar sown in the same plots. Remarkably, wheat yield varied by nearly 1 t ha-1 (2.52-3.49 t ha-1), depending solely on the preceding mungbean genotype. Legacy effects showed moderate heritability (H2: 0.43-0.65), suggesting untapped genetic potential for breeding. However, these estimates were derived from a single site and season and require validation across environments. Analyses of mungbean traits, soil properties, and volatile organic compounds identified root architecture, symbiotic nitrogen fixation, and the soil microbiome as potential contributors to legacy effects, although these mechanisms remain to be tested directly. Haplotype mapping identified genomic regions in mungbean associated with wheat yield and, to a lesser extent, grain protein, revealing trade-offs between within-crop performance and legacy effects. Genetic simulations based on empirically derived marker effects compared genomic selection strategies targeting mungbean yield, wheat yield, or both simultaneously. A selection strategy placing equal weight on mungbean yield and subsequent wheat yield (50:50 weighting) achieved simultaneous gains in both crops (19.5% and 7.6%), highlighting the potential to breed for system-level productivity with reduced input requirements.

crop rotations↗
PubMed2026

Precision Engineering of Evolution-Resilient Rice against Bacterial Blight.

The persistent conflict between rice and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), the causal agent of bacterial blight, exemplifies a dynamic genetic arms race in agriculture. The cyclical deployment and erosion of major resistance (R) genes highlight the high adaptive potential of Xoo and the need for strategies that are durable rather than absolute. This review synthesizes a paradigm shift from reactive, single R-gene deployment toward proactive engineering of evolution-resilient resistance. We explore the molecular-genetic basis of Xoo adaptability, including TAL effector diversification, non-TAL virulence functions, genome variation, and immune suppression mechanisms. In response, we propose a framework for durable disease management with three connected components: precision disarmament through editing of susceptibility-gene effector-binding elements and executor/decoy designs; smart induction through targeted delivery and immune priming; and ecological fortification through protective microbiomes. We also discuss the limits, trade-offs, and field-validation requirements of these approaches. Integrating frontier technologies with evolutionary genetics, predictive genomics, and pathogen population dynamics can help develop rice varieties and deployment systems that are more difficult for Xoo populations to overcome.

CRISPR↗
PubMed2026

Movi 2: fast and space-efficient queries on pangenomes.

SUMMARY: Space-efficient compressed indexing methods are critical for pangenomics and for avoiding reference bias. In the Movi study, we implemented the move-structure index, highlighting its locality-of-reference and speed. However, Movi had a high memory footprint compared to other compressed indexes. Here, we introduce Movi 2 and describe new methods that greatly reduce size and memory footprint of move structure-based indexes. The most compressed version of Movi 2 reduces the Movi index's space footprint more than five-fold. We also introduce sampling approaches that enable trade-offs between query and space efficiency. To demonstrate, we show that Movi 2 achieves advantageous time and space tradeoffs when applied to large pangenome collections, including both the first and second releases of the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC) collection, the latter of which spans over 460 human haplotypes. We show that Movi 2 dominates prior methods on both speed and memory footprint, including both r-index-based and our previous move-structure-based method. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The methods we developed for Movi 2 are publicly available at https://github.com/mohsenzakeri/Movi.

Humans↗
PubMed2026

PRISM-G: an interpretable privacy scoring framework for assessing risk in synthetic human genome data.

MOTIVATION: Synthetic genomic data promises broader data access, but unresolved privacy risks remain a major concern. Existing evaluations often rely on similarity-based metrics that measure proximity between real and synthetic genomes, overlooking additional mechanisms through which genomic information may leak. RESULTS: We introduce PRISM-G, a model-agnostic framework that quantifies privacy exposure in synthetic genomic data across three complementary components: proximity to real genomes in genetic-coordinate space, replay of familial or population-structure patterns, and trait-linked exposure through rare variants and membership-inference signals. These components are normalized and combined through a risk-averse aggregation into a single 0-100 PRISM-G score. By pairing PRISM-G with downstream utility metrics, the framework also enables analysis of privacy-utility trade-offs across generative models. We evaluated PRISM-G on synthetic cohorts generated by a generative adversarial network (GAN), a restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM), and a logic-based SAT solver (Genomator). Our results show that privacy vulnerabilities arise along different axes across models and marker densities, demonstrating that a single similarity-based metric is insufficient to characterize genomic privacy risk. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The source code of PRISM-G is available at https://github.com/alejocrojo09/prismg.

Humans↗
PubMed2026

Computational tool choice impacts CRISPR spacer-protospacer detection.

MOTIVATION: CRISPR spacer-protospacer matching is widely used to infer host-virus interactions in microbial and viromics studies, but the choice of sequence search or alignment tool and its reporting behavior is often under-evaluated for this specific task. RESULTS: Using synthetic, semi-synthetic, and real datasets, we benchmarked commonly used tools and observed substantial differences in recall, runtime, and resource usage across distance metrics and thresholds. Our analyses support practical defaults for large-scale spacer-target matching and clarify trade-offs between exhaustive and heuristic approaches. AVAILABILITY: Source code and benchmark workflows are available at https://github.com/UriNeri/spacer_matching_bench. Data and run artifacts are archived on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15171878).

Software↗
PubMed2026

Advances in genomics-driven genetic decoding and genomic design breeding in tomato.

Tomatoes are highly nutritious and represent one of the important vegetable fruits worldwide. Both historically and moving forward, genetic decoding and precision breeding remain fundamental to tomato improvement. Here, we summarize pivotal advances in decoding tomato genomes across domestication, improvement and evolution processes and provide a perspective on future breeding through precision design. In-depth population genetic studies have revealed how artificial selection systematically prioritized yield-related alleles at the cost of narrowing genetic diversity, especially at flavor-related loci-highlighting the urgent need to reconcile these trade-offs. Comparative genomics across species, viewed through an evolutionary lens, has uncovered critical insights into functional genes, deepening our understanding of the genetic architecture and regulatory mechanisms underlying key traits. Collectively, these advances have enabled precise identification and functional characterization of key genetic elements, paving the way for systematic redomestication of tomato through precision genomic design. Looking ahead, more efficient and precise breeding strategies will be required to accelerate genetic gains in tomato in the coming decades. The integration of recent genomic advances, coupled with genomic selection and artificial intelligence, into genomic design breeding offers a transformative framework, unlocking unprecedented opportunities for developing highly flavorful and consumer-customized tomato varieties.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2026

Safeguarding biomedical AI: a critical scoping review of privacy-enhancing technologies, hybrid approaches, and deployment models.

BACKGROUND: Biomedical artificial intelligence (AI) requires the integration of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) to safeguard sensitive clinical, imaging, and genomic data while preserving analytical utility. OBJECTIVES: This review critically and systematically maps applications of PETs across the biomedical AI lifecycle in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines and evaluates their technical trade-offs, deployment feasibility, and residual risks. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Scopus for studies published between 2015 and 2025. Eligible studies addressed differential privacy, federated learning, secure multiparty computation, homomorphic encryption, or hybrid approaches in biomedical AI. Data were charted on PET type, modality, lifecycle stage, utility metrics, privacy parameters, and deployment considerations. A critical appraisal rubric assessed threat-model adequacy, methodological clarity, reproducibility, privacy-utility transparency, and deployment realism. Additionally, we hand-searched major venues (USENIX Security, NeurIPS, AAAI) and screened Google Scholar for grey literature, applying de-duplication across sources. RESULTS: We identified 87 studies spanning clinical decision support, genomics, and medical imaging. From 25,761 initial records, 3,754 underwent title/abstract screening and 1,968 underwent full-text assessment. PETs demonstrated distinct strengths and limitations: differential privacy provided provable guarantees but reduced performance on imbalanced data; federated learning improved data access but remained vulnerable to gradient leakage; and cryptographic methods ensured confidentiality at high computational cost. Synthetic data generation supported privacy-conscious data sharing and benchmarking but remained sensitive to disclosure risk, fidelity loss, and subgroup representation. Hybrid and emerging approaches, including trusted execution environments, zero-knowledge proofs, and privacy-preserving transformer architectures, mitigated composability gaps yet lacked full end-to-end assurance. Case studies at hospital and biobank scale illustrated practical feasibility and infrastructure demands. CONCLUSIONS: Situating PETs within technical and operational contexts clarifies their capabilities, limitations, and deployment challenges. Residual risks persist, including fairness concerns, inference-time leakage, and overreliance on PETs as compliance proxies. Sustained technical innovation and institutional governance remain essential for the trustworthy integration of PETs in biomedical AI.

biomedical AI↗