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Coordinated actions of NLR-assembled and glutamate receptor-like calcium channels in plant effector-triggered immunity

3 months 2 weeks ago
The plant immune system utilizes nucleotide-binding/leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins to detect pathogen virulence factors (effectors) inside host cells and transduce recognition to rapid defense. In dicotyledenous plants, pathogen activated Toll-like/interleukin-1 receptor-containing NLRs (TNLs) establish a signaling network of enhanced susceptibility 1 (EDS1)-family dimers with RPW8-type coiled-coil (CC(R)) domain NLRs (RNLs) to stimulate transcriptional reprogramming leading to host cell...
Junli Wang

Deciphering context-specific gene programs from single-cell and spatial transcriptomics data with DeCEP

3 months 2 weeks ago
Functional gene programs play a wide range of roles in health and disease by orchestrating transcriptional coregulation to govern cell identity. Understanding these intricate gene programs is essential for unraveling the complexities of biological systems; however, deciphering them remains a significant challenge. Recent advancements in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomics (ST) technologies have empowered the comprehensive characterization of gene programs at both...
Lin Li

Midkine attenuates amyloid-β fibril assembly and plaque formation

3 months 2 weeks ago
Proteomic profiling of Alzheimer disease (AD) brains has identified numerous understudied proteins, including midkine (MDK), that are highly upregulated and correlated with amyloid-β (Aβ) from the early disease stage but their roles in disease progression are not fully understood. Here, we present that MDK attenuates Aβ assembly and influences amyloid formation in the 5xFAD amyloidosis mouse model. MDK protein mitigates fibril formation of both Aβ40 and Aβ42 peptides according to thioflavin T...
Masihuz Zaman

Soma-localized Rab39 inhibits synaptic autophagy by controlling trafficking of Atg9 vesicles

3 months 2 weeks ago
Presynaptic terminals can be located far from the neuronal cell body and are thought to independently regulate protein and organelle turnover. Autophagy is a critical process for maintaining proteostasis, and its synaptic dysregulation is associated with neurodegenerative diseases. In this work, we report a soma-centered mechanism that regulates autophagy-controlled protein turnover at distant presynaptic terminals in Drosophila. We show that a central component of this system is Rab39, whose...
Ayse Kilic

Integrating artificial intelligence and optogenetics for Parkinson's disease diagnosis and therapeutics in male mice

3 months 2 weeks ago
Parkinson's disease (PD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, presents complex motor symptoms and lacks effective disease-modifying treatments. Here we show that integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with optogenetic intervention, termed optoRET, modulating c-RET (REarranged during Transfection) signalling, enables task-independent behavioural assessments and therapeutic benefits in freely moving male AAV-hA53T mice. Utilising a 3D pose estimation technique, we developed tree-based AI...
Bobae Hyeon

Choroid plexus volume and its association with cognitive performance across the lifespan: Links to sleep quality and healthy brain aging

3 months 2 weeks ago
The choroid plexus (ChP) is implicated in inflammation and supports the clearance of waste byproducts, particularly those related to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Increases in ChP volume have been associated with older age and cognitive decline in both clinical and healthy cohorts. However, the clearance of waste products in the brain is also related to sleep, and sleep quality may contribute to ChP dysfunction and cognitive decline. In the present work, it was therefore hypothesized...
Julia L Becker

The relationship between racial discrimination and white matter among Black older adults

3 months 2 weeks ago
Black older adults experience worse brain and cognitive aging than White older adults, on average. Racially patterned psychosocial stressors may contribute to these disparities. Maintaining white matter health is important for cognitive aging, particularly among Black older adults, and it is uniquely vulnerable to stress. Examining associations between racial discrimination and white matter may elucidate mechanisms of disparities. A sample of Black older adults in the Washington Heights-Inwood...
Jordan D Palms

Air pollution interventions for health

3 months 2 weeks ago
Air pollution, a leading environmental health risk, claims millions of lives yearly, impacting health across the lifespan. Despite widespread acknowledgement of air pollution-related disease burdens, eliminating air pollution remains challenging. Many regions are reliant on fossil fuels or biomass for basic survival, and developed economies striving to reduce air pollution face persistent barriers. Climate change complicates intervention efforts, as rising temperatures and extreme weather (for...
John S Ji

Underappreciated role of canopy nitrogen deposition for forest productivity

3 months 2 weeks ago
Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition is generally expected to stimulate plant carbon (C) sequestration and promote tree growth, thereby mitigating atmospheric CO(2) accumulation. Yet, the magnitude of N deposition contribution to forest productivity remains contentious. While correlative studies suggest substantial plant growth enhancement, controlled fertilization experiments typically demonstrate a limited impact. This discrepancy may arise from whether or not to consider canopy N uptake...
Xiaowei Li

Food as medicine: white and whole-grain bread consumption in relation to sarcopenia among older adults, insights from the Birjand Longitudinal Aging Study (BLAS)

3 months 2 weeks ago
This study aimed to examine the association between energy-adjusted consumption patterns of different types of bread, including whole-grain and white bread, and the risk of sarcopenia in older adults. In this cross-sectional study, sarcopenia was assessed using three tests: appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASMM), handgrip strength, and gait speed, in 1,325 older adults from the Birjand Longitudinal Aging Study (BLAS), conducted between September 2018 and April 2019. Bread consumption was...
Zohreh Sajadi Hezaveh