Issues

Summary: Patient-derived primary cells maintain their original phenotype when cultured on 3D scaffolds, and their in vivo behavior can be effectively studied with innovative zebrafish models.

Summary: Dietary supplementation with an NAD⁺ salvage metabolite or decreasing Parp activity suppress mitochondrial dysfunction and is neuroprotective in a PINK1 model of Parkinson's disease.

Summary: Involvement of the signalling molecule retinoic acid in neurogenesis of the developing cerebral cortex is shown through targeted deletion of its synthesizing enzyme.

Summary: This study is the first experimental evidence that PKC is involved in the male sex determination process associated with methyl farnesoate signaling in daphnid species.

Summary: Loss of Crb_C, one protein isoform encoded by Drosophila crumbs, results in light-dependent retinal degeneration, but does not affect any of the other crumbs-specific functions.

Summary: Cell signaling enzyme phospholipase D2 (PLD2) and its reaction product, phospholipid phosphatidic acid (PA), are involved in mediating PARN-induced eukaryotic mRNA decay.

Summary: In this study, we show the essential molecular roles of Pax1/Pax9 in early IVD development and their connection with other chrondrogenic players – Sox trio, BMP and TGF B pathways.

Summary: We show that a Trp channel related to the mammalian polycystin channel, rather than a P2X receptor, is responsible for the purinergic stimulation of cytosolic calcium levels in Dictyostelium cells.

Summary: We show for the first time that the waterflea Daphnia pulex has the ability to finely tune its lipolytic machinery to changes in the nutritional quality of its diet.

Summary: Lipid droplets of yeast mother cells are shown to redistribute to their nascent spores by live-cell imaging analysis, suggesting that the lipid droplets are important for yeast spore survival.

Summary: Mutation of FGFR2 causes a misregulation of Sox9, leading to disrupted mesenchymal condensation, and thus skeletal and craniofacial birth defects in mice, with implications for human Crouzon syndrome.

Summary: This study examines the major steps and underlying mechanisms of mesenchymal-epithelial transition of the blood-brain-barrier forming glia in Drosophila, including the role of basal lamina, septate junctions and of trimeric G protein signaling.

Summary: Two laboratory strains of medaka assortatively mate in complete sympatry, and their sexual preferences are gradually developed during growth and firmly maintained after sexual maturation.

Summary: Our findings provide insights to the functional mechanism of miR-142, suggesting that the miR-142/HIF-1α axis may interfere with the proliferative and invasive property of pancreatic cancer cells.

Summary: Metabolite analysis of the Tre6P pathway in apple fruit, Malus domestica, reveals that Tre6P levels were highly and positively correlated with sorbitol content, but not with sucrose content.

Summary: We tested the capacity of the heel-down foot posture of great apes to apply free moments to the ground because this could influence performance when fighting from a bipedal stance.

Summary: Genetic mapping of the yellow seed coat gene Brsc-ye to a 40.2 kb region of the Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis) genome will allow marker-assisted selection and breeding of yellow-seeded lines.

Summary: In a squamate reptile, post-birth maternal effort is related to maternal energetic status, and vasotocin receptors may play a role in mediating maternal care.

Summary: A newly developed oocyte shuttle protein, binding donor DNA and carrying it from the bloodstream to the oocyte nucleus within the ovary, should greatly facilitate production of transgenic Xenopus embryos.

Summary: This study describes a biosensor for visualising the hypoxic state of cells in vivo. They demonstrate that the Drosophila larval brain contains distinct hypoxic microenvironments that correlate with local airway supply.

Summary: Fahlman and associates (2016) have emphasized the importance of proper physiological insight when modelling energy expenditure in large cetaceans. Here we argue that they have themselves failed in this endeavour.

Summary: Our paper highlights how temporal changes in tidal volume and the oxygen exchange ratio significantly affect the accuracy of models that use only breathing frequency to estimate metabolic rate.