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Topic Review
Iron Homeostasis in Plants
Plants are able to synthesize all essential metabolites from minerals, water, and light to complete their life cycle. This plasticity comes at a high energy cost, therefore plants need to tightly allocate resources in order to control their economy. Being sessile, plants can only adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions, relying on quality control mechanisms. Remodeling of cellular components plays a crucial role, not only in response to stress, but also in normal plant development. Dynamic protein turnover is ensured through regulated protein synthesis and degradation processes. To effectively target a wide range of proteins for degradation, plants utilize ubiquitination as an essential signal of substrate recognition for the 26S proteasome. Recent progress has been made in understanding the cellular homeostasis of iron. In this review, we highlight the latest publications elucidating the role of Ubiquitin-Proteasome System (UPS) in control of iron metabolism during plant development, as well as environmental stresses.
  • 1.2K
  • 06 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Optogenetics
The cerebellum is most renowned for its role in sensorimotor control and coordination, but a growing number of anatomical and physiological studies are demonstrating its deep involvement in cognitive and emotional functions. Recently, the development and refinement of optogenetic techniques boosted research in the cerebellar field and, impressively, revolutionized the methodological approach and endowed the investigations with entirely new capabilities. This translated into a significant improvement in the data acquired for sensorimotor tests, allowing one to correlate single-cell activity with motor behavior to the extent of determining the role of single neuronal types and single connection pathways in controlling precise aspects of movement kinematics. These levels of specificity in correlating neuronal activity to behavior could not be achieved in the past, when electrical and pharmacological stimulations were the only available experimental tools. The application of optogenetics to the investigation of the cerebellar role in higher-order and cognitive functions, which involves a high degree of connectivity with multiple brain areas, has been even more significant. It is possible that, in this field, optogenetics has changed the game, and the number of investigations using optogenetics to study the cerebellar role in non-sensorimotor functions in awake animals is growing. The main issues addressed by these studies are the cerebellar role in epilepsy (through connections to the hippocampus and the temporal lobe), schizophrenia and cognition, working memory for decision making, and social behavior. It is also worth noting that optogenetics opened a new perspective for cerebellar neurostimulation in patients (e.g., for epilepsy treatment and stroke rehabilitation), promising unprecedented specificity in the targeted pathways that could be either activated or inhibited.
  • 1.2K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Limb Development
The function of retinoic acid (RA) during limb development is still debated, as loss and gain of function studies led to opposite conclusions. With regard to limb initiation, genetic studies demonstrated that activation of FGF10 signaling is required for the emergence of limb buds from the trunk, with Tbx5 and RA signaling acting upstream in the forelimb field, whereas Tbx4 and Pitx1 act upstream in the hindlimb field. Early studies in chick embryos suggested that RA as well as Meis1 and Meis2 (Meis1/2) are required for subsequent proximodistal patterning of both forelimbs and hindlimbs, with RA diffusing from the trunk, functioning to activate Meis1/2 specifically in the proximal limb bud mesoderm. However, genetic loss of RA signaling does not result in loss of limb Meis1/2 expression and limb patterning is normal, although Meis1/2 expression is reduced in trunk somitic mesoderm. More recent studies demonstrated that global genetic loss of Meis1/2 results in a somite defect and failure of limb bud initiation. Other new studies reported that conditional genetic loss of Meis1/2 in the limb results in proximodistal patterning defects, and distal FGF8 signaling represses Meis1/2 to constrain its expression to the proximal limb.
  • 1.2K
  • 19 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Hoverfly
Hoverflies, also called flower flies or syrphid flies, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while the larvae (maggots) eat a wide range of foods. In some species, the larvae are saprotrophs, eating decaying plant and animal matter in the soil or in ponds and streams. In other species, the larvae are insectivores and prey on aphids, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects. Insects such as aphids are considered a crop pest, and therefore the aphid-eating larvae of some hover flies serve as an economically (as well as ecologically) important predator and even potential agents for use in biological control, while the adults may be pollinators. About 6,000 species in 200 genera have been described. Hoverflies are common throughout the world and can be found on all continents except Antarctica. Hoverflies are harmless to most mammals, though many species are mimics of stinging wasps and bees, a mimicry which may serve to ward off predators.
  • 1.2K
  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Nuclear Receptor Related-1 Protein
The entry summarizes the roles of Nurr1 in a wide range of tumors and the underlying pathways for carcinogenesis.  Nuclear receptor related-1 protein (Nurr1), coded by an early response gene, is involved in multiple cellular and physiological functions, including proliferation, survival, and self-renewal. Dysregulation of Nurr1 has been frequently observed in many cancers and is attributed to multiple transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms.
  • 1.2K
  • 26 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Millet-Based Diet Improves the Growth of Children
Millets (defined broadly to include sorghum) are traditional staple foods, and climate smart nutritious crops, which are grown across Africa and Asia, they have not been mainstreamed globally like rice, wheat, and maize. Diversifying staples with millets can potentially provide more macro and micro nutrients, compared to the mainstream staples that are also often refined. However, there had been little known scientific evidence to prove millets’ efficacy on growth. 
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Plants Secondary Metabolites
Plant secondary metabolites were reported to inhibit carbohydrate metabolizing enzymes, possess kinase activating capacity, thereby affecting all the metabolic pathways of carbohydrate, lipid and protein, and can intervene in the insulin-signaling pathway, inflammatory response, and oxidative stress and restore molecular aberrations leading to insulin resistance and glucose intolerance.
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (/pəˈrɪfərə/; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive or circulatory systems. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and to remove wastes. Sponges were first to branch off the evolutionary tree from the last common ancestor of all animals, making them the sister group of all other animals.
  • 1.2K
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Forest and Landscape Restoration
Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) is considered worldwide as a powerful approach to recover ecological functionality and to improve human well-being in degraded and deforested landscapes.
  • 1.2K
  • 25 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Cyprinidae
Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest vertebrate animal family in general with about 3,000 species, of which only 1,270 remain extant, divided into about 370 genera. Cyprinids range from about 12 mm in size to the 3 m giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis). By genus and species count, the family makes up more than two-thirds of the ostariophysian order Cypriniformes. The family name is derived from the Greek word kyprînos (κυπρῖνος 'carp').
  • 1.2K
  • 26 Oct 2022
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