Longitudinal imaging of the taste bud in vivo with two-photon laser scanning microscopy.

Taste bud cells in the tongue transduce taste information from chemicals in food and transmit this information to gustatory neurons in the geniculate ganglion that innervate taste buds. The peripheral taste system is a dynamic environment where taste bud cells are continuously replaced, but further understanding of this phenomenon has been limited by the inability to directly observe this process. To overcome this challenge, we combined chronic in vivo two-photon laser scanning microscopy with genetic labeling of gustatory neurons and taste buds to observe how cells within the taste bud change over time.

Protocol for Xenium spatial transcriptomics studies using fixed frozen mouse brain sections.

Here, we present a protocol for Xenium spatial transcriptomics studies using fixed frozen mouse brain sections. We describe steps for intracardiac perfusion, cryosectioning, and floating section mounting of brain sections, which enable runs on the Xenium analyzer and data delivery. We demonstrate that, in addition to the 10× Genomics-validated formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) and fresh frozen sections, fixed frozen thin brain sections are compatible with the Xenium platform and provide excellent imaging and quantification results for spatially resolved gene expression.

A type VI secretion system in species and triggers distinct macrophage death pathways independent of the pyrin inflammasome.

The complex contains opportunistic pathogens that cause chronic infections and inflammation in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis. Two closely related species within this complex are and the recently classified and encode a type VI secretion system and the effector TecA, which is detected by the pyrin/caspase-1 inflammasome, and triggers macrophage inflammatory death. We previously showed that the pyrin inflammasome was dispensable for lung inflammation in mice infected with AU1054 indicating this species activates an alternative pathway of macrophage inflammatory death.