Unlocking genetic diversity for low-input systems in a changing climate through participatory characterization and GWAS of lentil landraces.

Lentils are a vital staple crop in a world seeking sustainable and secure food, but their cultivation face a threat due to yield instability, mainly arising from a lack of genetic diversity in breeding programmes. In this study, we assembled and characterized the genetic and phenotypic diversities of a collection of 106 lentil genotypes, to evaluate their breeding and cropping potential. Lentil landraces from Italy and beyond, either abandoned or still cultivated, were collected from genebanks, seed savers, universities and farmers.

Transcriptome profiling of eight Zea mays lines identifies genes responsible for the resistance to Fusarium verticillioides.

Background: The cultivation of maize (Zea mays L.), one of the most important crops worldwide for food, feed, biofuels, and industrial applications, faces significant constraints due to Fusarium verticillioides, a fungus responsible for severe diseases including seedling blights, stalk rot, and ear rot. Its impact is worsened by the fact that chemical and agronomic measures used to control the infection are often inefficient.

Synapse-to-nucleus ERK-CREB transcriptional signaling requires dendrite-to-soma Capropagation mediated by L-type voltage-gated Ca channels.

The cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB) transcription factor controls the expression of the neuronal immediate early genes , , and and is essential for long-lasting synaptic plasticity underlying learning and memory. Despite this critical role, there is still ongoing debate regarding the synaptic excitation-transcription (E-T) coupling mechanisms mediating CREB activation in the nucleus. Here we employed optical uncaging of glutamate to mimic synaptic excitation of distal dendrites in conjunction with simultaneous imaging of intracellular Ca dynamics and transcriptional reporter gene expression to elucidate CREB E-T coupling mechanisms in hippocampal neurons cultured from both male and female rats.

Endovascular therapy in patients with acute intracranial non-terminal internal carotid artery occlusion (ICA-I).

Background: Acute intracranial occlusion of the internal carotid artery (ICA) can be distinguished into (a) occlusion of the terminal ICA, involving the proximal segments of the middle or anterior cerebral artery (ICA-L/-T) and (b) non-terminal intracranial occlusions of the ICA with patent circle of Willis (ICA-I). While patients with ICA-L/-T occlusion were included in all randomized controlled trials on endovascular therapy (EVT) in anterior large vessel occlusion, data on EVT in ICA-I occlusion is scarce. We thus aimed to evaluate effectiveness and safety of EVT in ICA-I occlusions in comparison to ICA-L/-T occlusions.

miRNA-mediated control of gephyrin synthesis drives sustained inhibitory synaptic plasticity.

Activity-dependent protein synthesis is crucial for long-lasting forms of synaptic plasticity. However, our understanding of translational mechanisms controlling GABAergic synapses is limited. One distinct form of inhibitory long-term potentiation (iLTP) enhances postsynaptic clusters of GABARs and the primary inhibitory scaffold, gephyrin, to promote sustained synaptic strengthening.

Environmental genome-wide association studies across precipitation regimes reveal that the E3 ubiquitin ligase MBR1 regulates plant adaptation to rainy environments.

In an era characterized by rapidly changing and less-predictable weather conditions fueled by the climate crisis, understanding the mechanisms underlying local adaptation in plants is of paramount importance for the conservation of species. As the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events increase, so are the flooding events resulting from soil water saturation. The subsequent onset of hypoxic stress is one of the leading causes of crop damage and yield loss.

L-type Ca channel activation of STIM1-Orai1 signaling remodels the dendritic spine ER to maintain long-term structural plasticity.

Learning and memory require coordinated structural and functional plasticity at neuronal glutamatergic synapses located on dendritic spines. Here, we investigated how the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) controls postsynaptic Ca signaling and long-term potentiation of dendritic spine size, i.e.

Amyloid-β Causes NMDA Receptor Dysfunction and Dendritic Spine Loss through mGluR1 and AKAP150-Anchored Calcineurin Signaling.

Neuronal excitatory synapses are primarily located on small dendritic protrusions called spines. During synaptic plasticity underlying learning and memory, Ca influx through postsynaptic NMDA-type glutamate receptors (NMDARs) initiates signaling pathways that coordinate changes in dendritic spine structure and synaptic function. During long-term potentiation (LTP), high levels of NMDAR Ca influx promote increases in both synaptic strength and dendritic spine size through activation of Ca-dependent protein kinases.

Akap5 links synaptic dysfunction to neuroinflammatory signaling in a mouse model of infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis.

Palmitoylation and depalmitoylation represent dichotomic processes by which a labile posttranslational lipid modification regulates protein trafficking and degradation. The depalmitoylating enzyme, palmitoyl-protein thioesterase 1 (PPT1), is associated with the devastating pediatric neurodegenerative condition, infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (CLN1). CLN1 is characterized by the accumulation of autofluorescent lysosomal storage material (AFSM) in neurons and robust neuroinflammation.

Radiofrequency ablation is an effective treatment for Bethesda III thyroid nodules without genetic alterations.

Background: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is effective in the treatment of thyroid nodules, leading to a 50-90% reduction with respect to baseline. Current guidelines indicate the need for a benign cytology prior to RFA, though, on the other side, this procedure is also successfully used for the treatment of papillary microcarcinomas. No specific indications are available for nodules with an indeterminate cytology (Bethesda III/IV).

The role of omics in improving the orphan crop tef.

Tef or teff [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is a cereal crop indigenous to the Horn of Africa, where it is a staple food for a large population. The popularity of tef arises from its resilience to environmental stresses and its nutritional value.

AKAP150-anchored PKA regulates synaptic transmission and plasticity, neuronal excitability and CRF neuromodulation in the mouse lateral habenula.

The scaffolding A-kinase anchoring protein 150 (AKAP150) is critically involved in kinase and phosphatase regulation of synaptic transmission/plasticity, and neuronal excitability. Emerging evidence also suggests that AKAP150 signaling may play a key role in brain's processing of rewarding/aversive experiences, however its role in the lateral habenula (LHb, as an important brain reward circuitry) is completely unknown. Using whole cell patch clamp recordings in LHb of male wildtype and ΔPKA knockin mice (with deficiency in AKAP-anchoring of PKA), here we show that the genetic disruption of PKA anchoring to AKAP150 significantly reduces AMPA receptor-mediated glutamatergic transmission and prevents the induction of presynaptic endocannabinoid-mediated long-term depression in LHb neurons.

Amyloid-β-induced dendritic spine elimination requires Ca-permeable AMPA receptors, AKAP-Calcineurin-NFAT signaling, and the NFAT target gene Mdm2.

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is associated with brain accumulation of synaptotoxic amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides produced by the proteolytic processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP). Cognitive impairments associated with AD correlate with dendritic spine and excitatory synapse loss, particularly within the hippocampus. In rodents, soluble Aβ oligomers impair hippocampus-dependent learning and memory, promote dendritic spine loss, inhibit NMDA-type glutamate receptor (NMDAR)-dependent long-term potentiation (LTP), and promote synaptic depression (LTD), at least in part through activation of the Ca-CaM-dependent phosphatase calcineurin (CaN).

Seed bacterial microbiota in post-submergence tolerant and sensitive barley genotypes.

Flooding is a predominant abiotic stress for cultivated plants, including barley. This cereal crop shows a large adaptability to different environmental conditions, suggesting the presence of key traits to tolerate adverse conditions. During germination, genetic variations account for dissimilarities in flooding tolerance.

miRNA-mediated control of gephyrin synthesis drives sustained inhibitory synaptic plasticity.

Activity-dependent protein synthesis is crucial for many long-lasting forms of synaptic plasticity. However, our understanding of the translational mechanisms controlling inhibitory synapses is limited. One distinct form of inhibitory long-term potentiation (iLTP) enhances postsynaptic clusters of GABARs and the primary inhibitory scaffold, gephyrin, to promote sustained synaptic strengthening.

AKAP150-anchored PKA regulation of synaptic transmission and plasticity, neuronal excitability and CRF neuromodulation in the lateral habenula.

Numerous studies of hippocampal synaptic function in learning and memory have established the functional significance of the scaffolding A-kinase anchoring protein 150 (AKAP150) in kinase and phosphatase regulation of synaptic receptor and ion channel trafficking/function and hence synaptic transmission/plasticity, and neuronal excitability. Emerging evidence also suggests that AKAP150 signaling may play a critical role in brain's processing of rewarding/aversive experiences. Here we focused on an unexplored role of AKAP150 in the lateral habenula (LHb), a diencephalic brain region that integrates and relays negative reward signals from forebrain striatal and limbic structures to midbrain monoaminergic centers.

LTP induction by structural rather than enzymatic functions of CaMKII.

Learning and memory are thought to require hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP), and one of the few central dogmas of molecular neuroscience that has stood undisputed for more than three decades is that LTP induction requires enzymatic activity of the Ca/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII). However, as we delineate here, the experimental evidence is surprisingly far from conclusive. All previous interventions inhibiting enzymatic CaMKII activity and LTP also interfere with structural CaMKII roles, in particular binding to the NMDA-type glutamate receptor subunit GluN2B.

Decreased nitrosylation of CaMKII causes aging-associated impairments in memory and synaptic plasticity in mice.

CaMKII has molecular memory functions because transient calcium ion stimuli can induce long-lasting increases in its synaptic localization and calcium ion-independent (autonomous) activity, thereby leaving memory traces of calcium ion stimuli beyond their duration. The synaptic effects of two mechanisms that induce CaMKII autonomy are well studied: autophosphorylation at threonine-286 and binding to GluN2B. Here, we examined the neuronal functions of additional autonomy mechanisms: nitrosylation and oxidation of the CaMKII regulatory domain.

Intracranial Stenosis Treated with Stenting in Patients with Suspected Cerebral Vasculitis: Two Case Reports.

Central nervous system vasculitis (CNSV) is an uncommon and poorly understood form of vasculitis. Early recognition is important because medical treatment might improve the outcome. However, randomized clinical trials on CNSV treatment do not exist.

Unusual causes of hyperthyrotropinemia and differential diagnosis of primary hypothyroidism: a revised diagnostic flowchart.

The clinical consequences of primary hypothyroidism include cardiovascular morbidity, increased mortality, and poor quality of life; therefore guidelines endorsed by several Scientific Societies recommend measuring circulating thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in patients at risk. The assessment of serum TSH levels is also deemed to be the most robust and accurate biomarker during the management of replacement therapy in patients with a previous diagnosis of primary hypothyroidism. In line with a reflex TSH laboratory strategy, free thyroxine is measured only if the TSH falls outside specific cutoffs, in order to streamline investigations and save unjustified costs.