Publications by authors named "Dongye Lu"

Article Synopsis
  • - Low doses of anesthetics like ketamine and dexmedetomidine show anxiety-reducing effects that are independent of their sedative qualities, but how they work is still not fully understood.
  • - Researchers found a specific group of GABAergic neurons, called ovBNST, that respond to anesthetics and anxiolytic drugs, forming connections with brain areas involved in managing anxiety and stress.
  • - Activating these ovBNST neurons can significantly reduce anxiety behaviors, while shutting them down increases anxiety, indicating their role in managing autonomic responses and suggesting they could be a target for treating anxiety disorders.
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Unlabelled: Low doses of general anesthetics like ketamine and dexmedetomidine have anxiolytic properties independent of their sedative effects. How these different drugs exert these anxiolytic effects is not well understood. We discovered a population of GABAergic neurons in the oval division of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis that is activated by multiple anesthetics and the anxiolytic drug diazepam (ovBNST ).

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Chinese jujube (also called Chinese date, Mill.) is an economically important tree in China and provides a rich source of sugars, vitamins, and bioactive components, all of which are indispensable and essential for the composition and participation in life processes of the human body. However, the location of these metabolites in jujube fruits has not been determined.

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The fruit flavor is a key economic value attribute of jujube. Here we compared metabolomes and transcriptomes of "Mazao" (ST) and "Ping'anhuluzao" (HK) with unique flavors during fruit development. We identified 437 differential metabolites, mainly sugars, acids, and lipids.

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Chinese jujube () is a vital economic tree native to China. Jujube fruit with abundant L-Ascorbic Acid (AsA) is an ideal material for studying the mechanism of AsA biosynthesis and metabolism. However, the key transcription factors regulating AsA anabolism in jujube have not been reported.

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Jujube (family Rhamnaceae) is an important economic fruit tree in China. In this study, we reported 26 chloroplast (cp) sequences of jujube using Illumina paired-end sequencing. The sequence length of cp genome was 161, 367-161, 849 bp, which was composed of a large single-copy region (89053-89437 bp) and a small single-copy region (19356-19362 bp) separated by a pair of reverse repeat regions (26478-26533 bp).

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Choice behavior is characterized by temporal discounting, i.e., preference for immediate rewards given a choice between immediate and delayed rewards.

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General anesthesia (GA) can produce analgesia (loss of pain) independent of inducing loss of consciousness, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We hypothesized that GA suppresses pain in part by activating supraspinal analgesic circuits. We discovered a distinct population of GABAergic neurons activated by GA in the mouse central amygdala (CeA neurons).

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C. Wang & Chang Y. Yang is a desert plant species distributed in Northwest China.

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(desert willow) is a shrub endemic to the Kubuqi Desert and the Mu Us Desert, China, that plays an important role in maintaining local ecosystems and can be used as a biomass feedstock for biofuels and bioenergy. However, the lack of information on phenotypic traits and molecular markers for this species limits the study of genetic diversity and population structure. In this study, nine phenotypic traits were analyzed to assess the morphological diversity and variation.

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Considerable evidence implicates the basal ganglia in interval timing, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using a novel behavioral task, we demonstrate that head-fixed mice can be trained to show the key features of timing behavior within a few sessions. Single-trial analysis of licking behavior reveals stepping dynamics with variable onset times, which is responsible for the canonical Gaussian distribution of timing behavior.

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The contribution of basal ganglia outputs to consummatory behavior remains poorly understood. We recorded from the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNR), the major basal ganglia output nucleus, during self-initiated drinking in mice. The firing rates of many lateral SNR neurons were time-locked to individual licks.

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Luminopsins are fusion proteins of luciferase and opsin that allow interrogation of neuronal circuits at different temporal and spatial resolutions by choosing either extrinsic physical or intrinsic biological light for its activation. Building on previous development of fusions of wild-type Gaussia luciferase with channelrhodopsin, here we expanded the utility of luminopsins by fusing bright Gaussia luciferase variants with either channelrhodopsin to excite neurons (luminescent opsin, LMO) or a proton pump to inhibit neurons (inhibitory LMO, iLMO). These improved LMOs could reliably activate or silence neurons in vitro and in vivo.

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We recorded activity of dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta in unrestrained mice while monitoring their movements with video tracking. Our approach allows an unbiased examination of the continuous relationship between single unit activity and behavior. Although DA neurons show characteristic burst firing following cue or reward presentation, as previously reported, their activity can be explained by the representation of actual movement kinematics.

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