Some students are more equal: Performance in Author Recognition Test and Title Recognition Test modulated by print exposure and academic background.

Reading is a key skill for university students. The Author Recognition Test (ART) and the Title Recognition Test (TRT) have both been used for decades to measure print exposure which correlates with reading and other linguistic skills. Given the available evidence for interindividual differences in reading skills, this study addresses three open issues.

Characterization of the Leucocyte Immunoglobulin-like Receptor B4 () Expression in Microglia.

As resident innate immune cells of the CNS, microglia play important essential roles during physiological and pathological situations. Recent reports have described the expression of in disease-associated and aged microglia. Here, we characterized the expression of in microglia in vitro and in vivo in comparison with bone marrow-derived monocytes and peritoneal macrophages in mice.

LDIP cooperates with SEIPIN and LDAP to facilitate lipid droplet biogenesis in Arabidopsis.

Cytoplasmic lipid droplets (LDs) are evolutionarily conserved organelles that store neutral lipids and play critical roles in plant growth, development, and stress responses. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying their biogenesis at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) remain obscure. Here we show that a recently identified protein termed LD-associated protein [LDAP]-interacting protein (LDIP) works together with both endoplasmic reticulum-localized SEIPIN and the LD-coat protein LDAP to facilitate LD formation in Arabidopsis thaliana.

SEIPIN Isoforms Interact with the Membrane-Tethering Protein VAP27-1 for Lipid Droplet Formation.

SEIPIN proteins are localized to endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-lipid droplet (LD) junctions where they mediate the directional formation of LDs into the cytoplasm in eukaryotic cells. Unlike in animal and yeast cells, which have single SEIPIN genes, plants have three distinct SEIPIN isoforms encoded by separate genes. The mechanism of SEIPIN action remains poorly understood, and here we demonstrate that part of the function of two SEIPIN isoforms in Arabidopsis (), AtSEIPIN2 and AtSEIPIN3, may depend on their interaction with the vesicle-associated membrane protein (VAMP)-associated protein (VAP) family member AtVAP27-1.

Identification of Low-Abundance Lipid Droplet Proteins in Seeds and Seedlings.

The developmental program of seed formation, germination, and early seedling growth requires not only tight regulation of cell division and metabolism, but also concerted control of the structure and function of organelles, which relies on specific changes in their protein composition. Of particular interest is the switch from heterotrophic to photoautotrophic seedling growth, for which cytoplasmic lipid droplets (LDs) play a critical role as depots for energy-rich storage lipids. Here, we present the results of a bottom-up proteomics study analyzing the total protein fractions and LD-enriched fractions in eight different developmental phases during silique (seed) development, seed germination, and seedling establishment in Arabidopsis ().