Mild Parkinsonian Signs in a Community Ambulant Population.

Background: Mild parkinsonian signs (MPS) are common in the older adult and associated with a wide range of adverse health outcomes. There is limited data on the prevalence of MPS and its significance.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of MPS in the community ambulant population and to evaluate the relationship of MPS with prodromal features of Parkinson's disease (PD) and cognition.

Structural connectome alterations in prodromal and de novo Parkinson's disease patients.

Background: Although the clinical signs of prodromal Parkinson's disease (PD) have been identified, little is known about the neural features of the prodromal phase of PD (proPD). The aim of this study was to examine the structural network alterations from healthy aging to proPD and to early PD.

Methods: 181 non-demented and non-depressed participants comprising 55 healthy controls (HCs), 20 proPDs, and 106 de novo PD patients (dPDs) were included in the study and underwent clinical assessment and diffusion tensor imaging scanning.

BORC Regulates the Axonal Transport of Synaptic Vesicle Precursors by Activating ARL-8.

Axonal transport of synaptic vesicle precursors (SVPs) is essential for synapse development and function. The conserved ARF-like small GTPase ARL-8 is localized to SVPs and directly activates UNC-104/KIF1A, the axonal-transport kinesin for SVPs in C. elegans.

The intraflagellar transport protein IFT27 promotes BBSome exit from cilia through the GTPase ARL6/BBS3.

The sorting of signaling receptors into and out of cilia relies on the BBSome, a complex of Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) proteins, and on the intraflagellar transport (IFT) machinery. GTP loading onto the Arf-like GTPase ARL6/BBS3 drives assembly of a membrane-apposed BBSome coat that promotes cargo entry into cilia, yet how and where ARL6 is activated remains elusive. Here, we show that the Rab-like GTPase IFT27/RABL4, a known component of IFT complex B, promotes the exit of BBSome and associated cargoes from cilia.

The ecdysone receptor (ScEcR-A) binds DNA puffs at the start of DNA amplification in Sciara coprophila.

The steroid hormone ecdysone induces DNA amplification and subsequent DNA puff formation in late fourth larval instar salivary gland polytene chromosomes of the fungus fly, Sciara coprophila. Previous in vitro studies on DNA puff II/9A in Sciara demonstrated that the ecdysone receptor (ScEcR-A) efficiently binds an ecdysone response element adjacent to the origin recognition complex binding site within the II/9A amplification origin, implying a role for ScEcR-A in amplification. Here, we extrapolate the molecular details from locus II/9A to the rest of the genome using immunofluorescence with a ScEcR-A-specific antibody.

Isolation and characterization of the ecdysone receptor and its heterodimeric partner ultraspiracle through development in Sciara coprophila.

Regulation of DNA replication is critical, and loss of control can lead to DNA amplification. Naturally occurring, developmentally regulated DNA amplification occurs in the DNA puffs of the late larval salivary gland giant polytene chromosomes in the fungus fly, Sciara coprophila. The steroid hormone ecdysone induces DNA amplification in Sciara, and the amplification origin of DNA puff II/9A contains a putative binding site for the ecdysone receptor (EcR).