Dynamically regulated focal adhesions coordinate endothelial cell remodelling in developing vasculature.

The assembly of a mature vascular network involves coordinated endothelial cell (EC) shape changes, including the process of EC elongation. How EC elongation is dynamically regulated in vivo is not fully understood. Here, we have generated a zebrafish mutant that is deficient for the integrin adaptor protein Talin 1 (Tln1).

Effects of Chronic Physical Exercise or Multicomponent Exercise Programs on the Mental Health and Cognition of Older Adults Living in a Nursing Home: A Systematic Review of Studies From the Past 10 Years.

Some nursing homes for the elderly provide holistic care that integrates several interventions, including physical exercise. The aim of this systematic review is to summarize the effects of physical exercise or multicomponent exercise programs on the mental health (wellbeing, anxiety and depression) and cognitive functions of older adults with/without dementia who live in a nursing home and do/do not require wheelchair assistance. To this end, PubMed, PsycInfo and Web of Science are using to identify clinical trials and randomized controlled studies conducted during the period January 2011 to December 2021 to examine the progression of research in this field over the past ten years.

The zebrafish mutant uncovers an evolutionarily conserved role for Tmem161b in the control of cardiac rhythm.

The establishment of cardiac function in the developing embryo is essential to ensure blood flow and, therefore, growth and survival of the animal. The molecular mechanisms controlling normal cardiac rhythm remain to be fully elucidated. From a forward genetic screen, we identified a unique mutant, that displayed a specific cardiac arrhythmia phenotype.

Myosin Vb is required for correct trafficking of N-cadherin and cardiac chamber ballooning.

Background: During heart morphogenesis, the cardiac chambers undergo ballooning: a process involving regionalized elongation of cardiomyocytes. Cardiomyocyte shape changes require reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton; however, the genetic regulation of this process is not well understood.

Results: From a forward genetic screen, we identified the zebrafish uq mutant which manifests chamber ballooning defects.

Nppa and Nppb act redundantly during zebrafish cardiac development to confine AVC marker expression and reduce cardiac jelly volume.

Atrial natriuretic peptide () and brain natriuretic peptide () form a gene cluster with expression in the chambers of the developing heart. Despite restricted expression, a function in cardiac development has not been demonstrated by mutant analysis. This is attributed to functional redundancy; however, their genomic location has impeded formal analysis.

Utilising polymorphisms to achieve allele-specific genome editing in zebrafish.

The advent of genome editing has significantly altered genetic research, including research using the zebrafish model. To better understand the selectivity of the commonly used CRISPR/Cas9 system, we investigated single base pair mismatches in target sites and examined how they affect genome editing in the zebrafish model. Using two different zebrafish strains that have been deep sequenced, CRISPR/Cas9 target sites containing polymorphisms between the two strains were identified.