Transcription pattern of reproduction relevant genes along the brain-pituitary-gonad axis of female, male and intersex thicklip grey mullets, Chelon labrosus, from a polluted harbor.

The reproductive cycle of teleost fishes is regulated by the brain-pituitary-gonad (BPG) axis. The transcription profile of genes involved in the reproduction signalling in the BPG-axis differs in females and males during the gametogenic cycle. Impacts of endocrine disrupting chemicals on these signalling pathways in fish are known, but the participation of the BPG-axis in the development of the intersex condition is not well understood.

Phage-displayed peptides targeting specific tissues and organs.

Phage display is a powerful and widely used technique to find novel peptide ligands. A massive amount of peptide sequences have been identified for all kinds of materials, and peptides that may have targeting capabilities towards specific cells and tissues have received special attention in biomedical sciences. As a result, it is increasingly harder to follow all the work that has been done, which sometimes leads to many promising ligands receiving little attention, together with the publication of false positives that have already been found.

Quantifying intracellular equilibrium dissociation constants using single-channel time-resolved FRET.

Quantification of the intracellular equilibrium dissociation constant of the interaction, K , is challenging due to the variability of the relative concentrations of the interacting proteins in the cell. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) of the donor provides an accurate measurement of the molecular fraction of donor involved in FRET, but the fraction of bound acceptor is also needed to reliably estimate K . We present a method that exploits the spectroscopic properties of the widely used eGFP - mCherry FRET pair to rigorously determine the intracellular K based on imaging the fluorescence lifetime of only the donor (single-channel FLIM).