Evidence for anti-inflammatory effects and modulation of neurotransmitter metabolism by Salvia officinalis L.

Background: Cognitive health is of great interest to society, with neuroinflammation and systemic inflammation age-related risk factors that are linked to declines in cognitive performance. Several botanical ingredients have been suggested to have benefits in this area including Salvia officinalis (sage), which has shown anti-inflammatory effects and exhibited promising cognitive improvements in multiple human studies. The current study demonstrates anti-inflammatory effects for S.

Effects of Salvia officinalis L. and Chamaemelum nobile (L.) extracts on inflammatory responses in two models of human cells: Primary subcutaneous adipocytes and neuroblastoma cell line (SK-N-SH).

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Salvia officinalis L. (sage), and Chamaemelum nobile (L.) (chamomile) have been used traditionally to treat various inflammatory conditions.

Targeting Acr3 from Ensifer medicae to the plasma membrane or to the tonoplast of tobacco hairy roots allows arsenic extrusion or improved accumulation. Effect of acr3 expression on the root transcriptome.

Transgenic tobacco hairy roots expressing the bacterial arsenite efflux pump Acr3 from Ensifer medicae were generated. The gene product was targeted either to the plasma membrane (ACR3 lines) or to the tonoplast by fusing the ACR3 protein to the tonoplast integral protein TIP1.1 (TIP-ACR3 lines).

Circadian clock components control daily growth activities by modulating cytokinin levels and cell division-associated gene expression in Populus trees.

Trees are carbon dioxide sinks and major producers of terrestrial biomass with distinct seasonal growth patterns. Circadian clocks enable the coordination of physiological and biochemical temporal activities, optimally regulating multiple traits including growth. To dissect the clock's role in growth, we analysed Populus tremula × P.

Deciphering the complex leaf transcriptome of the allotetraploid species Nicotiana tabacum: a phylogenomic perspective.

Background: Polyploidization is an important mechanism in plant evolution. By analyzing the leaf transcriptomes taken from the allotetraploid Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) and parental genome donors, N. sylvesteris (S-Genome) and N.

The clock gene circuit in Arabidopsis includes a repressilator with additional feedback loops.

Circadian clocks synchronise biological processes with the day/night cycle, using molecular mechanisms that include interlocked, transcriptional feedback loops. Recent experiments identified the evening complex (EC) as a repressor that can be essential for gene expression rhythms in plants. Integrating the EC components in this role significantly alters our mechanistic, mathematical model of the clock gene circuit.

Light inputs shape the Arabidopsis circadian system.

The circadian clock is a fundamental feature of eukaryotic gene regulation that is emerging as an exemplar genetic sub-network for systems biology. The circadian system in Arabidopsis plants is complex, in part due to its phototransduction pathways, which are themselves under circadian control. We therefore analysed two simpler experimental systems.

Quantitative analysis of regulatory flexibility under changing environmental conditions.

The circadian clock controls 24-h rhythms in many biological processes, allowing appropriate timing of biological rhythms relative to dawn and dusk. Known clock circuits include multiple, interlocked feedback loops. Theory suggested that multiple loops contribute the flexibility for molecular rhythms to track multiple phases of the external cycle.

Data assimilation constrains new connections and components in a complex, eukaryotic circadian clock model.

Circadian clocks generate 24-h rhythms that are entrained by the day/night cycle. Clock circuits include several light inputs and interlocked feedback loops, with complex dynamics. Multiple biological components can contribute to each part of the circuit in higher organisms.

TobEA: an atlas of tobacco gene expression from seed to senescence.

Background: Transcriptomics has resulted in the development of large data sets and tools for the progression of functional genomics and systems biology in many model organisms. Currently there is no commercially available microarray to allow such expression studies in Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco).

Results: A custom designed Affymetrix tobacco expression microarray was generated from a set of over 40k unigenes and used to measure gene expression in 19 different tobacco samples to produce the Tobacco Expression Atlas (TobEA).

Reconstruction of transcriptional dynamics from gene reporter data using differential equations.

Motivation: Promoter-driven reporter genes, notably luciferase and green fluorescent protein, provide a tool for the generation of a vast array of time-course data sets from living cells and organisms. The aim of this study is to introduce a modeling framework based on stochastic differential equations (SDEs) and ordinary differential equations (ODEs) that addresses the problem of reconstructing transcription time-course profiles and associated degradation rates. The dynamical model is embedded into a Bayesian framework and inference is performed using Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms.

Modelling non-stationary gene regulatory processes with a non-homogeneous Bayesian network and the allocation sampler.

Method: The objective of the present article is to propose and evaluate a probabilistic approach based on Bayesian networks for modelling non-homogeneous and non-linear gene regulatory processes. The method is based on a mixture model, using latent variables to assign individual measurements to different classes. The practical inference follows the Bayesian paradigm and samples the network structure, the number of classes and the assignment of latent variables from the posterior distribution with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), using the recently proposed allocation sampler as an alternative to RJMCMC.

Analysis of circadian leaf movement rhythms in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Arabidopsis thaliana is the model organism for the study of the higher plant circadian clock. The physiological change in position of young leaves and cotyledons in Arabidopsis seedlings reveals an overt circadian rhythm. Measuring these leaf movements provides a simple and reliable assay of the plant circadian clock and, unlike systems based on the firefly luciferase reporter gene, requires no prior genetic manipulation of the plant.

FLOWERING LOCUS C mediates natural variation in the high-temperature response of the Arabidopsis circadian clock.

Temperature compensation contributes to the accuracy of biological timing by preventing circadian rhythms from running more quickly at high than at low temperatures. We previously identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) with temperature-specific effects on the circadian rhythm of leaf movement, including a QTL linked to the transcription factor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). We have now analyzed FLC alleles in near-isogenic lines and induced mutants to eliminate other candidate genes.

Analysis of phase of LUCIFERASE expression reveals novel circadian quantitative trait loci in Arabidopsis.

In response to exogenous rhythms of light and temperature, most organisms exhibit endogenous circadian rhythms (i.e. cycles of behavior and gene expression with a periodicity of approximately 24 h).

Natural allelic variation in the temperature-compensation mechanisms of the Arabidopsis thaliana circadian clock.

Temperature compensation is a defining feature of circadian oscillators, yet no components contributing to the phenomenon have been identified in plants. We tested 27 accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana for circadian leaf movement at a range of constant temperatures. The accessions showed varying patterns of temperature compensation, but no clear associations to the geographic origin of the accessions could be made.