Klotho increases antioxidant defenses in astrocytes and ubiquitin-proteasome activity in neurons.

Klotho is an antiaging protein, and its levels decline with age and chronic stress. The exogenous administration of Klotho can enhance cognitive performance in mice and negatively modulate the Insulin/IGF1/PI3K/AKT pathway in terms of metabolism. In humans, insulin sensitivity is a hallmark of healthy longevity.

Establishment of a GC-MS-based C-positional isotopomer approach suitable for investigating metabolic fluxes in plant primary metabolism.

C-Metabolic flux analysis ( C-MFA) has greatly contributed to our understanding of plant metabolic regulation. However, the generation of detailed in vivo flux maps remains a major challenge. Flux investigations based on nuclear magnetic resonance have resolved small networks with high accuracy.

Feedback regulation by trehalose 6-phosphate slows down starch mobilization below the rate that would exhaust starch reserves at dawn in Arabidopsis leaves.

Trehalose 6-phosphate (Tre6P), a sucrose signaling metabolite, inhibits transitory starch breakdown in Arabidopsis () leaves and potentially links starch turnover to leaf sucrose status and demand from sink organs (Plant Physiology, 163, 2013, 1142). To investigate this relationship further, we compared diel patterns of starch turnover in ethanol-inducible Tre6P synthase (iTPS) lines, which have high Tre6P and low sucrose after induction, with those in sucrose export mutants, which accumulate sucrose in their leaves and were predicted to have high Tre6P. Short-term changes in irradiance were used to investigate whether the strength of inhibition by Tre6P depends on starch levels.

The sucrose-to-malate ratio correlates with the faster CO and light stomatal responses of angiosperms compared to ferns.

Stomatal responses to environmental signals differ substantially between ferns and angiosperms. However, the mechanisms that lead to such different responses remain unclear. Here we investigated the extent to which leaf metabolism contributes to coordinate the differential stomatal behaviour among ferns and angiosperms.

Insights into ABA-mediated regulation of guard cell primary metabolism revealed by systems biology approaches.

Despite the fact that guard cell abscisic acid (ABA) signalling pathway is well documented, our understanding concerning how and to which extent ABA regulates guard cell metabolism remains fragmentary. Here we have adopted different systems approaches to investigate how ABA modulates guard cell central metabolism by providing genes that are possibly ABA-regulated. By using previous published Arabidopsis guard cell transcript profiling data, we carried out an extensive co-expression network analysis using ABA-related genes and those related to the metabolism and transport of sugars, starch and organic acids.

Metabolism within the specialized guard cells of plants.

Contents 1018 I. 1018 II. 1019 III.

Stainless steel and polyethylene surfaces functionalized with silver nanoparticles.

The antimicrobial effects of a stainless steel surface and a polyethylene surface functionalized with silver nanoparticles on the adhesion of different bacteria and the changes in physical and chemical characteristics of these surfaces that influence biofilm formation were evaluated. The functionalized surfaces of polyethylene and stainless steel were more hydrophobic than the control ones. The bacterial surfaces were hydrophilic.

Roles of sucrose in guard cell regulation.

The control of stomatal aperture involves reversible changes in the concentration of osmolytes in guard cells. Sucrose has long been proposed to have an osmolytic role in guard cells. However, direct evidence for such a role is lacking.