Encoding of Environmental Cues in Central Amygdala Neurons during Foraging.

To successfully forage in an environment filled with rewards and threats, animals need to rely on familiar structures of their environment that signal food availability. The central amygdala (CeA) is known to mediate a panoply of consummatory and defensive behaviors, yet how specific activity patterns within CeA subpopulations guide optimal choices is not completely understood. In a paradigm of appetitive conditioning in which mice freely forage for food across a continuum of cues, we found that two major subpopulations of CeA neurons, Somatostatin-positive (CeA) and protein kinase Cδ-positive (CeA) neurons, can assign motivational properties to environmental cues.

FLRT3 Marks Direction-Selective Retinal Ganglion Cells That Project to the Medial Terminal Nucleus.

The mammalian retina extracts a multitude of diverse features from the visual scene such as color, contrast, and direction of motion. These features are transmitted separately to the brain by more than 40 different retinal ganglion cell (RGC) subtypes. However, so far only a few genetic markers exist to fully characterize the different RGC subtypes.

Identification of Spinal Neurons Contributing to the Dorsal Column Projection Mediating Fine Touch and Corrective Motor Movements.

Tactile stimuli are integrated and processed by neuronal circuits in the deep dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Several spinal interneuron populations have been implicated in tactile information processing. However, dorsal horn projection neurons that contribute to the postsynaptic dorsal column (PSDC) pathway transmitting tactile information to the brain are poorly characterized.

Gulp1 controls Eph/ephrin trogocytosis and is important for cell rearrangements during development.

Trogocytosis, in which cells nibble away parts of neighboring cells, is an intercellular cannibalism process conserved from protozoa to mammals. Its underlying molecular mechanisms are not well understood and are likely distinct from phagocytosis, a process that clears entire cells. Bi-directional contact repulsion induced by Eph/ephrin signaling involves transfer of membrane patches and full-length Eph/ephrin protein complexes between opposing cells, resembling trogocytosis.

Exosomes mediate cell contact-independent ephrin-Eph signaling during axon guidance.

The cellular release of membranous vesicles known as extracellular vesicles (EVs) or exosomes represents a novel mode of intercellular communication. Eph receptor tyrosine kinases and their membrane-tethered ephrin ligands have very important roles in such biologically diverse processes as neuronal development, plasticity, and pathological diseases. Until now, it was thought that ephrin-Eph signaling requires direct cell contact.

Neuron-glia communication via EphA4/ephrin-A3 modulates LTP through glial glutamate transport.

Astrocytes are critical participants in synapse development and function, but their role in synaptic plasticity is unclear. Eph receptors and their ephrin ligands have been suggested to regulate neuron-glia interactions, and EphA4-mediated ephrin reverse signaling is required for synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Here we show that long-term potentiation (LTP) at the CA3-CA1 synapse is modulated by EphA4 in the postsynaptic CA1 cell and by ephrin-A3, a ligand of EphA4 that is found in astrocytes.

High prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium in women presenting for termination of pregnancy.

Background: Sexually transmitted infections increase the risk of postoperative complications after termination of pregnancy. Mycoplasma genitalium is sexually transmitted and associated with adverse clinical outcomes in both males and females. The prevalence of M.