Self-limiting fall armyworm: a new approach in development for sustainable crop protection and resistance management.

Background: The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, is a significant and widespread pest of maize, sorghum, rice, and other economically important crops. Successful management of this caterpillar pest has historically relied upon application of synthetic insecticides and through cultivation of genetically engineered crops expressing insecticidal proteins (Bt crops). Fall armyworm has, however, developed resistance to both synthetic insecticides and Bt crops, which risks undermining the benefits delivered by these important crop protection tools.

A gel aging effect in the synthesis of open-framework gallium phosphates: structure solution and solid-state NMR of a large-pore, open-framework material.

The templated zeolite-analogue GaPO-34 (CHA structure type) crystallises from a gel precursor GaO : 2HPO : 1HF : 1.7SDA : 70HO (where SDA = structure directing agent), treated hydrothermally for 24 hours at 170 °C using either pyridine or 1-methylimizadole as SDA and one of either poorly crystalline ε-GaO or γ-GaO as gallium precursor. If the same gels are stirred for periods shorter than 2 hours but treated under identical hydrothermal conditions, then a second phase crystallises, free of GaPO-34.

Soluble axoplasm enriched from injured CNS axons reveals the early modulation of the actin cytoskeleton.

Axon injury and degeneration is a common consequence of diverse neurological conditions including multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. The molecular events underlying axon degeneration are poorly understood. We have developed a novel method to enrich for axoplasm from rodent optic nerve and characterised the early events in Wallerian degeneration using an unbiased proteomics screen.

The distribution of cerebrovascular amyloid in Alzheimer's disease varies with ApoE genotype.

We performed a comparative study to assess cerebral amyloid angiopathy and ApoE genotype in cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Ten ApoE 3,3 and ten ApoE 4,4 AD brains, as well as ten normal control brains, were selected after matching for age, sex, and duration of disease. Sections of middle frontal and inferior parietal cortex including white matter sections were stained with an antibody against amyloid beta (Abeta), and extensive analysis of arteriolar Abeta deposition was performed using digital image analysis.

The minimal structural domains required for neural cell adhesion molecule polysialylation by PST/ST8Sia IV and STX/ST8Sia II.

A limited number of mammalian proteins are modified by polysialic acid, with the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) being the most abundant of these. We hypothesize that polysialylation is a protein-specific glycosylation event and that an initial protein-protein interaction between polysialyltransferases and glycoprotein substrates mediates this specificity. To evaluate the regions of NCAM required for recognition and polysialylation by PST/ST8Sia IV and STX/ST8Sia II, a series of domain deletion proteins were generated, co-expressed with each enzyme, and their polysialylation analyzed.