Olfactory receptor 2 in vascular macrophages drives atherosclerosis by NLRP3-dependent IL-1 production.

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the artery walls and involves immune cells such as macrophages. Olfactory receptors (OLFRs) are G protein–coupled chemoreceptors that have a central role in detecting odorants and the sense of smell. We found that mouse vascular macrophages express the olfactory receptor and all associated trafficking and signaling molecules.

Carboxylesterase 20 Binds Strigolactone and Increases Branches and Tillers When Ectopically Expressed in and Maize.

Severe drought stress can delay maize silk emergence relative to the pollen shedding period, resulting in poor fertilization and reduced grain yield. Methods to minimize the delay in silking could thus improve yield stability. An enhancer-tagged carboxylesterase 20 () line was identified in a drought tolerance screen.

Rapid detection of proteins in transgenic crops without protein reference standards by targeted proteomic mass spectrometry.

Background: Liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry is increasingly used for protein detection for transgenic crops research. Currently this is achieved with protein reference standards which may take a significant time or efforts to obtain and there is a need for rapid protein detection without protein reference standards.

Results: A sensitive and specific method was developed to detect target proteins in transgenic maize leaf crude extract at concentrations as low as ∼30 ng mg(-1) dry leaf without the need of reference standards or any sample enrichment.

Multiplexed protein quantification in maize leaves by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry: an alternative tool to immunoassays for target protein analysis in genetically engineered crops.

A multiplexing liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method to quantify three proteins in maize leaves was developed and validated. For each protein, a hybrid Q-TRAP mass spectrometer was operated in the information-dependent acquisition (IDA) mode to select optimal potential signature peptides. The respective signature peptides were then further optimized and quantified as protein surrogates by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM).