No Effect of Infant Nursery Rearing on Laboratory Rhesus Monkey Dams' Social Behavior or Long-Term Cortisol Profiles.

While the behavioral and physiological impacts of nursery rearing in laboratory-housed infant monkeys have been well characterized, to date no studies have examined the impact on nonhuman primate dams of their infants being removed for rearing in the nursery. Despite the lack of evidence on the topic, anti-animal research groups often cite mother-infant separation and infant nursery rearing (NR) as a welfare concern for laboratory monkey mothers. As such, important policy decisions regarding research activities may result without adequate evidence.

Responsible (use of) AI.

Although there is a rich history of philosophical definitions of ethics when applied to human behavior, applying the same concepts and principles to AI may be fraught with problems. Anthropomorphizing AI to have characteristics such as "ethics" may promote a dangerous, unrealistic expectation that AI can be trained to have inherent, guaranteed ethical behavior. The authors instead advocate for increased research into the ethical use of AI from initial ideation and design through operational use and sustainment.

The Arabidopsis Leucine-Rich Repeat Receptor Kinase BIR3 Negatively Regulates BAK1 Receptor Complex Formation and Stabilizes BAK1.

BAK1 is a coreceptor and positive regulator of multiple ligand binding leucine-rich repeat receptor kinases (LRR-RKs) and is involved in brassinosteroid (BR)-dependent growth and development, innate immunity, and cell death control. The BAK1-interacting LRR-RKs BIR2 and BIR3 were previously identified by proteomics analyses of in vivo BAK1 complexes. Here, we show that BAK1-related pathways such as innate immunity and cell death control are affected by BIR3 in BIR3 also has a strong negative impact on BR signaling.

Brassinosteroid/Abscisic Acid Antagonism in Balancing Growth and Stress.

In this issue of Developmental Cell, Gui et al. (2016) show that an abscisic acid-inducible remorin protein in rice directly interacts with critical brassinosteroid signaling components to attenuate the brassinosteroid response, thus illuminating one aspect of the brassinosteroid/abscisic acid antagonism.

Direct Modulation of Heterotrimeric G Protein-coupled Signaling by a Receptor Kinase Complex.

Plants and some protists have heterotrimeric G protein complexes that activate spontaneously without canonical G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). In Arabidopsis, the sole 7-transmembrane regulator of G protein signaling 1 (AtRGS1) modulates the G protein complex by keeping it in the resting state (GDP-bound). However, it remains unknown how a myriad of biological responses is achieved with a single G protein modulator.