Phenylalanine supply alleviates the drought stress in mustard (Brassica campestris) by modulating plant growth, photosynthesis, and antioxidant defense system.

Mustard (Brassica campestris L.) is a major oilseed crop that plays a crucial role in agriculture. Nevertheless, a number of abiotic factors, drought in particular, significantly reduce its production.

CDK9 and its repressor LARP7 modulate cardiomyocyte proliferation and response to injury in the zebrafish heart.

Cyclin dependent kinase (Cdk)9 acts through the positive transcription elongation factor-b (P-TEFb) complex to activate and expand transcription through RNA polymerase II. It has also been shown to regulate cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, with recent evidence linking it to cardiomyocyte proliferation. We hypothesised that modification of CDK9 activity could both impair and enhance the cardiac response to injury by modifying cardiomyocyte proliferation.

Targeted laser ablation of the zebrafish larval heart induces models of heart block, valvular regurgitation, and outflow tract obstruction.

Mammalian models of cardiac disease have provided unique and important insights into human disease but have become increasingly challenging to produce. The zebrafish could provide inexpensive high-throughput models of cardiac injury and repair. We used a highly targeted laser, synchronized to fire at specific phases of the cardiac cycle, to induce regional injury to the ventricle, atrioventricular (AV) cushion, and bulbus arteriosus (BA).

Heart on a plate: histological and functional assessment of isolated adult zebrafish hearts maintained in culture.

The zebrafish is increasingly used for cardiovascular genetic and functional studies. We present a novel protocol to maintain and monitor whole isolated beating adult zebrafish hearts in culture for long-term experiments. Excised whole adult zebrafish hearts were transferred directly into culture dishes containing optimized L-15 Leibovitz growth medium and maintained for 5 days.