Crossing the Pacific: Genomics Reveals the Presence of Japanese Sardine (Sardinops melanosticta) in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem.

Recent increases in frequency and intensity of warm water anomalies and marine heatwaves have led to shifts in species ranges and assemblages. Genomic tools can be instrumental in detecting such shifts. In the early stages of a project assessing population genetic structure in Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax), we detected the presence of Japanese Sardine (Sardinops melanosticta) along the west coast of North America for the first time.

Nicotine inhalant via E-cigarette facilitates sensorimotor function recovery by upregulating neuronal BDNF-TrkB signalling in traumatic brain injury.

Background And Purpose: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes lifelong physical and psychological dysfunction in affected individuals. The current study investigated the effects of chronic nicotine exposure via E-cigarettes (E-cig) (vaping) on TBI-associated behavioural and biochemical changes.

Experimental Approach: Adult C57/BL6J male mice were subjected to controlled cortical impact (CCI) followed by daily exposure to E-cig vapour for 6 weeks.

Benzyne-Promoted, 1,2--Selective -Glycosylation with Benzylchalcogenoglycoside Donors.

Here, we show that the reaction of benzylchalcogenoglycosides with benzyne in the presence of alcohols results in highly 1,2--selective -glycosylation in a solvent-dependent manner. Thioglycosides, selenoglycosides, and alcohols with a range of nucleophilicities lead to a productive reaction, and unusual protecting groups, auxiliary groups, and additives are avoided.

Parental perception of facilitators and barriers to health among young children with down syndrome: a qualitative study.

Background: Despite high rates of obesity and weight-related conditions observed in children with Down syndrome, little is known about how to prevent these conditions.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify parent-perceived facilitators and barriers to health for toddlers (12-36 months old) with Down syndrome.

Materials And Methods: We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the mothers of 25 toddlers with Down syndrome.

Subpial delivery of adeno-associated virus 9-synapsin-caveolin-1 () preserves motor neuron and neuromuscular junction morphology, motor function, delays disease onset, and extends survival in hSOD1 mice.

Elevating neuroprotective proteins using adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated gene delivery shows great promise in combating devastating neurodegenerative diseases. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is one such disease resulting from loss of upper and lower motor neurons (MNs) with 90-95% of cases sporadic (SALS) in nature. Due to the unknown etiology of SALS, interventions that afford neuronal protection and preservation are urgently needed.

Exome sequencing in multiplex families with left-sided cardiac defects has high yield for disease gene discovery.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a common group of birth defects with a strong genetic contribution to their etiology, but historically the diagnostic yield from exome studies of isolated CHD has been low. Pleiotropy, variable expressivity, and the difficulty of accurately phenotyping newborns contribute to this problem. We hypothesized that performing exome sequencing on selected individuals in families with multiple members affected by left-sided CHD, then filtering variants by population frequency, in silico predictive algorithms, and phenotypic annotations from publicly available databases would increase this yield and generate a list of candidate disease-causing variants that would show a high validation rate.

Patterning of vertebrate cardiac progenitor fields by retinoic acid signaling.

The influence of retinoic acid (RA) signaling on vertebrate development has a well-studied history. Cumulatively, we now understand that RA signaling has a conserved requirement early in development restricting cardiac progenitors within the anterior lateral plate mesoderm of vertebrate embryos. Moreover, genetic and pharmacological manipulations of RA signaling in vertebrate models have shown that proper heart development is achieved through the deployment of positive and negative feedback mechanisms, which maintain appropriate RA levels.

Retinoic acid signaling restricts the size of the first heart field within the anterior lateral plate mesoderm.

Retinoic acid (RA) signaling is required to restrict heart size through limiting the posterior boundary of the vertebrate cardiac progenitor field within the anterior lateral plate mesoderm (ALPM). However, we still do not fully understand how different cardiac progenitor populations that contribute to the developing heart, including earlier-differentiating first heart field (FHF), later-differentiating second heart field (SHF), and neural crest-derived progenitors, are each affected in RA-deficient embryos. Here, we quantified the number of cardiac progenitors and differentiating cardiomyocytes (CMs) in RA-deficient zebrafish embryos.

Nr2f-dependent allocation of ventricular cardiomyocyte and pharyngeal muscle progenitors.

Multiple syndromes share congenital heart and craniofacial muscle defects, indicating there is an intimate relationship between the adjacent cardiac and pharyngeal muscle (PM) progenitor fields. However, mechanisms that direct antagonistic lineage decisions of the cardiac and PM progenitors within the anterior mesoderm of vertebrates are not understood. Here, we identify that retinoic acid (RA) signaling directly promotes the expression of the transcription factor Nr2f1a within the anterior lateral plate mesoderm.

Nr2f1a balances atrial chamber and atrioventricular canal size via BMP signaling-independent and -dependent mechanisms.

Determination of appropriate chamber size is critical for normal vertebrate heart development. Although Nr2f transcription factors promote atrial maintenance and differentiation, how they determine atrial size remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that zebrafish Nr2f1a is expressed in differentiating atrial cardiomyocytes.