Machine learning for comprehensive prediction of high risk for Alzheimer's disease based on chromatic pupilloperimetry.

Currently there are no reliable biomarkers for early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) at the preclinical stage. This study assessed the pupil light reflex (PLR) for focal red and blue light stimuli in central and peripheral retina in 125 cognitively normal middle age subjects (45-71 years old) at high risk for AD due to a family history of the disease (FH+), and 61 age-similar subjects with no family history of AD (FH-) using Chromatic Pupilloperimetry coupled with Machine Learning (ML). All subjects had normal ophthalmic assessment, and normal retinal and optic nerve thickness by optical coherence tomography.

Bi-directional electron transfer between H2 and NADPH mitigates light fluctuation responses in green algae.

The metabolism of green algae has been the focus of much research over the last century. These photosynthetic organisms can thrive under various conditions and adapt quickly to changing environments by concomitant usage of several metabolic apparatuses. The main electron coordinator in their chloroplasts, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), participates in many enzymatic activities and is also responsible for inter-organellar communication.

The Integration of Multiple Nuclear-Encoded Transgenes in the Green Alga Results in Higher Transcription Levels.

The integration of genes into the nuclear genome of is mediated by Non-Homologous-End-Joining, thus resulting in unpredicted insertion locations. This phenomenon defines 'the position-effect', which is used to explain the variation of expression levels between different clones transformed with the same DNA fragment. Likewise, nuclear transgenes often undergo epigenetic silencing that reduces their expression; hence, nuclear transformations require high-throughput screening methods to isolate clones that express the foreign gene at a desirable level.

Re-routing photosynthetic energy for continuous hydrogen production in vivo.

Background: Hydrogen is considered a promising energy vector that can be produced from sustainable resources such as sunlight and water. In green algae, such as , photoproduction of hydrogen is catalyzed by the enzyme [FeFe]-hydrogenase (HydA). Although highly efficient, this process is transitory and thought to serve as a release valve for excess reducing power.

ChimeraUGEM: unsupervised gene expression modeling in any given organism.

Motivation: Regulation of the amount of protein that is synthesized from genes has proved to be a serious challenge in terms of analysis and prediction, and in terms of engineering and optimization, due to the large diversity in expression machinery across species.

Results: To address this challenge, we developed a methodology and a software tool (ChimeraUGEM) for predicting gene expression as well as adapting the coding sequence of a target gene to any host organism. We demonstrate these methods by predicting protein levels in seven organisms, in seven human tissues, and by increasing in vivo the expression of a synthetic gene up to 26-fold in the single-cell green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Green Algal Hydrogenase Activity Is Outcompeted by Carbon Fixation before Inactivation by Oxygen Takes Place.

Photoproduction of hydrogen by green algae is considered a transitory release valve of excess reducing power and a potential carbon-free source of sustainable energy. It is generally accepted that the transitory production of hydrogen is governed by fast inactivation of hydrogenase by oxygen. However, our data suggest that photosynthetic electron loss to competing processes, mainly carbon fixation, stops hydrogen production, supports hydrogen uptake, and precedes the inevitable inactivation by oxygen.

Enhancing heterologous expression in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii by transcript sequence optimization.

Various species of microalgae have recently emerged as promising host-organisms for use in biotechnology industries due to their unique properties. These include efficient conversion of sunlight into organic compounds, the ability to grow in extreme conditions and the occurrence of numerous post-translational modification pathways. However, the inability to obtain high levels of nuclear heterologous gene expression in microalgae hinders the development of the entire field.