Involvement of dopamine receptor in the actions of non-psychoactive phytocannabinoids.

Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) exhibited a vigorous swimming behavior in liquid medium. Addition of dopamine inhibited the swimming behavior, causing paralysis in 65% of wild-type nematodes.

Chronic exposure to arsenic and high fat diet induces sex-dependent pathogenic effects on the kidney.

Both obesity and arsenic exposure are global public health problems that are associated with increased risk of renal disease. The effect of whole-life exposure to environmentally relevant levels of arsenic within dietary high fat diet on renal pathogenesis were examined. In this study, C57BL/6 J mice were parentally exposed to 100 ppb arsenic before conception.

Evolution of the functionally conserved DCC gene in birds.

Understanding the loss of conserved genes is critical for determining how phenotypic diversity is generated. Here we focus on the evolution of DCC, a gene that encodes a highly conserved neural guidance receptor. Disruption of DCC in animal models and humans results in major neurodevelopmental defects including commissural axon defects.

The Homeobox Genes of Caenorhabditis elegans and Insights into Their Spatio-Temporal Expression Dynamics during Embryogenesis.

Homeobox genes play crucial roles for the development of multicellular eukaryotes. We have generated a revised list of all homeobox genes for Caenorhabditis elegans and provide a nomenclature for the previously unnamed ones. We show that, out of 103 homeobox genes, 70 are co-orthologous to human homeobox genes.

Commissural axonal corridors instruct neuronal migration in the mouse spinal cord.

Unravelling how neurons are guided during vertebrate embryonic development has wide implications for understanding the assembly of the nervous system. During embryogenesis, migration of neuronal cell bodies and axons occurs simultaneously, but to what degree they influence each other's development remains obscure. We show here that within the mouse embryonic spinal cord, commissural axons bisect, delimit or preconfigure ventral interneuron cell body position.

The LIM homeobox gene ceh-14 is required for phasmid function and neurite outgrowth.

Transcription factors play key roles in cell fate specification and cell differentiation. Previously, we showed that the LIM homeodomain factor CEH-14 is expressed in the AFD neurons where it is required for thermotaxis behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans. Here, we show that ceh-14 is expressed in the phasmid sensory neurons, PHA and PHB, a number of neurons in the tail, i.

Conditions for dye-filling of sensory neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Dye-filling is a common method used to stain Caenorhabditis elegans sensory neurons in vivo. While the amphids and phasmids are easy to stain, a subset of sensory neurons, the IL2 neurons, are difficult to stain reproducibly. Here we examined the conditions under which the IL2 neurons take up the lipophilic fluorescent dye DiI.

A novel conserved RNA-binding domain protein, RBD-1, is essential for ribosome biogenesis.

Synthesis of the ribosomal subunits from pre-rRNA requires a large number of trans-acting proteins and small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein particles to execute base modifications, RNA cleavages, and structural rearrangements. We have characterized a novel protein, RNA-binding domain-1 (RBD-1), that is involved in ribosome biogenesis. This protein contains six consensus RNA-binding domains and is conserved as to sequence, domain organization, and cellular location from yeast to human.

Peripheral axotomy induces only very limited sprouting of coarse myelinated afferents into inner lamina II of rat spinal cord.

Peripheral axotomy-induced sprouting of thick myelinated afferents (A-fibers) from laminae III-IV into laminae I-II of the spinal cord is a well-established hypothesis for the structural basis of neuropathic pain. However, we show here that the cholera toxin B subunit (CTB), a neuronal tracer used to demonstrate the sprouting of A-fibers in several earlier studies, also labels unmyelinated afferents (C-fibers) in lamina II and thin myelinated afferents in lamina I, when applied after peripheral nerve transection. The lamina II afferents also contained vasoactive intestinal polypeptide and galanin, two neuropeptides mainly expressed in small dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons and C-fibers.