Fighting Fire with Fire: Impact of Sugary Diets on Metabolically Deranged Mice.

There is controversy about the health risks of sugary diets. A recent study reported that chronic consumption of 11% sugar solutions improved glycemic control in lean mice. Based on this finding, we hypothesized that chronic consumption of the same 11% sugar solutions would also improve glycemic control in metabolically deranged mice.

Genetic Variation in Male Mate Choice for Large Females in .

Males in many species show courtship and mating preferences for certain females over others when given the choice. One of the most common targets of male mate choice in insects is female body size, with males preferring to court and mate with larger, higher-fecundity females and investing more resources in matings with those females. Although this preference is well-documented at the species level, less is known about how this preference varies within species and whether there is standing genetic variation for male mate choice within populations.

Multivariate description of gait changes in a mouse model of peripheral nerve injury and trauma.

Objective: Animal models of nerve injury are important for studying nerve injury and repair, particularly for interventions that cannot be studied in humans. However, the vast majority of gait analysis in animals has been limited to univariate analysis even though gait data is highly multi-dimensional. As a result, little is known about how various spatiotemporal components of the gait relate to each other in the context of peripheral nerve injury and trauma.

No Bridge between Us: EXAFS and Computations Confirm Two Distant Iron Ions Comprise the Active Site of Alkane Monooxygenase (AlkB).

Alkane monooxygenase (AlkB) is the dominant enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of liquid alkanes in the environment. Two recent structural models derived from cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) reveal an unusual active site: a histidine-rich center that binds two iron ions without a bridging ligand. To ensure that potential photoreduction and radiation damage are not responsible for the absence of a bridging ligand in the cryo-EM structures, spectroscopic methods are needed.

Capillary connections between sensory circumventricular organs and adjacent parenchyma enable local volume transmission.

Among contributors to diffusible signaling are portal systems which join two capillary beds through connecting veins. Portal systems allow diffusible signals to be transported in high concentrations directly from one capillary bed to the other without dilution in the systemic circulation. Two portal systems have been identified in the brain.

Loss of Hoxa5 function affects Hox gene expression in different biological contexts.

Hoxa5 plays numerous roles in development, but its downstream molecular effects are mostly unknown. We applied bulk RNA-seq assays to characterize the transcriptional impact of the loss of Hoxa5 gene function in seven different biological contexts, including developing respiratory and musculoskeletal tissues that present phenotypes in Hoxa5 mouse mutants. This global analysis revealed few common transcriptional changes, suggesting that HOXA5 acts mainly via the regulation of context-specific effectors.

Heme alters biofilm formation in .

(Mabs) is commonly found in the cystic fibrosis (CF) lung. During infection, Mabs can form biofilms in the lung which reduce both the ability of the immune response to clear infection and the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy. In the CF lung, heme and hemoglobin levels are increased and may provide both iron and heme to Mabs cells.

DNA sequence-induced solid phase transition as a solution to the genome folding paradox.

Ultra long-range genomic contacts, which emerge as prominent components of genome architecture, constitute a biochemical paradox. This is because regulatory DNA elements make selective and stable contacts with DNA sequences located megabases away, instead of interacting with proximal sequences occupied by the same exact transcription factors (TF). This is exemplified in olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), where only a fraction of Lhx2/Ebf1/Ldb1-bound sites interact with each other, converging into highly selective multi-chromosomal enhancer hubs.

Distinguishing Doors and Floors on All Fours: Landmarks as Tools for Vertical Navigation Learning in Domestic Dogs ().

Spatial navigation allows animals to understand their environment position and is crucial to survival. An animal's primary mode of spatial navigation (horizontal or vertical) is dependent on how they naturally move in space. Observations of the domestic dog () have shown that they, like other terrestrial animals, navigate poorly in vertical space.

Shake It Off: Investigating the Function of a Domestic Dog Behavior in Social Contexts.

Shaking in domestic dogs-a rapid side-to-side movement of the body or head-is a commonly observed behavior, yet its function remains minimally researched. The present study aimed to investigate the use of shaking behavior in naturalistic social contexts, with the hypothesis that shaking functions as a marker of transition between behaviors or activities. In addition, as the prior literature has suggested that shaking more frequently occurred in postures or conditions of stress, either to signal stress or to mitigate it, we looked at postures related to affect before and after shaking.

Examining threat responses through a developmental lens.

Adolescence has been characterized by risk taking and fearlessness. Yet, the emergence of anxiety disorders that are associated with fear peaks during this developmental period. Moreover, adolescents show heightened sensitivity to stress relative to children and adults.

Perinatal Loneliness and Isolation Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York City: A Qualitative Study.

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, birthing parents were identified as a high-risk group with greater vulnerability to the harms associated with SARS-CoV-2. This led to necessary changes in perinatal health policies but also to experiences of maternal isolation and loneliness, both in hospital settings, due to infection mitigation procedures, and once home, due to social distancing.

Methods: In this study, we qualitatively explored birthing and postpartum experiences in New York City during the early days of the pandemic when lockdowns were in effect and policies and practices were rapidly changing.

On the role of familiarity and developmental exposure in music-evoked autobiographical memories.

Music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) are typically elicited by music that listeners have heard before. While studies that have directly manipulated music familiarity show that familiar music evokes more MEAMs than music listeners have not heard before, music that is unfamiliar to the listener can also sporadically cue autobiographical memory. Here we examined whether music that sounds familiar even without previous exposure can produce spontaneous MEAMs.

Mesopredator release moderates trophic control of plant biomass in a Georgia salt marsh.

Predators regulate communities through top-down control in many ecosystems. Because most studies of top-down control last less than a year and focus on only a subset of the community, they may miss predator effects that manifest at longer timescales or across whole food webs. In southeastern US salt marshes, short-term and small-scale experiments indicate that nektonic predators (e.

Pubertal- and Stress-Dependent Changes in Cellular Activation and Expression of Excitatory Amino Acid Receptor Subunits in the Paraventricular Nucleus of the Hypothalamus in Male and Female Rats.

Introduction: Pubertal maturation is marked by significant changes in stress-induced hormonal responses mediated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, with prepubertal male and female rats often exhibiting greater HPA reactivity compared to adult males and females. Though the implications of these changes are unclear, elevated stress responsiveness might contribute to the stress-related vulnerabilities often associated with puberty.

Methods: The current experiments sought to determine whether differences in cellular activation, as measured by FOS immunohistochemistry, or excitatory ionotropic glutamate receptor subunit expression, as measured by qRT-PCR, in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) were associated with these noted pubertal shifts in stress reactivity in male and female rats.

The Drosophila circadian clock gene cycle controls the development of clock neurons.

Daily behavioral and physiological rhythms are controlled by the brain's circadian timekeeping system, a synchronized network of neurons that maintains endogenous molecular oscillations. These oscillations are based on transcriptional feedback loops of clock genes, which in Drosophila include the transcriptional activators Clock (Clk) and cycle (cyc). While the mechanisms underlying this molecular clock are very well characterized, the roles that the core clock genes play in neuronal physiology and development are much less understood.

Executive function deficits in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder.

Executive function deficits have been reported in both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, little is known regarding which, if any, of these impairments are unique vs. shared in children with ADHD versus ASD.

Insomnia as a predictor of treatment outcomes in adolescents receiving concentrated exposure treatment for OCD.

Background: Research suggests that individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) frequently experience insomnia. Some previous studies have suggested that insomnia may predict treatment outcomes, but the evidence is limited, especially for adolescents. This study examined the prevalence of insomnia in an adolescent OCD patient sample, explored the correlation between OCD and insomnia, and tested whether levels of insomnia at baseline predict outcomes for adolescent patients receiving the Bergen 4-Day Treatment (B4DT) for OCD.