Synthesis and characterization of photocrosslinkable hydrogels from bovine skin gelatin.

Hydrogels that mimic native tissues chemically and structurally have been increasingly sought for a wide variety of tissue engineering applications. Gelatin can be naturally derived from different sources and functionalized to fabricate hydrogels that exhibit high cytocompatibility and favorable biodegradable properties. The amino groups on the gelatin backbone can be substituted by adding varying proportions of methacrylic anhydride (MAA) to create biomimetic hydrogels which can be used as tissue engineering scaffolds.

Metabarcoding using multiplexed markers increases species detection in complex zooplankton communities.

Metabarcoding combines DNA barcoding with high-throughput sequencing, often using one genetic marker to understand complex and taxonomically diverse samples. However, species-level identification depends heavily on the choice of marker and the selected primer pair, often with a trade-off between successful species amplification and taxonomic resolution. We present a versatile metabarcoding protocol for biomonitoring that involves the use of two barcode markers (COI and 18S) and four primer pairs in a single high-throughput sequencing run, via sample multiplexing.

C-terminal phosphorylation of the high molecular weight neurofilament subunit correlates with decreased neurofilament axonal transport velocity.

We probed the relationship of NF axonal transport of neurofilaments (NFs) to their phosphorylation state by comparing these parameters in two closely-aged groups of young adult mice - 2 and 5 months of age. This particular time interval was selected since prior studies demonstrate that optic axons have already completed axonal caliber expansion and attained adult NF levels by 2 months but, as shown herein, continue to increase NF-H C-terminal phosphorylation. NF axonal transport was monitored by autoradiographic analysis of the distribution of radiolabeled subunits immunoprecipitated from optic axon segments at intervals following intravitreal injection of 35S-methionine.