High-fat diet and estrogen modulate the gut microbiota in a sex-dependent manner in mice.

A high-fat diet can lead to gut microbiota dysbiosis, chronic intestinal inflammation, and metabolic syndrome. Notably, resulting phenotypes, such as glucose and insulin levels, colonic crypt cell proliferation, and macrophage infiltration, exhibit sex differences, and females are less affected. This is, in part, attributed to sex hormones.

Conserved pleiotropy of an ancient plant homeobox gene uncovered by cis-regulatory dissection.

Divergence of gene function is a hallmark of evolution, but assessing functional divergence over deep time is not trivial. The few alleles available for cross-species studies often fail to expose the entire functional spectrum of genes, potentially obscuring deeply conserved pleiotropic roles. Here, we explore the functional divergence of WUSCHEL HOMEOBOX9 (WOX9), suggested to have species-specific roles in embryo and inflorescence development.

Decreased density of cholinergic interneurons in striatal territories in Williams syndrome.

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder caused by the hemideletion of approximately 25-28 genes at 7q11.23. Its unusual social and cognitive phenotype is most strikingly characterized by the disinhibition of social behavior, in addition to reduced global IQ, with a relative sparing of language ability.

Spatial deployment of attention influences both saccadic and pursuit tracking.

We examined the effects of changing spatial aspects of attention during oculomotor tracking. Human subjects were instructed to make a discrimination on either the small (0.8 degrees ) central or the large (8 degrees ) peripheral part of a compound stimulus (two counter-rotating concentric rings) while the stimulus either translated across the screen or was stationary.

Protein kinase C activation inhibits glutamate-induced cytotoxicity in a neuronal cell line.

A neuronal cell line, HT-22, is sensitive to glutamate cytotoxicity via a non-receptor mediated oxidative pathway. 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), an activator of protein kinase C, blocks this glutamate-induced cell death. Down-regulation of protein kinase C eliminates the protection against glutamate cytotoxicity afforded by TPA.