scholarly journals Prepatterning ofPapilio xuthuscaterpillar camouflage is controlled by three homeobox genes:clawless,abdominal-A, andAbdominal-B

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. eaav7569 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Jin ◽  
T. Seki ◽  
J. Yamaguchi ◽  
H. Fujiwara

Color patterns often function as camouflage to protect insects from predators. In most swallowtail butterflies, younger larvae mimic bird droppings but change their pattern to mimic their host plants during their final molt. This pattern change is determined during the early fourth instar by juvenile hormone (JH-sensitive period), but it remains unclear how the prepatterning process is controlled. UsingPapilio xuthuslarvae, we performed transcriptome comparisons to identify three camouflage pattern–associated homeobox genes [clawless,abdominal-A, andAbdominal-B(Abd-B)] that are up-regulated during the JH-sensitive period in a region-specific manner. Electroporation-mediated knockdown of each gene at the third instar caused loss or change of original fifth instar patterns, but not the fourth instar mimetic pattern, and knockdown ofAbd-Bafter the JH-sensitive period had no effect on fifth instar patterns. These results indicate the role of these genes during the JH-sensitive period and in the control of the prepatterning gene network.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti Sajanti ◽  
Seán B. Lyne ◽  
Romuald Girard ◽  
Janek Frantzén ◽  
Tomi Rantamäki ◽  
...  

Abstract P75 neurotrophic receptor (p75NTR) is an important receptor for the role of neurotrophins in modulating brain plasticity and apoptosis. The current understanding of the role of p75NTR in cellular adaptation following pathological insults remains blurred, which makes p75NTR’s related signaling networks an interesting and challenging initial point of investigation. We identified p75NTR and related genes through extensive data mining of a PubMed literature search including published works related to p75NTR from the past 20 years. Bioinformatic network and pathway analyses of identified genes (n = 235) were performed using ReactomeFIViz in Cytoscape based on the highly reliable Reactome functional interaction network algorithm. This approach merges interactions extracted from human curated pathways with predicted interactions from machine learning. Genome-wide pathway analysis showed total of 16 enriched hierarchical clusters. A total of 278 enriched single pathways were also identified (p < 0.05, false discovery rate corrected). Gene network analyses showed multiple known and new targets in the p75NTR gene network. This study provides a comprehensive analysis and investigation into the current knowledge of p75NTR signaling networks and pathways. These results also identify several genes and their respective protein products as involved in the p75NTR network, which have not previously been clearly studied in this pathway. These results can be used to generate novel hypotheses to gain a greater understanding of p75NTR in acute brain injuries, neurodegenerative diseases and general response to cellular damage.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
You-Chul Jung ◽  
Mi-Ae Lee ◽  
Han-Shin Kim ◽  
Kyu-Ho Lee

AbstractBiofilm formation of Vibrio vulnificus is initiated by adherence of flagellated cells to surfaces, and then flagellum-driven motility is not necessary during biofilm maturation. Once matured biofilms are constructed, cells become flagellated and swim to disperse from biofilms. As a consequence, timely regulations of the flagellar components’ expression are crucial to complete a biofilm life-cycle. In this study, we demonstrated that flagellins’ production is regulated in a biofilm stage-specific manner, via activities of a protease DegQ and a chaperone FlaJ. Among four flagellin subunits for V. vulnificus filament, FlaC had the highest affinities to hook-associated proteins, and is critical for maturating flagellum, showed the least susceptibility to DegQ due to the presence of methionine residues in its DegQ-sensitive domains, ND1 and CD0. Therefore, differential regulation by DegQ and FlaJ controls the cytoplasmic stability of flagellins, which further determines the motility-dependent, stage-specific development of biofilms.


2017 ◽  
Vol 158 (24) ◽  
pp. 929-937
Author(s):  
Krisztián Kovács ◽  
Barna Vásárhelyi ◽  
Katalin Mészáros ◽  
Attila Patócs ◽  
Gellért Karvaly

Abstract: Considerable knowledge has been gathered on the physiological role of estrogens. However, fairly little information is available on the role of compounds produced in the breakdown process of estrone and estradiol wich may play a role in various diseases associated with estrogen impact. To date, approximately 15 extragonadal estrogen-related compounds have been identified. These metabolites may exert protective, or, instead, pro-inflammatory and/or pro-oncogenic activity in a tissue-specific manner. Systemic and local estrogen metabolite levels are not necesserily correlated, which may promote the diagnostic significance of the locally produced estrogen metabolites in the future. The aim of the present study is a bibliographic review of the extragonadal metabolome in peripheral tissues, and to highlight the role of the peripheral tissue homeostasis of estrogens as well as the non-hormonal biological activity and clinical significance of the estrogen metabolome. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(24): 929–937.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Pin Lv ◽  
Ya-Juan Yin ◽  
Peng Kong ◽  
Li Cao ◽  
Hao Xi ◽  
...  

Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) apoptosis is a major defining feature of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and mainly caused by inflammatory cell infiltration. Smooth muscle (SM) 22α prevents AAA formation through suppressing NF-κB activation. However, the role of SM22α in VSMC apoptosis is controversial. Here, we identified that SM22α loss contributed to apoptosis of VSMCs via activation of macrophages. Firstly, deficiency of SM22α enhanced the interaction of VSMCs with macrophages. Macrophages were retained and activated by Sm22α-/- VSMCs via upregulating VCAM-1 expression. The ratio of apoptosis was increased by 1.62-fold in VSMCs treated with the conditional media (CM) from activated RAW264.7 cells, compared to that of the control CM ( P < 0.01 ), and apoptosis of Sm22α-/- VSMCs was higher than that of WT VSMCs ( P < 0.001 ). Next, circRasGEF1B from activated macrophages was delivered into VSMCs promoting ZFP36 expression via stabilization of ZFP36 mRNA. Importantly, circRasGEF1B, as a scaffold, guided ZFP36 to preferentially bind to and decay Bcl-2 mRNA in a sequence-specific manner and triggered apoptosis of VSMCs, especially in Sm22α-/- VSMCs. These findings reveal a novel mechanism by which the circRasGEF1B-ZFP36 axis mediates macrophage-induced VSMC apoptosis via decay of Bcl-2 mRNA, whereas Sm22α-/- VSMCs have a higher sensitivity to apoptosis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 1171-1184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shalan Li ◽  
Jingxiong Zhang ◽  
Hui Liu ◽  
Nian Liu ◽  
Guojing Shen ◽  
...  

Abstract The dodders (Cuscuta spp.) are a genus of shoot parasites. In nature, a dodder often simultaneously parasitizes two or more neighboring hosts. Salt stress is a common abiotic stress for plants. It is unclear whether dodder transmits physiologically relevant salt stress-induced systemic signals among its hosts and whether these systemic signals affect the hosts’ tolerance to salt stress. Here, we simultaneously parasitized two or more cucumber plants with dodder. We found that salt treatment of one host highly primed the connected host, which showed strong decreases in the extent of leaf withering and cell death in response to subsequent salt stress. Transcriptomic analysis indicated that 24 h after salt treatment of one cucumber, the transcriptome of the other dodder-connected cucumber largely resembled that of the salt-treated one, indicating that inter-plant systemic signals primed these dodder-connected cucumbers at least partly through transcriptomic reconfiguration. Furthermore, salt treatment of one of the cucumbers induced physiological changes, including altered proline contents, stomatal conductance, and photosynthetic rates, in both of the dodder-connected cucumbers. This study reveals a role of dodder in mediating salt-induced inter-plant signaling among dodder-connected hosts and highlights the physiological function of these mobile signals in plant–plant interactions under salt stress.


2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1934) ◽  
pp. 20201311
Author(s):  
Paulina Kowalski ◽  
Michael Baum ◽  
Marcel Körten ◽  
Alexander Donath ◽  
Susanne Dobler

Phytophagous insects can tolerate and detoxify toxic compounds present in their host plants and have evolved intricate adaptations to this end. Some insects even sequester the toxins for their defence. This necessitates specific mechanisms, especially carrier proteins that regulate uptake and transport to specific storage sites or protect sensitive tissues from noxious compounds. We identified three ATP-binding cassette subfamily B (ABCB) transporters from the transcriptome of the cardenolide-sequestering leaf beetle Chrysochus auratus and analysed their functional role in the sequestration process. These were heterologously expressed and tested for their ability to interact with various potential substrates: verapamil (standard ABCB substrate), the cardenolides digoxin (commonly used), cymarin (present in the species's host plant) and calotropin (present in the ancestral host plants). Verapamil stimulated all three ABCBs and each was activated by at least one cardenolide, however, they differed as to which they were activated by. While the expression of the most versatile transporter fits with a protective role in the blood–brain barrier, the one specific for cymarin shows an extreme abundance in the elytra, coinciding with the location of the defensive glands. Our data thus suggest a key role of ABCBs in the transport network needed for cardenolide sequestration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 1473-1482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suddha Sourav ◽  
Ramesh Kekunnaya ◽  
Idris Shareef ◽  
Seema Banerjee ◽  
Davide Bottari ◽  
...  

Humans preferentially match arbitrary words containing higher- and lower-frequency phonemes to angular and smooth shapes, respectively. Here, we investigated the role of visual experience in the development of audiovisual and audiohaptic sound–shape associations (SSAs) using a unique set of five groups: individuals who had suffered a transient period of congenital blindness through congenital bilateral dense cataracts before undergoing cataract-reversal surgeries (CC group), individuals with a history of developmental cataracts (DC group), individuals with congenital permanent blindness (CB group), individuals with late permanent blindness (LB group), and controls with typical sight (TS group). Whereas the TS and LB groups showed highly robust SSAs, the CB, CC, and DC groups did not—in any of the modality combinations tested. These results provide evidence for a protracted sensitive period during which aberrant vision prevents SSA acquisition. Moreover, the finding of a systematic SSA in the LB group demonstrates that representations acquired during the sensitive period are resilient to loss despite dramatically changed experience.


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