Development Function Research Articles

Developmental mRNA m5C landscape and regulatory innovations of massive m5C modification of maternal mRNAs in animals

m5C is one of the longest-known RNA modifications, however, its developmental dynamics, functions, and evolution in mRNAs remain largely unknown. Here, we generate quantitative mRNA m5C maps at different stages of development in 6 vertebrate and invertebrate species and find convergent and unexpected massive methylation of maternal mRNAs mediated by NSUN2 and NSUN6. Using Drosophila as a model, we reveal that embryos lacking maternal mRNA m5C undergo cell cycle delays and fail to timely initiate maternal-to-zygotic transition, implying the functional importance of maternal mRNA m5C. From invertebrates to the lineage leading to humans, two waves of m5C regulatory innovations are observed: higher animals gain cis-directed NSUN2-mediated m5C sites at the 5' end of the mRNAs, accompanied by the emergence of more structured 5'UTR regions; humans gain thousands of trans-directed NSUN6-mediated m5C sites enriched in genes regulating the mitotic cell cycle. Collectively, our studies highlight the existence and regulatory innovations of a mechanism of early embryonic development and provide key resources for elucidating the role of mRNA m5C in biology and disease.

Changes in the structure of lipid A in glycosylated outer membrane vesicles (glycOMVs) suppress the activation of glycan-specific B1 cells in vivo

Abstract B1 cells differ from B2 cells in their developmental origin, phenotype, and function. They are anatomically located in various tissues of the immune system, and contribute to around 90% of the circulating antibodies in blood. B1 cells are often activated in a T-cell independent manner promoted by either antigens that contain a B-cell mitogen such as LPS, or by molecules that have highly repetitive structures such as bacterial capsular polysaccharides, with both pathways having the potential to undergo class-switch recombination and somatic hypermutation. Previously, we have shown that immunization with bacterial outer membrane vesicles engineered to display defined glycan structures on their surface (glycOMVs) promotes a strong glycan-specific IgG response for a wide range of bacterial and mammalian glycans. Here, we show that the structure of lipid A in these (glycOMVs) displaying the oncofetal antigen polysialic acid (polySia), influences the activation and class-switching of polySia-specific B1 cells from the spleen and peritoneal cavity in mice. We found that structural remodeling of lipid A from its normal hexa-acylated structure to a penta-acylated variant prevents the activation of polySia-specific B1 cells in the spleen and enhances the activation of polySia-specific B2 cells from the peritoneal cavity. Interestingly, we observed no changes in the glycan-specific IgG titers following immunization of wildtype B6 mice with either construct, even though there was no B cell activation in the spleen of mice receiving penta-acylated glycOMVs. However, these same glycOMVs failed to promote a glycan-specific IgG response in T-deficient mice, suggesting that this response was entirely T-cell dependent. This work was supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant OPP1217652 (to MPD), NSF grants CBET-1159581, CBET-1264701 and CBET-1936823 (to MPD), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) grants HDTRA1-15-10052 and HDTRA1-20-10004 (to MPD), NIH grants 1R01GM137314 and 1R01GM127578 (to MPD) and the Fleming Scholars Fellowship (to NLB).

Formation of Cognitive Interests of Children with Special Educational Needs Through Eidetics

The article emphasizes that Eidetic is one of the effective methods of forming the cognitive interests of preschool children with special educational needs (SEN). Eidetic methods include chain, acroverbal, pictographic, phonetic associations, the method of loci (based on visual associations), nonverbal associations, paradoxical verbal transformations, enlarged structuring of educational material. Their use helps to transform incomprehensible information into an achievable and understandable form to them. Due to Eidetic, various analyzers are involved in cognitive activity at the same time. The child can see and hear and touch, smell, and even taste. At the same time, children's mastery of new knowledge is based on already well-known images, so Eidetic creates a boundless play space in which children's imagination has a wide field for development. The authors note that a characteristic feature of the cognitive interest of preschool children is a selective focus on interest in phenomena, objects, and environmental processes. For students with special educational needs the subject of cognitive interest, as well as for their peers with normative development, is not the whole environment, but only some of its elements, which are personally relevant, attractive, and valuable. The cognitive interest of preschoolers can be both situational and sustainable. It occurs in the process of performing a certain action but may disappear immediately after its completion. At the same time, with systematic pedagogical support, it can become a relatively stable personal quality of a child with special educational needs.An important positive aspect of the use of Eidetic in working with preschool children with SEN is that it creates a psychological situation of success, activates the neurodynamics of brain activity. As a result, the problem areas of the central nervous system and children's deviant behavior are corrected. Eidetic performs a dual developmental and educational function. Due to its application, such mental processes of personality as attention, imagination, memory, different types of thinking are developed, and thus the mastery of educational material is activated. Thanks to the methods of Eidetic, all the child's analyzers are involved, which allows him/her to see, hear, touch, smell, taste, and perceive something new and unknown through the channels of learning about the surrounding reality available to the child with SEN.

Distinct developmental phenotypes result from mutation of Set8/KMT5A and histone H4 lysine 20 in Drosophila melanogaster.

Mono-methylation of histone H4 lysine 20 (H4K20me1) is catalyzed by Set8/KMT5A and regulates numerous aspects of genome organization and function. Loss-of-function mutations in Drosophila melanogaster Set8 or mammalian KMT5A prevent H4K20me1 and disrupt development. Set8/KMT5A also has non-histone substrates, making it difficult to determine which developmental functions of Set8/KMT5A are attributable to H4K20me1 and which to other substrates or to non-catalytic roles. Here, we show that human KMT5A can functionally substitute for Set8 during Drosophila development and that the catalytic SET domains of the two enzymes are fully interchangeable. We also uncovered a role in eye development for the N-terminal domain of Set8 that cannot be complemented by human KMT5A. Whereas Set820/20 null mutants are inviable, we found that an R634G mutation in Set8 predicted from in vitro experiments to ablate catalytic activity resulted in viable adults. Additionally, Set8(R634G) mutants retain significant, albeit reduced, H4K20me1, indicating that the R634G mutation does not eliminate catalytic activity in vivo and is functionally hypomorphic rather than null. Flies engineered to express only unmodifiable H4 histones (H4K20A) can also complete development, but are phenotypically distinct from H4K20R, Set820/20 null, and Set8R634G mutants. Taken together, our results demonstrate functional conservation of KMT5A and Set8 enzymes, as well as distinct roles for Set8 and H4K20me1 in Drosophila development.

The unity and interrelation of the educational, upbringing, and developmental functions of the learning process in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

The article deals with the problem of unity and interrelation of educational, educative, and developmental functions of the educational process in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors substantiated the productivity of the attempt to study the unity and interrelation of educational, upbringing, and developmental functions of the educational process under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors used a survey of 189 respondents, scientific and pedagogical workers of higher education, as an experimental method of research: National University of Culture and Arts (Kyiv, Ukraine); Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics of Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics, (Vinnytsia, Ukraine); Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University (Vinnytsia, Ukraine); Zaporizhia National University (Zaporizhia, Ukraine); Alexander Dovzhenko Hlukiv (National Pedagogical University) (Hlukiv, Ukraine). The problem of the unity of educational, upbringing, and developmental function of the learning process in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic was considered based on the elaborated sources of foreign and domestic scientists. An empirical study was carried out, which helped to determine the situation in 2021 in retrospect of the considered problem. It is concluded that the unity and interrelation of educational, pedagogical, and developing functions of the learning process in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic are the key factors of identity formation because its formation is possible only in the context of dialogical and man-centered models of education, where it is fully possible to take into account the anthropological characteristics of man, in particular his need for dialogue as communication. The authors point out that in the article scientific and pedagogical employees prefer the distance form of education because they believe that it is possible to use more various platforms and services for training and education of higher education applicants. The data of the empirical study showed that the majority of educators believe that the educational function of the learning process under the COVID-19 pandemic has changed for the better because the applicants have become more self-organized and disciplined, tired and eager to learn new material through various Internet resources. It has been observed that academic educators show indicators of improvement in their competencies during practice in the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that educators use a variety of online tools to work with applicants, such as: Zoom, Classtime, Google Meet, and others.

SEARCH FOR ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTION OF THE MODERN EDUCATIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC CENTER

The article analyzes the problems of existing and prospects for the development of modern educational and research centers in Lviv. The emergence of multifunctionality of educational and scientific institutions is due to modern educational needs. The possible principle of solving these issues is considered on the example of the functional organization of the educational and scientific center, the creation of a comfortable educational space, which represents a developmental function for people of all ages.

Between Geopolitics and Development: The Belt and Road Initiative and the Limits of Capital Accumulation in China

What drives China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)? While some claim that the BRI is primarily about economic development, others see it as a grand strategy of a rising power with hegemonic aspirations. Is the BRI about development or geopolitics? This article adopts a political economy approach to bridge the developmental and geopolitical perspectives on the BRI. The primary argument is that the BRI signifies an attempt by the Chinese state to manage internal problems of capital accumulation by externalising development. In this sense, this is a typical crisis of capitalist development which generates a drive for geographic expansion and restructuring. The distinguishing feature of the BRI, apart from its sheer scale, is its emphasis on connectivity. Rather than simply exporting excess capital and capacity onto others, the BRI seeks to re-territorialise developmental spaces by connecting them via economic corridors consisting of hard and soft infrastructure networks. It is also contended here that in the process of constructing new infrastructures of capital, the BRI creates space for new forms of asymmetric interdependence between China and its partners. To the extent that such asymmetric relations generate costs of exiting China-centred networks, the initiative serves a geopolitical as well as a developmental function. Asymmetric interdependencies, whether they are by design or by-products of enhanced connectivity, thus facilitate China’s pursuit for a more prominent role in the international order.

Cranial-Vertebral-Maxillary Morphological Integration in Down Syndrome.

Simple SummaryPhenotypic variability can be structured according to three interrelated components: developmental stability, morphological integration, and canalization. The cranium presents modular organization, consistent with the principles of morphological integration. In Down syndrome (DS), the most common genetic aneuploidy, the integration of the cranial-vertebral-maxillary complex, remains unknown. This study aimed to analyze whether there are significant relationships between the skull base, atlantoaxial joint, and maxillary-mandibular complex in a study group of 41 individuals with DS and nonsyndromic controls. Twenty-nine measurements were performed on each participant’s cone-beam computed tomography images, which were grouped into three blocks: atlantoaxial dimensions, craniovertebral dimensions, and cephalometric dimensions. With regard to the association between blocks, we found no significant relationship in the DS group. However, we confirmed a statistically significant correlation between all blocks of variables in the controls. In conclusion, these results confirm a very poor morphological integration of the cranial-cervical-maxillary complex in individuals with DS. This finding reinforces the proposal that gene overload enhances canalization, which could potentially affect the outcomes of certain orthopedic and surgical procedures.Background: Morphological integration refers to the tendency of anatomical structures to show correlated variations because they develop in response to shared developmental processes or function in concert with other structures. The objective of this study was to determine the relationships between the dimensions of different cranial-cervical-facial structures in patients with Down syndrome (DS). Methodology: The study group consisted of 41 individuals with DS who had undergone cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) at the Dental Radiology Unit of the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). In the historical archive of this same unit, 41 CBCTs belonging to individuals with no known systemic disorders or severe malformations of the maxillofacial region were selected, forming an age and sex-matched control group. Twenty-nine measurements were performed on each participant’s CBCT images, which were grouped into three blocks: atlantoaxial dimensions, craniovertebral dimensions and cephalometric dimensions. To determine whether there were significant differences between the dimensions obtained in the DS and control groups, we applied multiple analysis of variance and linear discriminant analysis tests. The analysis of the association between blocks (in pairs) was performed with the canonical correlation analysis test. Results: The dimensions evaluated in the three blocks of variables of individuals with DS differ significantly from those of nonsyndromic controls (p < 0.001). The highest discriminative capacity to identify controls and patients with DS was obtained with the cephalometric dimensions (87.5%). With regard to the association between blocks (two-by-two measurements), we found no significant relationship in the DS group. However, we confirmed a statistically significant correlation between all pairs of blocks of variables in the controls, especially between the atlantoaxial and cephalometric dimensions (p < 0.001) and between the craniovertebral and cephalometric dimensions (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our results confirm a very poor morphological integration of the cranial-cervical-maxillary complex in individuals with DS. This finding reinforces the proposal that gene overload enhances the channeling process.

Differential epitranscriptome and proteome modulation in the brain of neonatal mice exposed to isoflurane or sevoflurane.

Repeated neonatal exposure to anesthetics may disturb neurodevelopment and cause neuropsychological disorders. The m6A modification participates in the gene regulation of neurodevelopment in mouse fetuses exposed to anesthetics. This study aims to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms of neurotoxicity after early-life anesthesia exposure. Mice were exposed to isoflurane (1.5%) or sevoflurane (2.3%) for 2h daily during postnatal days (PND) 7-9. Sociability, spatial working memory, and anxiety-like behavior were assessed on PND 30-35. Synaptogenesis, epitranscriptome m6A, and the proteome of brain regions were evaluated on PND 21. Both isoflurane and sevoflurane produced abnormal social behaviors at the juvenile age, with different sociality patterns in each group. Synaptogenesis in the hippocampal area CA3 was increased in the sevoflurane-exposed mice. Both anesthetics led to numerous persistent m6A-induced alterations in the brain, associated with critical metabolic, developmental, and immune functions. The proteins altered by isoflurane exposure were mainly associated with epilepsy, ataxia, and brain development. As for sevoflurane, the altered proteins were involved in social behavior. Social interaction, the modulation patterns of the m6A modification, and protein expression were altered in an isoflurane or sevoflurane-specific way. Possible molecular pathways involved in brain impairment were revealed, as well as the mechanism underlying behavioral deficits following repeated exposure to anesthetics in newborns.

Head transcriptome profiling of glossiphoniid leech (Helobdella austinensis) reveals clues about proboscis development.

Cephalization refers to the evolutionary trend towards the concentration of neural tissues, sensory organs, mouth and associated structures at the front end of bilaterian animals. Comprehensive studies on gene expression related to the anterior formation in invertebrate models are currently lacking. In this study, we performed de novo transcriptional profiling on a proboscis-bearing leech (Helobdella austinensis) to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the anterior versus other parts of the body, in particular to find clues as to the development of the proboscis. Between the head and the body, 132 head-specific DEGs were identified, of which we chose 11 to investigate their developmental function during embryogenesis. Analysis of the spatial expression of these genes using in situ hybridization showed that they were characteristically expressed in the anterior region of the developing embryo, including the proboscis. Our results provide information on the genes related to head formation and insights into the function of proboscis-related genes during organogenesis with the potential roles of genes not yet characterized.

Clinical Study of Human Coronavirus NL63, OC43, 229E, HKU1 Infentions in Hospitalized Children from 2015 to 2020.

ObjectiveThis study aims to analyze the clinical characteristics of hospitalized children infected with HCoV-NL63, OC43, 229E, HKU1 and provide the basis for disease diagnosis and treatment.MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted on clinical manifestations, imaging data, and treatment measures of hospitalized children with positive HCoV-NL63, OC43, 229E, HKU1 from 2015 to 2020.ResultsA total of 1062 children aged 33 days to 12 years were analyzed, including 879 (82.77%) between 33 days to three years. Lower respiratory tract infections were the most common in 698 children positive for HCoVs (65.72%). The incidences of runny nose, cough, pharyngeal hyperemia, and fine crackles in the mild case group (n = 894, 84.18%) were significantly higher than in the severe case group, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.01). The incidences of gasp, stridor, and convulsions, the proportion of underlying diseases, such as congenital heart disease, laryngomalacia, and general developmental disorders, anemia, and abnormal liver function, and mixed infections in the severe group (n = 168, 15.82%) were significantly higher than in the mild group, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05). Imaging manifestations differed. Pleural effusion and atelectasis occurred in the severe cases. After treatment, patients fully recovered or improved and were discharged from the hospital. There were no deaths.ConclusionHCoV-NL63, OC43, 229E, HKU1 infection is most common in children under three years old, and the infection site is mainly the lower respiratory tract. The main clinical manifestations include fever, cough, and runny nose. Inspiratory three concave signs, respiratory failure, and heart failure occurred in the severe cases, with pleural effusion and atelectasis possibly occurring at the same time. Severe cases should be identified early so that they may be given comprehensive treatment in time to improve the prognosis.

Genes To Mental Health (G2MH): A Framework to Map the Combined Effects of Rare and Common Variants on Dimensions of Cognition and Psychopathology.

Rare genomic disorders (RGDs) confer elevated risk for neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders. In this era of intense genomics discoveries, the landscape of RGDs is rapidly evolving. However, there has not been comparable progress to date in scalable, harmonized phenotyping methods. As a result, beyond associations with categorical diagnoses, the effects on dimensional traits remain unclear for many RGDs. The nature and specificity of RGD effects on cognitive and behavioral traits is an area of intense investigation: RGDs are frequently associated with more than one psychiatric condition, and those studied to date affect, to varying degrees, a broad range of developmental and cognitive functions. Although many RGDs have large effects, phenotypic expression is typically influenced by additional genomic and environmental factors. There is emerging evidence that using polygenic risk scores in individuals with RGDs offers opportunities to refine prediction, thus allowing for the identification of those at greatest risk of psychiatric illness. However, translation into the clinic is hindered by roadblocks, which include limited genetic testing in clinical psychiatry, and the lack of guidelines for following individuals with RGDs, who are at high risk of developing psychiatric symptoms. The Genes to Mental Health Network (G2MH) is a newly funded National Institute of Mental Health initiative that will collect, share, and analyze large-scale data sets combining genomics and dimensional measures of psychopathology spanning diverse populations and geography. The authors present here the most recent understanding of the effects of RGDs on dimensional behavioral traits and risk for psychiatric conditions and discuss strategies that will be pursued within the G2MH network, as well as how expected results can be translated into clinical practice to improve patient outcomes.

Developmental changes in the frequency and functions of school-related communication with friends and family across high school: Effects on college enrollment.

As postsecondary education is an increasingly important developmental milestone for adolescents, it is critical to identify supports that help prepare youth for college. Building on evidence highlighting the role of parental input and guidance, the current study investigates how within-person changes in adolescent school-related communication (i.e., frequency of talking about school and educational planning) with friends and family across high school contribute to college preparedness and subsequent enrollment. Capitalizing on a diverse adolescent sample (N = 4,495), longitudinal analyses across high school showed that school-related communication with friends increased, but remained relatively stable with family, from Grades 9-12 (approximately ages 15-18 years). Parallel process latent growth curve modeling demonstrated that steeper increases in school-related communication with friends independently predicted college enrollment, consistently across racial/ethnic and parental education groups. Moreover, within-person changes in friend and family school-related communication across high school interacted in a compensatory fashion to predict grade point average and perceived college readiness at 12th grade. At a time of growing need for independence from parents, the findings highlight the positive developmental function of friends in helping adolescents reach a critical educational milestone. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Impact of Communication in the Management of Revenue Collection in Onitsha Metropolitan Area, Anambra State of Nigeria

The government needs adequate financial resources to deliver its many developmental functions. However, such financial resources are either not available or inadequate. One way of rising to this challenge has been scaling up revenue collection from local revenue sources. This study aims to assess the impact of communication in the management of revenue collection using a descriptive survey research design. The researcher formulated two research questions and one hypothesis. A self-developed questionnaire was used for data collection. The sample size consists of revenue collectors in Onitsha Metropolitan Area selected using the purposive random sampling technique; subsequently, thirty copies of the questionnaire were administered by the researcher. Mean, and standard deviation was used to analyse the data. The study showed, among other findings, that communication facilitates the co-ordination of the task, which impacts the management of revenue collection. Also, there is no significant difference on the views of male and female revenue collectors regarding the impact of communication on the management of revenue collection in the Onitsha Metropolitan Area of Nigeria. These findings have the vantage of providing the researchers, policymakers, and government with adequate and correct baseline data on the impact of communication in the management of revenue collection. Conclusions were drawn from the findings, and it was recommended that training and re-training programmes for the revenue officials should be organized at regular intervals to enable them to meet the challenge of the new millennium.

Comparing Machine Learning and Binary Thresholding Methods for Quantification of Callose Deposits in the Citrus Phloem.

Callose is a polysaccharide that can be fluorescently stained to study many developmental and immune functions in plants. High-throughput methods to accurately gather quantitative measurements of callose from confocal images are useful for many applications in plant biology. Previous callose quantification methods relied upon binary local thresholding, which had the disadvantage of not being able to differentiate callose in conditions with low contrast from background material. Here, a measurement approach that utilizes the Ilastik supervised machine learning imagery data collection software is described. The Ilastik software method provided superior efficiency for acquiring counts of callose deposits. We also determined the accuracy of these methods as compared to manual counts. We demonstrate that the automated software methods are both good predictors of manual counts, but that the Ilastik counts are significantly closer. Researchers can use this information to guide their choice of method to quantify callose in their work.

KARRIKIN INSENSITIVE2 regulates leaf development, root system architecture and arbuscular-mycorrhizal symbiosis in Brachypodium distachyon.

KARRIKIN INSENSITIVE2 (KAI2) is an α/β-hydrolase required for plant responses to karrikins, which are abiotic butenolides that can influence seed germination and seedling growth. Although represented by four angiosperm species, loss-of-function kai2 mutants are phenotypically inconsistent and incompletely characterised, resulting in uncertainties about the core functions of KAI2 in plant development. Here we characterised the developmental functions of KAI2 in the grass Brachypodium distachyon using molecular, physiological and biochemical approaches. Bdkai2 mutants exhibit increased internode elongation and reduced leaf chlorophyll levels, but only a modest increase in water loss from detached leaves. Bdkai2 shows increased numbers of lateral roots and reduced root hair growth, and fails to support normal root colonisation by arbuscular-mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. The karrikins KAR1 and KAR2 , and the strigolactone (SL) analogue rac-GR24, each elicit overlapping but distinct changes to the shoot transcriptome via BdKAI2. Finally, we show that BdKAI2 exhibits a clear ligand preference for desmethyl butenolides and weak responses to methyl-substituted SL analogues such as GR24. Our findings suggest that KAI2 has multiple roles in shoot development, root system development and transcriptional regulation in grasses. Although KAI2-dependent AM symbiosis is likely conserved within monocots, the magnitude of the effect of KAI2 on water relations may vary across angiosperms.

DCHS1, Lix1L, and the Septin Cytoskeleton: Molecular and Developmental Etiology of Mitral Valve Prolapse.

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is a common cardiac valve disease that often progresses to serious secondary complications requiring surgery. MVP manifests as extracellular matrix disorganization and biomechanically incompetent tissues in the adult setting. However, MVP has recently been shown to have a developmental basis, as multiple causal genes expressed during embryonic development have been identified. Disease phenotypes have been observed in mouse models with human MVP mutations as early as birth. This study focuses on the developmental function of DCHS1, one of the first genes to be shown as causal in multiple families with non-syndromic MVP. By using various biochemical techniques as well as mouse and cell culture models, we demonstrate a unique link between DCHS1-based cell adhesions and the septin-actin cytoskeleton through interactions with cytoplasmic protein Lix1-Like (LIX1L). This DCHS1-LIX1L-SEPT9 axis interacts with and promotes filamentous actin organization to direct cell-ECM alignment and valve tissue shape.

Glia Regulate the Development, Function, and Plasticity of the Visual System From Retina to Cortex.

Visual experience is mediated through a relay of finely-tuned neural circuits extending from the retina, to retinorecipient nuclei in the midbrain and thalamus, to the cortex which work together to translate light information entering our eyes into a complex and dynamic spatio-temporal representation of the world. While the experience-dependent developmental refinement and mature function of neurons in each major stage of the vertebrate visual system have been extensively characterized, the contributions of the glial cells populating each region are comparatively understudied despite important findings demonstrating that they mediate crucial processes related to the development, function, and plasticity of the system. In this article we review the mechanisms for neuron-glia communication throughout the vertebrate visual system, as well as functional roles attributed to astrocytes and microglia in visual system development and processing. We will also discuss important aspects of glial function that remain unclear, integrating the knowns and unknowns about glia in the visual system to advance new hypotheses to guide future experimental work.

Mapping and analysis of a spatiotemporal H3K27ac and gene expression spectrum in pigs.

The limited knowledge of genomic noncoding and regulatory regions has restricted our ability to decipher the genetic mechanisms underlying complex traits in pigs. In this study, we characterized the spatiotemporal landscape of putative enhancers and promoters and their target genes by combining H3K27ac-targeted ChIP-Seq and RNA-Seq in fetal (prenatal days 74-75) and adult (postnatal days 132-150) tissues (brain, liver, heart, muscle and small intestine) sampled from Asian aboriginal Bama Xiang and European highly selected Large White pigs of both sexes. We identified 101,290 H3K27ac peaks, marking 18,521 promoters and 82,769 enhancers, including peaks that were active across all tissues and developmental stages (which could indicate safe harbor locus for exogenous gene insertion) and tissue- and developmental stage-specific peaks (which regulate gene pathways matching tissue- and developmental stage-specific physiological functions). We found that H3K27ac and DNA methylation in the promoter region of the XIST gene may be involved in X chromosome inactivation and demonstrated the utility of the present resource for revealing the regulatory patterns of known causal genes and prioritizing candidate causal variants for complex traits in pigs. In addition, we identified an average of 1,124 super-enhancers per sample and found that they were more likely to show tissue-specific activity than ordinary peaks. We have developed a web browser to improve the accessibility of the results ( http://segtp.jxau.edu.cn/pencode/?genome=susScr11 ).

Botanical Role, Sources, Bioactive Compounds in Medicinal and Genetically Modified Crops

The chemical compounds extracted from medicinal plants have potential to evoke mental and social sensations in addition to maintain physical health. . Species of Asteraceae and Liliaceae play significant cardiovascular roles irrespective of exploring their toxicological aspects. Carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, nucleotides, fats, and steroids are the primary organic compounds which are involved in metabolism of essential developmental and growth functions of plants. The detrimental effects of environmental stress factors are suppressed by the gene expressions of ion transporters and water channel proteins present in the cell membranes incorporated with the up or downregulation of osmo-proctant osmolytes and essential proteins such as HSP and chaperones. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an important crop known for its food, forage, and silage constituents. It is a prominent specie in Asteraceae family. Its seeds are enriched with edible oil-world’s fourth largest oil source. The mineral elements, dietary fibers, and secondary metabolites such as carotenoids, flavonoids, tocopherols, saponins, tannins, alkaloids, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, peptides, phytosterols, triterpene glycosides, and vitamins contribute towards nutraceutical roles. Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) possesses antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, and antifungal properties which allow its applications in preventing muscle spasms, treating sore throat and ulcers of duodenum and stomach, soothing eczema, healing wounds, and relieving rashes.