Browse Articles
Discover research articles across all indexed journals
Abscisic acid positively regulates rice spikelet closure
To investigate the mechanisms underlying rice glume closure and develop effective regulatory strategies, we examined both fertile (Xingan Zaozhan, Jiazao 70, and Zhenshan 97B) and sterile (Qiyuan S, Yue 4A, and Zhenshan 97A) varieties. ABA and fluridone (FL) were applied to mature panicles at various concentrations to assess closure rates, duration, and endogenous ABA levels in spikelets. RNA sequencing of lodicules was performed to analyze differential expression of genes involved in ABA synthesis and signal transduction during opening and closing phases. Additionally, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) combined with ABA (MeJA + ABA) was applied to female parents in hybrid breeding to evaluate seed setting rate, spikelet cracking rate, and yield increase. ABA treatment significantly accelerated spikelet closure, reduced closure duration, and increased final closure rates in both fertile and sterile lines, with optimal concentrations of 200–400 mg/L. In contrast, FL treatment delayed closure, prolonged the opening-closing duration, and decreased final closure rates. Endogenous ABA levels in palea and lemma were significantly lower during initial opening and closing stages compared to the maximum opening angle. During the Ory-15 min vs. Ory-40 min transition, genes encoding 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) and abscisic aldehyde oxidase (AAO) were significantly up-regulated, along with PYR/PYL, SnRK2, and ABF family genes, while PP2C family genes were down-regulated. The combined MeJA + ABA treatment significantly improved glume closure rates and hybrid seed yield. These results demonstrate that ABA promotes rice spikelet closure while FL inhibits it, highlighting ABA’s crucial role in hybrid breeding. The MeJA + ABA combination offers a promising strategy to enhance hybrid seed yield and quality.
LIS1 Is Critical for Axon Integrity in Adult Mice
Mutations in human LIS1 cause lissencephaly, a severe developmental brain malformation. Although most studies focus on development, LIS1 is also expressed in adult mouse tissues. We previously induced LIS1 knock-out (iKO) in adult mice using a Cre-Lox approach with an actin promoter driving CreERT2 expression. This proved to be rapidly lethal, with evidence pointing toward nervous system dysfunction. CreERT2 activity was observed in astrocytes, brainstem and spinal motor neurons, and axons and Schwann cells in the sciatic and phrenic nerves, suggesting dysfunctional cardiorespiratory and motor circuits. However, it is unclear how LIS1 knock-out in these different cell types contributes to the lethal phenotype. We now report that LIS1 depletion from astrocytes is not lethal to mice (male or female), although glial fibrillary protein (GFAP) expression is increased in all LIS1-depleted astrocytes. In contrast, LIS1 depletion from projection neurons causes motor deficits and rapid lethality in both males and females. This is accompanied by progressive, widespread axonal degeneration along the entire length of both motor and sensory axons. Interestingly, sensory neurons harvested from iKO mice initially extend axons in culture but soon develop axonal swellings and fragmentation, indicating axonal degeneration. LIS1 is a prominent regulator of cytoplasmic dynein 1 (dynein, hereafter), a microtubule motor whose disruption can cause both cortical malformations and later-onset neurodegenerative diseases, such as Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease. Our results raise the possibility that LIS1 depletion, through disruption of dynein function in mature axons, may lead to Wallerian-like axon degeneration without traumatic nerve injury.
Potential glutamatergic and GABAergic false neurotransmitters in models of excitation-inhibition imbalance
Modeling cell migratory persistence through temporal correlations and angular noise
The persistence of cell migration is a fundamental property of motile behavior, enabling cells to maintain directionality while adapting to fluctuations and external cues. This feature underlies essential processes such as development, immune responses, and cancer invasion. Classical mathematical models have offered key insights into directed migration, yet they often neglect temporal correlations arising from cellular mechanisms that stabilize polarity and protrusion dynamics. Here, we introduce an agent-based model based on stochastic differential equations that integrates fractional Brownian motion to explicitly incorporate translational autocorrelation in cell trajectories. We simulate migration as a function of angular reorientation and the strength of correlated noise. In this framework, temporal correlation stabilizes trajectory features inherited from initial conditions, whereas angular reorientation introduces variability that enables transitions between erratic and directed motion. Our simulations show that, unlike models driven by white noise, positive correlation markedly enhances persistence even under strong angular reorientation. Moreover, the combination of D r and H gives rise to emergent behaviors, particularly in the presence of taxis, where persistence and responsiveness are jointly tuned. These results identify correlated noise as a proxy for intrinsic cellular memory and provide a versatile computational framework to interpret the diversity and complexity of migratory behaviors.
Comparative assessment of urban plants carbon sink and storage estimation methods: an integrated AHP-fuzzy comprehensive evaluation framework
Skeletons in the permafrost: Exploring climate-driven heritage loss and occupational health at the early modern whaling burial site of Likneset, Svalbard
Rapid Arctic warming is accelerating the degradation of permafrost-preserved archaeological sites, threatening both cultural heritage and the scientific information it contains. Early modern whaling burial sites on Svalbard are particularly vulnerable due to their organic-rich burial contexts and exposed coastal settings. This study presents an integrated taphonomic and osteological analysis of the Likneset whaling burial site in northwestern Svalbard, addressing climate-driven changes in preservation conditions (RQ1) and the embodied health costs of labour in early modern Arctic whaling (RQ2). The material comprises 20 individuals excavated across three phases (Phase I: 1985–1990, n = 14; Phase II: 2016, n = 3; Phase III: 2019, n = 3). The dataset allows comparison across excavation phases and between contrasting geomorphological settings within the burial site, distinguishing erosion-exposed areas (A) from a more stable central zone (B). Burial structures, coffins, skeletal remains, and textiles were assessed using a unified preservation scoring system, combined with osteological analyses of demography, metabolic disease, developmental stress, musculoskeletal degeneration, and trauma. Results show that preservation at Likneset is structured by local geomorphology and ongoing environmental change. Burials in erosion-exposed areas display extensive disturbance and loss of organic materials, while graves in more stable settings retain better-preserved structures, skeletons, and textiles. Comparison of closely spaced burials within the same erosion-exposed area, excavated several decades apart, documents continued in situ degradation, with textile materials declining more rapidly than skeletal remains. Osteological evidence indicates a largely homogeneous burial population composed predominantly of young adult men. Despite generally robust stature, the skeletal record documents widespread physiological stress, including metabolic disease, developmental stress markers, and extensive activity-related skeletal changes developing early in adulthood. Trauma is predominantly healed, suggesting that mortality was more closely linked to cumulative nutritional deficiency and prolonged physical strain. The results highlight growing challenges for heritage management on Svalbard, where strategies based on in situ preservation and managed decay are increasingly strained under warming permafrost conditions, underscoring the need for systematic monitoring, targeted documentation, and integration of archaeological data into climate adaptation planning before irreplaceable archives are lost.
Neural Representations and Functional Connections Underlie Subjective Positive Affect
Everyday experiences can evoke positive feelings that differ among individuals and guide their behavior. Although reward processing is often linked to positive feelings, the mechanisms underlying subjective positive affect and whether they are shared for varied positive experiences is unclear. Here, we used fMRI and predictive modeling to investigate how dynamic, personalized positive experiences are encoded in the brain in humans of both sexes. Neural representations and functional integration during experiences of monetary reward, social media, music, and positive autobiographical memories were used to predict participants' affect ratings of each experience. Across experiences, positive affect was encoded in multivariate neural patterns and functional coupling of distributed cortical and subcortical brain areas, including some value-linked brain regions, like the orbitofrontal cortex. Restricted sets of brain representations and functional connections linked to sensory processing were involved in encoding stimulus-specific positive affect. Our findings suggest that positive affect may be computed and communicated throughout the brain.
Fe3O4 and ZnO nanoparticles on cotton-stalk-derived cellulose microfibers enable a nanopriming strategy to enhance drought resilience in cotton
Cave morphology and human-mediated sediment deposition: Late Pleistocene to Holocene evolution of the cave floor at Panga ya Saidi, coastal Kenya
Panga ya Saidi (PYS), a cave situated in a forested upland near the coast of Kenya, contains an archaeological record that spans at least 78,000 years and is crucial for understanding the evolution of Homo sapiens populations in eastern Africa. Here we report on new systematic excavation, three-dimensional scanning, radiocarbon dating, and geoarchaeological analyses that provide insights on sedimentary dynamics, occupation patterns, and site-formation processes at PYS. Our data show that while unroofed parts of the cave probably contain the deepest stratigraphies, these are likely to be dominated by colluvial influx and yield limited cultural deposits. Sheltered zones near the chamber edges exhibit better stratigraphic integrity and higher artifact densities, with deposits exceeding 5.5 meters in thickness in the main excavation area. In this area, marked shifts in occupation intensity and sediment sources enable us to reconstruct the evolution of the inhabited cave space. Our findings underscore PYS as a key site for understanding human behavior, adaptation, and environmental interactions from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene, with implications for broader interpretations of the evolution of Homo sapiens populations in eastern Africa.
Optimal Foraging Requires Coordinating Decisions with Movements
Decision-making and motor execution are both constrained by time and energy, and their optimization depends on cost–benefit trade-offs. While many studies suggest that decisions and movements follow common economic principles and can be jointly regulated to maximize reward rate, recent findings indicate that these two processes can also be decoupled or modulated in compensatory ways. This variability raises the question of whether decision–action coordination reflects an optimal strategy aimed at maximizing reward rate or rather a flexible but suboptimal adaptation to contextual constraints. To address this issue, we trained three macaque monkeys, two males and one female, to perform a reaching-based foraging task. The observed adjustments in decision–action coordination of the three monkeys are consistent with the pursuit of a strategy that approximates the theoretical optimum of reward intake rate at the single-trial level. The present findings indicate, both behaviorally and theoretically, that coordination between decision and movement is required to optimize behavior in economic terms.
Changes in pupil size and accommodation following prophylactic peripheral laser retinopexy: a prospective self-controlled study
Partial fishmeal replacement with poultry by-product meal and yeast enhances growth and health in Clarias gariepinus, while unbalanced PBM diets induce metabolic stress
This study evaluates a dual dietary strategy in African catfish ( Clarias gariepinus ): optimizing fishmeal replacement and assessing unbalanced, low-cost feeding risks. Five diets were tested over 12 weeks: four isonitrogenous diets (T1–T4, 35% crude protein) with graded fishmeal replacement using poultry by-product meal (PBM) and brewer’s yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae ), and one unbalanced diet (T5, 100% PBM without carbohydrates, lipids, or micronutrients). A total of 125 fish (initial weight 47.49 ± 0.18 g) were distributed across five 1 m³ tanks (25 fish/tank; n = 1 tank/diet) and fed twice daily at 3% body weight. Growth, hepatic enzymes [alanine/aspartate aminotransferase (ALT/AST)], cholesterol, and hematological parameters [hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), lymphocytes] were measured. Fish fed T2 (15% fishmeal, 20% PBM, 5% yeast) showed the highest daily weight gain (4.36 ± 0.02 g/day), best feed conversion ratio (FCR = 1.32), lowest ALT (18.53 ± 0.37 U/L) and AST (22.09 ± 0.45 U/L), reduced cholesterol (135.53 ± 2.37 mg/dL), and highest Hb (10.89 ± 0.37 g/dL) and Hct (28.76 ± 0.91%). Conversely, T5-fed fish exhibited poor growth (1.97 ± 0.03 g/day), elevated hepatic enzymes, increased cholesterol, and hematological signs of impaired erythropoiesis and chronic immune activation. Diets T3 and T4 showed intermediate performance. Strong negative ( r = −0.99) and positive ( r = +0.98) correlations linked daily weight gain with ALT and Hct, respectively. These findings indicate that protein quality and dietary balance outweigh crude protein content for fish health and performance. Combining moderate fishmeal with PBM and yeast offers a sustainable strategy to reduce fishmeal reliance, whereas the 100% PBM diet highlights risks of unbalanced feeds in resource-limited settings. These results provide preliminary evidence supporting strategic fishmeal replacement, underscoring the need for validation in fully replicated trials.
Dendritic Inhibition Terminates Plateau Potentials in CA1 Pyramidal Neurons
In CA1 pyramidal neurons (CA1-PYRs), plateau potentials control synaptic plasticity and the emergence of place cell identity. Here, we show that dendritic inhibition terminates plateaus in an all-or-none manner in CA1-PYRs recorded in acute hippocampal slices from mice of either sex. Plateaus were initially resistant to inhibition but became increasingly susceptible to termination as they progressed. Two subtypes of dendrite-targeting oriens-lacunosum moleculare (OLM) interneurons, accessed in transgenic mice based on the expression of the genes Ndnf or Chrna2 (OLM Ndnf and OLM α2 , respectively), could terminate plateau potentials. OLM Ndnf generated slower postsynaptic currents that terminated plateaus more effectively than OLM α2 . Voltage-gated Ca 2+ channels (VGCCs) were necessary for plateaus, which were prolonged by blocking small-conductance Ca 2+ –activated K + channels (SK). A single-compartment model with these two conductances recapitulated core experimental findings and provided a mechanistic explanation for terminations. Plateaus arose from VGCCs maintained in the active state by sustained Ca 2+ influx, a positive feedback loop that was quasi-balanced by I SK . Inhibition terminated plateaus by driving the membrane potential below a dynamic threshold to deactivate VGCCs and end the positive feedback loop. Similar all-or-none termination dynamics were observed for plateaus evoked under cholinergic modulation. Lastly, two-photon Ca 2+ imaging showed that plateaus evoke large dendritic Ca 2+ transients that were graded by terminations. Overall, our results demonstrate how the feedback inhibitory circuit interacts with intrinsic cellular mechanisms to regulate plateau potentials and shape dendritic Ca 2+ signals in CA1-PYRs.
Rabies virus glycoprotein variants modulate neuronal nicotinic receptors in a conformation-dependent manner
Impact of axial length correction in high intraocular pressure eyes on intraocular lens power calculation
Purpose This study aimed to investigate the relationship between high intraocular pressure (IOP) effect on axial length (AL) and postoperative refractive error after cataract surgery. Methods A retrospective study was conducted on cases that underwent cataract surgery for elevated IOP. AL was corrected based on the change in AL per 1 mmHg of IOP, and the predicted refractive error was evaluated at 3 months postoperatively. Preoperative and postoperative optical biometry was performed using the segmented refractive index method. Intraocular lens (IOL) power was calculated using both the SRK/T and Barrett Universal II (BU II) formulas. Results Optical biometry was obtained in 18 cases and 19 eyes before and after cataract surgery. A moderate correlation was observed between the change in IOP and AL (r = 0.687, P = 0.0012), with the change in AL per 1 mmHg of reduction in IOP calculated as 0.005 mm. The mean change in IOP was 38.87 ± 10.80 mmHg (P = 0.001), and the AL \ significantly shortened by 0.18 ± 0.09 mm (P = 0.001). The mean postoperative refractive errors were 0.36 ± 0.59 D with the SRK/T formula, 0.79 ± 0.58 D with the BU II formula, showing significantly more hyperopia (p = 0.001). After AL correction, the predicted refractive error was reduced to −0.08 ± 0.54 D (SRK/T) and 0.27 ± 0.55 D (BU II). Conclusions In cataract surgery for eyes with elevated IOP, using corrected AL based on the anticipated IOP reduction appears to decrease the predicted refractive error. Additionally, it should be noted that the BU II formula may result in a hyperopic shift in refractive prediction error, even when using the adjusted AL.
Phytochemical profiling of Pleurospermum candollei flowers and stems reveals antioxidant constituents with topoisomerase II-targeted anticancer potential
Head-driven gender assignment in noun-noun compound recognition: Evidence from a determiner priming task in German
A visual lexical decision task with noun-noun compound targets (e.g., Wasserflasche [waterbottle]) and gender-marked determiner primes (der, die, das [the] for masculine, feminine, neuter]) was used to examine how compound words are stored at a lexical-syntactic level. It was tested whether the embedded constituents activate their grammatical gender separately. Determiner primes were either congruent with the compound’s morphological head ( die - Wasser flasche ), the compound’s modifier ( das - Wasser flasche ), or incongruent with both constituents ( der – Wasserflasche ). Data from two online experiments are reported. The experimental design was identical but prime durations slightly varied. Head-congruent determiner primes speeded compound recognition in both experiments, but no effects were observed for modifier-congruent primes. The results of both experiments suggest activation of the grammatical gender of the head constituent, whereas the modifier’s gender seems not to be activated. Evidence in line with constituent-specific processes of compounds was only observed in the analysis of response accuracies of Experiment 2, as indicated by significant interactions between semantic transparency and constituent-specific determiner-priming effects. Our data are in line with head-driven gender assignment during noun-noun compound recognition.