In-depth exploration of the genomic diversity in tea varieties based on a newly constructed pangenome of Camellia sinensis.

Tea, one of the most widely consumed beverages globally, exhibits remarkable genomic diversity in its underlying flavour and health-related compounds. In this study, we present the construction and analysis of a tea pangenome comprising a total of 11 genomes, with a focus on three newly sequenced genomes comprising the purple-leaved assamica cultivar "Zijuan", the temperature-sensitive sinensis cultivar "Anjibaicha" and the wild accession "L618" whose assemblies exhibited excellent quality scores as they profited from latest sequencing technologies. Our analysis incorporates a detailed investigation of transposon complement across the tea pangenome, revealing shared patterns of transposon distribution among the studied genomes and improved transposon resolution with long read technologies, as shown by long terminal repeat (LTR) Assembly Index analysis. Furthermore, our study encompasses a gene-centric exploration of the pangenome, exploring the genomic landscape of the catechin pathway with our study, providing insights on copy number alterations and gene-centric variants, especially for Anthocyanidin synthases. We constructed a gene-centric pangenome by structurally and functionally annotating all available genomes using an identical pipeline, which both increased gene completeness and allowed for a high functional annotation rate. This improved and consistently annotated gene set will allow for a better comparison between tea genomes. We used this improved pangenome to capture the core and dispensable gene repertoire, elucidating the functional diversity present within the tea species. This pangenome resource might serve as a valuable resource for understanding the fundamental genetic basis of traits such as flavour, stress tolerance, and disease resistance, with implications for tea breeding programmes.

A neurophysiological profiling of the heartbeat-evoked potential in severe acquired brain injuries: A focus on unconsciousness.

Unconsciousness in severe acquired brain injury (sABI) patients occurs with different cognitive and neural profiles. Perturbational approaches, which enable the estimation of proxies for brain reorganization, have added a new avenue for investigating the non-behavioural diagnosis of consciousness. In this prospective observational study, we conducted a comparative analysis of the topological patterns of heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEP) between patients experiencing a prolonged disorder of consciousness (pDoC) and patients emerging from a minimally consciousness state (eMCS). A total of 219 sABI patients were enrolled, each undergoing a synchronous EEG-ECG resting-state recording, together with a standardized consciousness diagnosis. A number of graph metrics were computed before/after the HEP (Before/After) using the R-peak on the ECG signal. The peak value of the global field power of the HEP was found to be significantly higher in eMCS patients with no difference in latency. Power spectrum was not able to discriminate consciousness neither Before nor After. Node assortativity and global efficiency were found to vary with different trends at unconsciousness. Lastly, the Perturbational Complexity Index of the HEP was found to be significantly higher in eMCS patients compared with pDoC. Given that cortical elaboration of peripheral inputs may serve as a non-behavioural determinant of consciousness, we have devised a low-cost and translatable technique capable of estimating causal proxies of brain functionality with an endogenous, non-invasive stimulus. Thus, we present an effective means to enhance consciousness assessment by incorporating the interaction between the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and central nervous system (CNS) into the loop.

Novel electroporation-based genome editing of carnation plant tissues using RNPs targeting the anthocyanidin synthase gene.

MAIN CONCLUSION: A novel electroporation method for genome editing was performed using plant tissue samples by direct RNPs-introduction in carnation. Genome editing is becoming a very useful tool in plant breeding. In this study, a novel electroporation method was performed for genome editing using plant tissue samples. The objective was to create a flower color mutant using the pink-flowered carnation 'Kane Ainou 1-go'. For this purpose, a ribonucleoprotein consisting of guide RNA and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated protein 9 (Cas9) was introduced into the stem tissue to induce mutations in the anthocyanidin synthase (ANS) gene, which is involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis. As the ANS of 'Kane Ainou 1-go' has not been previously isolated, we initially isolated the ANS gene from 'Kane Ainou 1-go' for characterization. Southern hybridization analysis confirmed that the ANS gene was present in the genome as a two-allele gene with a pair of homologous sequences (ANS-1 and 2); these sequences were used as the target for genome editing. Genome editing was performed by introducing #2_single-guide RNA into the stem tissue using the ribonucleoprotein. This molecule was used because it exhibited the highest efficiency in an analysis of cleavage activity against the target sequence in vitro. Cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence analysis of genomic DNA extracted from 85 regenerated individuals after genome editing was performed. The results indicated that mutations in the ANS gene may have been introduced into two lines. Cloning of the ANS gene in these two lines confirmed the introduction of a single nucleotide substitution mutation for ANS-1 in both lines, and a single amino acid substitution in one line. We discussed the possibility of color change by the amino acid substitution, and also the future applications of this technology.

Systemic neurophysiological signals of auditory predictive coding.

Predictive coding framework posits that our brain continuously monitors changes in the environment and updates its predictive models, minimizing prediction errors to efficiently adapt to environmental demands. However, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of these predictive phenomena remain unclear. The present study aimed to explore the systemic neurophysiological correlates of predictive coding processes during passive and active auditory processing. Electroencephalography (EEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and autonomic nervous system (ANS) measures were analyzed using an auditory pattern-based novelty oddball paradigm. A sample of 32 healthy subjects was recruited. The results showed shared slow evoked potentials between passive and active conditions that could be interpreted as automatic predictive processes of anticipation and updating, independent of conscious attentional effort. A dissociated topography of the cortical hemodynamic activity and distinctive evoked potentials upon auditory pattern violation were also found between both conditions, whereas only conscious perception leading to imperative responses was accompanied by phasic ANS responses. These results suggest a systemic-level hierarchical reallocation of predictive coding neural resources as a function of contextual demands in the face of sensory stimulation. Principal component analysis permitted to associate the variability of some of the recorded signals.

Abnormal Autonomic Nervous Regulation in Patients with Globus Pharyngeus.

BACKGROUND: Globus pharyngeus could be described as a benign sensation of lump or foreign object in the throat. The etiology of the globus as a solitary syndrome is still unknown, but it is proposed that stress could have an important role in symptom emergence. AIMS: To evaluate the autonomic nervous regulation in patients with globus compared to healthy controls in reaction to stress. METHODS: Patients included in the study were diagnosed based on ROME IV criteria for Disorders of Gut Brain Interaction. Besides globus, the patients did not suffer any other substantial medical condition. As a control group, measurement of healthy volunteers was performed. Both groups underwent the same stress protocol assessment in the same laboratory settings. The protocol consist of two types of stressors: cold pressor test and mental arithmetic test to test different types of autonomic reactivity. RESULTS: Baroreflex sensitivity was significantly decreased in patients compared to controls in all phases of the protocol. Low-frequency band of systolic blood pressure variability was significantly increased during both stress phases in patients compared to controls. High-frequency band of heart rate variability was significantly decreased in patients compared to controls during the both of the stress phases. CONCLUSION: The results of this study shows discrete abnormalities in complex autonomic reflex control which are predominantly manifested in response to stressful stimuli indicating altered neurocardiac regulation as a reaction to stress associated with globus pharynegus. This fact could have an important role in the personalized management of globus patients such as biofeedback.

Management of Ventricular Arrhythmias in Heart Failure: Can Less Be More?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) affect many patients with heart failure and underlying structural heart disease and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Antiarrhythmic drugs are often the initial treatment, but medication alone often fails to sufficiently suppress VAs. While catheter ablation (CA) remains the gold standard for treatment of VAs, CA is an invasive procedure and can be associated with periprocedural complications including acute clinical decompensation. Thus, there is an important need for alternative therapies. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent advances in risk stratification and the development of new ablation technologies may reduce some of the periprocedural complications and limitations of CA. In addition, less invasive therapies for VAs may provide an alternative treatment strategy for patients in both the acute and chronic setting. For patients acutely admitted with ventricular tachycardia electrical storm (VT-ES) or recurrent VT and cardiogenic shock, risk stratification tools have been developed to identify patients at high risk of acute hemodynamic decompensation during CA. These patients require a multidisciplinary approach and might need mechanical circulatory support (MCS) if CA is selected as the treatment strategy. Alternatively, less invasive therapies targeting the autonomic nervous system may be reasonable. In the chronic setting, developments in medical therapy have reduced the risk of sudden cardiac death in heart failure patients and stereotactic whole-body radiation (SBRT) has evolved as a potential, non-invasive therapy. Further research is needed to personalize VA therapy for individual patients.

Identification and characterization of the gene BraANS.A03 associated with purple leaf color in pak choi (Brassica rapa L. ssp. chinensis).

MAIN CONCLUSION: BraANS.A3 was the key gene controlling purple leaf color in pak choi, and two short fragments of promoter region in green pak choi might be interfering its normal expression. Pak choi (B. rapa L. ssp. chinensis) is an influential and important vegetable with green, yellow, or purple leaves that is cultivated worldwide. The purple leaves are rich in anthocyanins, but the underlying genetics and evolution have yet to be extensively studied. Free-hand sections of the purple leaves indicated that anthocyanins mainly accumulate throughout the adaxial and abaxial epidermal leaf cells. Segregation analyses of an F2 population of a B. rapa ssp. chinensis L. purple leaf mutant ZBC indicated that the purple trait is controlled by an incompletely dominant nuclear gene. Bulked segregant analysis (BSA) showed that the key genes controlling the trait were between 24.25 and 38.10 Mb on chromosome A03 of B. rapa. From the annotated genes, only BraA03g050560.3C, homologous to Arabidopsis AtANS, was related to the anthocyanin synthesis pathway. Genome annotation results and transcriptional sequencing analyses revealed that the BraANS.A3 gene was involved in the purple leaf trait. qRT-PCR analyses showed that BraANS.A3 was highly upregulated in ZBC but hardly expressed in the leaves of an inbred homozygous line of B. campestris ssp. chinensis L. green leaf mutant WTC, indicating that BraANS.A3 played a key role catalyzing anthocyanin synthesis in ZBC. Full-length sequence alignment of BraANS.A3 in WTC and ZBC showed that it was highly conserved in the gene region, with significant variation in the promoter region. In particular, the insertion of two short fragments of the promoter region in WTC may interfere with its normal expression. The promoter regions of ANS in six Brassica species all had multiple cis-elements involved in responses to abscisic acid, light, and stress, suggesting that ANS may be involved in multiple metabolic pathways or biological processes. Protein-protein interactions predicted that BraANS.A3 interacts with virtually all catalytic proteins in the anthocyanin synthesis pathway and has a strong relationship with Transparent Testa 8 (TT8). These results suggest that BraANS.A3 promotes anthocyanin accumulation in purple pak choi and provide new insights into the functional analysis of anthocyanin-related genes in Chinese cabbage and transcriptional regulatory networks.

Biophysical evaluation of the oligomerization and conformational properties of the N-terminal domain of TDP-43.

TDP-43 is an RNA-binding protein that presents four domains comprising an N-terminal region, two RNA recognition motifs and a C-terminal region. The N-terminal domain (NTD) has a relevant role in the oligomerization and splicing activity of TDP-43. In this work, we have expressed, purified and biophysically characterized the region that includes residues 1 to 102 that contains the nuclear localization signal (residues 80-102, NLS). Furthermore, we have evaluated the oligomerization equilibrium for this protein fragment. Also, we have determined changes in the tertiary structure and its stability in a broad range of pH values by means of different spectroscopic methods. Additionally, we compared this fragment with the one that lacks the NLS employing experimental and computational methods. Finally, we evaluated the motion of dimeric forms to get insights into the conformational flexibility of this TDP-43 module in an oligomeric state. Our results suggest that this domain has a conformational plasticity in the vicinity of the single tryptophan of this domain (Trp68), which is enhanced by the presence of the nuclear localization signal. All these results help to understand the molecular features of the NTD of TDP-43.

Infants' sense of approximate numerosity: Heritability and link to other concurrent traits.

The ability to perceive approximate numerosity is present in many animal species, and emerges early in human infants. Later in life, it is moderately heritable and associated with mathematical abilities, but the etiology of the Approximate Number System (ANS) and its degree of independence from other cognitive abilities in infancy is unknown. Here, we assessed the phenotypic specificity as well as the influence of genetic and environmental factors on the ANS in a sample of 5-month-old twins (N = 514). We found a small-to-moderate but statistically significant effect of genetic factors on ANS acuity (heritability = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.33), but only when differences in numerosity were relatively large (1:4 ratio). Non-verbal ability assessed with the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) was found to be heritable (0.47; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.57) and the phenotypic association between ANS acuity and non-verbal ability performance was close to zero. Similarly, we found no association between ANS acuity and general attention during the task. An unexpected weak but statistically significant negative association between ANS acuity and scores on the receptive language scale of the MSEL was found. These results suggest that early ANS function may be largely independent from other aspects of non-verbal development. Further, variability in ANS in infancy seems to, to some extent, reflect genotypic differences in the population. HIGHLIGHTS: Assessing 514 infant twins with eye tracking, we found that infants' sense of approximate numerosity is heritable and not positively associated with concurrent attentional, cognitive or motor abilities. These results have implications for our understanding of development of mathematical ability and the link between cognitive abilities early in postnatal life.

The short term adaptation of the autonomic nervous systems (ANS) by type of urban environment and ethnicity.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies examined the effects of urban environments on the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). These studies measured the effects of environments on Heart Rate Variability (HRV) averaging different time intervals to one value. Yet, the dynamics of change, reflecting the functions and their derivatives that describe the adaptation to the new environments remain unknown. In addition, ethnic differences in the ANS adaptation were not investigated. METHOD: Forty-eight Arab and 24 Jewish women ages 20-35 years, all healthy, non-smokers were recruited by a snowball sample. Both groups were of a similar socioeconomic status and BMI distributions. Using a portable monitor, the HRV response was continuously analyzed for 35 min of sedentary sitting in each of the three environments: a park, a city center and a residential area. LF/HF polynomial function was adapted to describe the dynamic change in each environment for each ethnic group. RESULTS: Green area exposure was associated with 90% immediate change while in built-up areas, the change in HRV is about 40% adaptive (changing gradually). The adaptive process of HRV may stabilize after 15 min in the city center yet not even after 35 min in the residential environment. The total change (immediate + adaptive) reached 24% in city centers and 10% in residential areas. Changes in HRV rates in the park and the city center environments were higher among Arab women as compared to Jewish women but similar between the two groups in the residential area. The distributions of LF/HF in each time cohort were normal, meaning that shifting the focus to analyze functions of change in HRV, opens the possibility to employ analytic methods that assume the normal distribution. CONCLUSIONS: Changing the focus from average levels of HRV to functions of change and their derivatives brings new insight into the understanding of the ANS response to environmental challenges. ANS short term adaptation to different environments is gradual and spans differently both in magnitude of response and latencies between different environments. Importantly, in green areas, the response is immediate unlike the adaptation to urban environments that is significantly more gradual. The ethnic differences in ANS adaptation is also noteworthy. In addition, adaptation proceeesses are normaly distributed in each time cohort suggesting a possible novel ANS index.

Targeting the binding pocket of the fluorophore 8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid in the bacterial enzyme MurA.

8-Anilinonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid (ANS) has been extensively used as a fluorescent probe to detect conformational changes of proteins. It has been cocrystallized with several of the proteins it is used to monitor, including the bacterial cell wall synthesis enzyme MurA. MurA catalyzes the first committed step of peptidoglycan biosynthesis, converting UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc) into enolpyruvyl UDP-GlcNAc. It has been reported before that ANS binds to MurA from Enterobacter cloacae without inhibiting the enzyme's activity up to a concentration of 1 mM ANS. In this study, we present evidence that ANS inhibits the activity of several isoforms of MurA with IC50 values of 18, 22, and 31 µM against wild-type Escherichia coli, C115D E. coli, and E. cloacae MurA, respectively. This prompted us to test a larger series of structural analogs of ANS for the inhibition of these MurA enzymes, which led to the discovery of compound 26. This ANS analog showed enhanced inhibition of MurA (WT and C115D MurA from E. coli, and E. cloacae MurA) with IC50 values of 2.7, 10, and 14 µM, respectively. Based on our results, the ANS binding pocket was identified as a novel target site for the development of potential antibiotics.

Contactless Cardiovascular Assessment by Imaging Photoplethysmography: A Comparison with Wearable Monitoring.

Despite the notable recent developments in the field of remote photoplethysmography (rPPG), extracting a reliable pulse rate variability (PRV) signal still remains a challenge. In this study, eight image-based photoplethysmography (iPPG) extraction methods (GRD, AGRD, PCA, ICA, LE, SPE, CHROM, and POS) were compared in terms of pulse rate (PR) and PRV features. The algorithms were made robust for motion and illumination artifacts by using ad hoc pre- and postprocessing steps. Then, they were systematically tested on the public dataset UBFC-RPPG, containing data from 42 subjects sitting in front of a webcam (30 fps) while playing a time-sensitive mathematical game. The performances of the algorithms were evaluated by statistically comparing iPPG-based and finger-PPG-based PR and PRV features in terms of Spearman's correlation coefficient, normalized root mean square error (NRMSE), and Bland-Altman analysis. The study revealed POS and CHROM techniques to be the most robust for PR estimation and the assessment of overall autonomic nervous system (ANS) dynamics by using PRV features in time and frequency domains. Furthermore, we demonstrated that a reliable characterization of the vagal tone is made possible by computing the Poincaré map of PRV series derived from the POS and CHROM methods. This study supports the use of iPPG systems as promising tools to obtain clinically useful and specific information about ANS dynamics.

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of ANS Family in Strawberry Fruits at Different Coloring Stages.

To elucidate the structural characteristics, phylogeny and biological function of anthocyanin synthase (ANS) and its role in anthocyanin synthesis, members of the strawberry ANS gene family were obtained by whole genome retrieval, and their bioinformatic analysis and expression analysis at different developmental stages of fruit were performed. The results showed that the strawberry ANS family consisted of 141 members distributed on 7 chromosomes and could be divided into 4 subfamilies. Secondary structure prediction showed that the members of this family were mainly composed of random curls and α-helices, and were mainly located in chloroplasts, cytoplasm, nuclei and cytoskeletons. The promoter region of the FvANS gene family contains light-responsive elements, abiotic stress responsive elements and hormone responsive elements, etc. Intraspecific collinearity analysis revealed 10 pairs of FvANS genes, and interspecific collinearity analysis revealed more relationships between strawberries and apples, grapes and Arabidopsis, but fewer between strawberries and rice. Chip data analysis showed that FvANS15, FvANS41, FvANS47, FvANS48, FvANS49, FvANS67, FvANS114 and FvANS132 were higher in seed coat tissues and endosperm. FvANS16, FvANS85, FvANS90 and FvANS102 were higher in internal and fleshy tissues. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) showed that the ANS gene was expressed throughout the fruit coloring process. The expression levels of most genes were highest in the 50% coloring stage (S3), such as FvANS16, FvANS19, FvANS31, FvANS43, FvANS73, FvANS78 and FvANS91. The expression levels of FvANS52 were the highest in the green fruit stage (S1), and FvANS39 and FvANS109 were the highest in the 20% coloring stage (S2). These results indicate that different members of the FvANS gene family play a role in different pigmentation stages, with most genes playing a role in the expression level of the rapid accumulation of fruit coloring. This study lays a foundation for further study on the function of ANS gene family.

Evaluation of Autonomic Nervous System Dysfunction in Childhood Obesity and Prader-Willi Syndrome.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) may play a role in the distribution of body fat and the development of obesity and its complications. Features of individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) impacted by PWS molecular genetic classes suggest alterations in ANS function; however, these have been rarely studied and presented with conflicting results. The aim of this study was to investigate if the ANS function is altered in PWS. In this case-control study, we assessed ANS function in 20 subjects with PWS (6 males/14 females; median age 10.5 years) and 27 body mass index (BMI) z-score-matched controls (19 males/8 females; median age 12.8 years). Standardized non-invasive measures of cardiac baroreflex function, heart rate, blood pressure, heart rate variability, quantitative sudomotor axon reflex tests, and a symptom questionnaire were completed. The increase in heart rate in response to head-up tilt testing was blunted (p < 0.01) in PWS compared to controls. Besides a lower heart rate ratio with Valsalva in PWS (p < 0.01), no significant differences were observed in other measures of cardiac function or sweat production. Findings suggest possible altered sympathetic function in PWS.

The Compression Optimality of Asymmetric Numeral Systems.

Source coding has a rich and long history. However, a recent explosion of multimedia Internet applications (such as teleconferencing and video streaming, for instance) renews interest in fast compression that also squeezes out as much redundancy as possible. In 2009 Jarek Duda invented his asymmetric numeral system (ANS). Apart from having a beautiful mathematical structure, it is very efficient and offers compression with a very low coding redundancy. ANS works well for any symbol source statistics, and it has become a preferred compression algorithm in the IT industry. However, designing an ANS instance requires a random selection of its symbol spread function. Consequently, each ANS instance offers compression with a slightly different compression ratio. The paper investigates the compression optimality of ANS. It shows that ANS is optimal for any symbol sources whose probability distribution is described by natural powers of 1/2. We use Markov chains to calculate ANS state probabilities. This allows us to precisely determine the ANS compression rate. We present two algorithms for finding ANS instances with a high compression ratio. The first explores state probability approximations in order to choose ANS instances with better compression ratios. The second algorithm is a probabilistic one. It finds ANS instances whose compression ratios can be made as close to the best ratio as required. This is done at the expense of the number θ of internal random "coin" tosses. The algorithm complexity is O(θL3), where L is the number of ANS states. The complexity can be reduced to O(θLlog2L) if we use a fast matrix inversion. If the algorithm is implemented on a quantum computer, its complexity becomes O(θ(log2L)3).

[Alcohol and older women]. / Alcool et troisième âge chez la femme.

Frequently linked to social isolation (widowhood, estrangement from family and friends, etc.), alcoholism in elderly women is often invisible, with a high level of dependence. It potentiates the vulnerabilities and impact of aging. What approach to care and support can geriatric teams offer? What are the care objectives?

Expression, Purification, and Characterisation of South African Cassava Mosaic Virus Cell-to-Cell Movement Protein.

South African cassava mosaic virus (SACMV) is a circular ssDNA bipartite begomovirus, whose genome comprises DNA-A (encodes six genes) and DNA-B (encodes BC1 cell-to-cell movement and BV1 nuclear shuttle proteins) components. A few secondary and tertiary structural and physicochemical characteristics of partial but not full-length begomovirus proteins have been elucidated to date. The full-length codon-optimised SACMV BC1 gene was cloned into a pET-28a (+) expression vector and transformed into expression host cells E. coli BL21 (DE3). The optimal expression of the full-length BC1-encoded movement protein (MP) was obtained via induction with 0.25 mM IPTG at an OD600 of ~0.45 at 37 °C for four hours. Denatured protein fractions (dialysed in 4 M urea), passed through an IMAC column, successfully bound to the nickel resin, and eluted using 250 mM imidazole. The protein was refolded using stepwise dialysis. The molecular weight of MP was confirmed to be 35 kDa using SDS-PAGE. The secondary structure of SACMV MP presented as predominantly ß-strands. An ANS (1-anilino-8-naphthalene sulphonate)-binding assay confirmed that MP possesses hydrophobic pockets with the ability to bind ligands such as ANS (8-anilino-1-naphthalenesulphonic acid). A 2' (3')-N-methylanthraniloyl-ATP (mant-ATP) assay showed binding of mant-ATP to MP and indicated that, while hydrophobic pockets are present, MP also exhibits hydrophilic regions. Intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence indicated a significant conformational change in the denatured form of BC1 in the presence of ATP. In addition, a phosphatase assay showed that MP possessed ATPase activity.

Groupitizing modifies neural coding of numerosity.

Numerical estimation of arrays of objects is faster and more accurate when items can be clustered into groups, a phenomenon termed "groupitizing." Grouping can facilitate segregation into subitizable "chunks," each easily estimated, then summed. The current study investigates whether spatial grouping of arrays drives specific neural responses during numerical estimation, reflecting strategies such as exact calculation and fact retrieval. Fourteen adults were scanned with fMRI while estimating either the numerosity or shape of arrays of items, either randomly distributed or spatially grouped. Numerosity estimation of both classes of stimuli elicited common activation of a right lateralized frontoparietal network. Grouped stimuli additionally recruited regions in the left hemisphere and bilaterally in the angular gyrus. Multivariate pattern analysis showed that classifiers trained with the pattern of neural activations read out from parietal regions, but not from the primary visual areas, can decode different numerosities both within and across spatial arrangements. The behavioral numerical acuity correlated with the decoding performance of the parietal but not with occipital regions. Overall, this experiment suggests that the estimation of grouped stimuli relies on the approximate number system for numerosity estimation, but additionally recruits regions involved in calculation.

Accumulation and regulation of anthocyanins in white and purple Tibetan Hulless Barley (Hordeum vulgare L. var. nudum Hook. f.) revealed by combined de novo transcriptomics and metabolomics.

BACKGROUND: Colored barley, which may have associated human health benefits, is more desirable than the standard white variety, but the metabolites and molecular mechanisms underlying seedcoat coloration remain unclear. RESULTS: Here, the development of Tibetan hulless barley was monitored, and 18 biological samples at 3 seedcoat color developmental stages were analyzed by transcriptomic and metabolic assays in Nierumuzha (purple) and Kunlun10 (white). A total of 41 anthocyanin compounds and 4186 DEGs were identified. Then we constructed the proanthocyanin-anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway of Tibetan hulless barley, including 19 genes encoding structural enzymes in 12 classes (PAL, C4H, 4CL, CHS, CHI, F3H, F3'H, DFR, ANS, ANR, GT, and ACT). 11 DEGs other than ANR were significantly upregulated in Nierumuzha as compared to Kunlun10, leading to high levels of 15 anthocyanin compounds in this variety (more than 25 times greater than the contents in Kunlun10). ANR was significantly upregulated in Kunlun10 as compared to Nierumuzha, resulting in higher contents of three anthocyanins compounds (more than 5 times greater than the contents in Nierumuzha). In addition, 22 TFs, including MYBs, bHLHs, NACs, bZips, and WD40s, were significantly positively or negatively correlated with the expression patterns of the structural genes. Moreover, comparisons of homologous gene sequences between the two varieties identified 61 putative SNPs in 13 of 19 structural genes. A nonsense mutation was identified in the coding sequence of the ANS gene in Kunlun10. This mutation might encode a nonfunctional protein, further reducing anthocyanin accumulation in Kunlun10. Then we identified 3 modules were highly specific to the Nierumuzha (purple) using WGCNA. Moreover, 12 DEGs appeared both in the putative proanthocyanin-anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway and the protein co-expression network were obtained and verified. CONCLUSION: Our study constructed the proanthocyanin-anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway of Tibetan hulless barley. A series of compounds, structural genes and TFs responsible for the differences between purple and white hulless barley were obtained in this pathway. Our study improves the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of anthocyanin accumulation and biosynthesis in barley seeds. It provides new targets for the genetic improvement of anthocyanin content and a framework for improving the nutritional quality of barley.

Interactions of central and autonomic nervous systems in patients with sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome during sleep.

PURPOSE: Sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (SAHS) is an independent risk factor for various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, but the underlying relationship of its physiological subsystems remains unclear. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effect of SAHS on central and autonomic nervous system (CNS-ANS) interactions during sleep. METHODS: Thirty-five patients with SAHS and 19 healthy age-matched controls underwent overnight polysomnography. The absolute spectral powers of five frequency bands from six EEG channels and ECG morphological features (HR, PR interval, QT interval) were calculated. Multivariable transfer entropy was applied to analyze the differences of the CNS-ANS network interactions between patients with SAHS of different severities and healthy controls during deep, light, and rapid eye movement sleep. RESULTS: The CNS-ANS network interacted bidirectionally in all researched groups, with the cardiac information modulating the brain activity. The information strength from QT to most EEG components and PR to some EEG components was significantly affected by SAHS severity during light sleep, which indicates the coupling features of QT-brain nodes are important indicators. The driver effects from the ß-band significantly increased in patients with SAHS. CONCLUSIONS: Respiratory events may be the main reason for the CNS-ANS interaction changes in SAHS. These findings help explain the physiological regulation process of SAHS and provide valuable information for analysis of the development of SAHS-related cardiovascular and chronic diseases.