E-Mail
IMAGE: A. The regulation of SLAC1 control of stomatal aperture; B. The cryo-EM structure of plant SLAC1; C. The electrophysiological characterization of key phosphorylation residues in SLAC1. view more
Credit: IGDB
Stomata, formed by a pair of kidney-shaped guard cells, are tiny pores in leaves. They act like mouths that plants use to eat and breathe. When they open, carbon dioxide (CO
2) enters the plant for photosynthesis and oxygen (O
2) is released into the atmosphere. At the same time as gases pass in and out, a great deal of water also evaporates through the same pores by way of transpiration.
The development of livestock husbandry has led to the discharge of a huge amount of arsenic (As) and copper (Cu) ions together with swine urine into water bodies and soil.
Credit: Wanli Liu
A vital intermediate in normal cell metabolism is also, in the right context, a trigger for cell death, according to a new study from Wanli Liu and Yonghui Zhang of Tsinghua University, and Yong Zhang of Peking University in Beijing, publishing 26th April 2021 in the open access journal PLOS biology. The discovery may contribute to a better understanding of the damage caused by stroke, and may offer a new drug target to reduce that damage.
Farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) is an intermediate in the mevalonate pathway, a series of biochemical reactions in every cell that contributes to protein synthesis, energy production, and construction of cell membranes. During a search for regulators of immune cell function, the authors unexpectedly discovered that FPP, when present at high concentrations outside of cells, caused rapid and extensive death of cells. FPP carries both a highly charged phosphate head and a long hydrophobic hydrocarbon tail, and by altering each in turn
Credit: IGDB
A mechanistic understanding of brain development requires a systematic survey of neural progenitor cell types, their lineage specification and maturation of postmitotic neurons. Cumulative evidences based on single-cell transcriptomic analysis have revealed the heterogeneity of cortical neural progenitors, their temporal patterning and the developmental trajectories of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the developing neocortex. Nevertheless, the developmental hierarchy of the hypothalamus, which contains an astounding diversity of neurons that regulate endocrine, autonomic and behavioral functions, has not been well understood.
Recently, however, Prof. WU Qingfeng s group from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) conducted a study focusing on the origin of this neuronal diversity. For their work, they profiled the transcriptome of 43,261 hypothalamic neural cells to map the developmental landscape of the mou
Study Shows Abnormal Enhancement of a-Particle Clustering in Uranium Isotopes
Written by AZoMApr 19 2021
In nuclear physics research, the discovery of new isotopes with extreme proton/neutron numbers is always fascinating. The α-decay in the heavy nuclei region is one of the ubiquitous decay modes and has a crucial role in the search for new isotopes.
The illustration of the enhanced α-particle preformation in
214,
216U deduced by the strong proton-neutron interaction. Image Credit: Zhiyuan Zhang.
But even after nearly a century of analyzing α-decay, researchers are still unable to perfectly explain how the α-particle forms at the nucleus surface before it is emitted.