Cross-generational impact of a male murine pheromone 2-sec-butyl-4,5-dihydrothiazole in female mice

The current understanding of the activity of mammalian pheromones is that endocrine and behavioural effects are limited to the exposed individuals. Here, we demonstrate that the nasal exposure of female mice to a male murine pheromone stimulates expansion of mammary glands, leading to prolonged nursing of pups. Subsequent behavioural testing of the pups from pheromone-exposed dams exhibited enhanced learning. Sialic acid components in the milk are known to be involved in brain development. We hypothesized that the offspring might have received more of this key nutrient that promotes brain development. The mRNA for polysialyltransferase, which produces polysialylated neural cell adhesion molecules related to brain development, was increased in the brain of offspring of pheromone-exposed dams at post-natal day 10, while it was not different at embryonic stages, indicating possible differential brain development during early post-natal life.     

Cell multiplication: Web alert

The search for the Websites described below was performed during October 1999.     

Determining the sex of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba using carapace measurements

A discriminant function using simple carapace measurements corretly determined the sex of 87% of male and 89% of female Antarctic krill Euphausia superba. This facilitated the use of sex-specific regression models which increased the accuracy of total length estimates. Received: 5 May 1997 / Accepted: 30 August 1997     

Adhesion-mediated mechanosignaling forces mitohormesis

1. Download : Download high-res image (149KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

     

Synthesis and characterization of electronically varied XCX palladacycles with functional arene groups

X-ray crystallographic studies show that varying the nature of the S-aryl ligands in SCS-Pd(II) pincer complexes and the electronic nature of the aryl substituent para to the Pd(II) group in PCP-Pd(II) pincer complexes do not lead to structural changes in these palladacycles that can be correlated with the changing nature of the ligands. While the original C2 symmetry for the S-aryl groups in SCS-Pd(II) pincer complexes seen in the case of the 2,5-bis(thiophenylmethyl)phenylpalladium chloride pincer complex is also seen in other SCS-Pd(II) pincer complexes, the relative stereochemistry of the S-aryl rings is not consistently maintained in 2,5-bis((4-dimethylaminothiophenyl)methyl)-phenylpalladium chloride.     

Optimization of luciferase activity in a tomato transient assay system

The gene encoding firefly luciferase is a commonly used reporter for transient expression assays in plants. We have found that the concentration of buffers normally used in luciferase assays is too low to adequately buffer acidic plant organs. This results in low apparent luciferase activity as well as high variability among replicates. In a transient assay system based on particle bombardment of ripe tomato fruit, luciferase activity driven by the 35S promoter of cauliflower mosaic virus was increased as much as 130 fold by increasing the concentration of the buffer from 50 mM to 300 mM. Using 300 mM buffer, expression levels of luciferase driven by three different plant promoters were found to reflect expression patterns in intact plants.     

The evolving role of preprints in the dissemination of COVID-19 research and their impact on the science communication landscape

The world continues to face a life-threatening viral pandemic. The virus underlying the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused over 98 million confirmed cases and 2.2 million deaths since January 2020. Although the most recent respiratory viral pandemic swept the globe only a decade ago, the way science operates and responds to current events has experienced a cultural shift in the interim. The scientific community has responded rapidly to the COVID-19 pandemic, releasing over 125,000 COVID-19–related scientific articles within 10 months of the first confirmed case, of which more than 30,000 were hosted by preprint servers. We focused our analysis on bioRxiv and medRxiv, 2 growing preprint servers for biomedical research, investigating the attributes of COVID-19 preprints, their access and usage rates, as well as characteristics of their propagation on online platforms. Our data provide evidence for increased scientific and public engagement with preprints related to COVID-19 (COVID-19 preprints are accessed more, cited more, and shared more on various online platforms than non-COVID-19 preprints), as well as changes in the use of preprints by journalists and policymakers. We also find evidence for changes in preprinting and publishing behaviour: COVID-19 preprints are shorter and reviewed faster. Our results highlight the unprecedented role of preprints and preprint servers in the dissemination of COVID-19 science and the impact of the pandemic on the scientific communication landscape.

An analysis of bioRxiv and medRxiv during the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals that the pandemic has resulted in a cultural shift in the use of preprints for disseminating pandemic-related science.