Potential role of insulin on the pathogenesis of depression

The regulation of insulin on depression and depression‐like behaviour has been widely reported. Insulin and activation of its receptor can promote learning and memory, affect the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis (HPA) balance, regulate the secretion of neurotrophic factors and neurotransmitters, interact with gastrointestinal microbiome, exert neuroprotective effects and have an impact on depression. However, the role of insulin on depression remains largely unclear. Therefore, in this review, we summarized the potential role of insulin on depression. It may provide new insight for clarifying role of insulin on the pathogenesis of depression.     

基于无人机低空遥感的荒漠植被覆盖度与归一化植被指数验证及其对水热梯度的响应

为了验证在荒漠地区MODIS-NDVI产品的精度以及为在气候变化背景下荒漠草地的科学管理提供依据,本文利用无人机低空遥感研究了干旱荒漠地区植被覆盖度(FVC)和归一化植被指数(NDVI)对水、热梯度的响应规律。在内蒙古阿拉善荒漠地区的100个样点采用GreenSeeker手持光谱仪获得NDVI值(NDVI_R),通过MODIS-NDVI数据产品提取每个样点的NDVI(NDVI_M),借助NDVI_R验证NDVI_M的精确度;通过无人机遥感手段获得每个采样点的FVC(FVC_U),利用像元二分模型反演每个样点的FVC(FVC_M),借助FVC_U验证FVC_M的精确度;并结合气象数据探讨基于无人机低空遥感的荒漠地区FVC和NDVI对水热梯度的响应。结果表明: MODIS-NDVI数据产品能够反映阿拉善地区的NDVI,精确度为84.2%,但比真实值高15.7%;FVC_M能够反映阿拉善地区的FVC状况,精确度为83.1%,但比真实值低14.8%;不同采集方式获得的NDVI受气象因子的影响程度不同,NDVI不仅受气温和降雨的影响,也受地温、蒸发量以及两者相互作用的影响,由于受大气影响程度不同, NDVI_M受地温、蒸发量、降水量的影响比NDVI_R大,NDVI_R受气温的影响比NDVI_M大。在阿拉善地区研究FVC随水热梯度的变化不仅要考虑降水量和气温,还应考虑蒸发量、地温以及气象因子之间相互作用的影响,其中,气温与降雨、蒸发量与地温以及气温与蒸发量之间相互作用对FVC_U的影响较大。     

Integrated Microarray to Identify the Hub miRNAs and Constructed miRNA–mRNA Network in Neuroblastoma Via Bioinformatics Analysis

Neurochemical Research - Neuroblastomas (NB) are childhood malignant tumors originating in the sympathetic nervous system. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an essential regulatory role in tumorigenesis and...     

Application of plant metabarcoding to identify diverse honeybee pollen forage along an urban–agricultural gradient

Understanding animal foraging ecology requires large sample sizes spanning broad environmental and temporal gradients. For pollinators, this has been hampered by the laborious nature of morphologically identifying pollen. Identifying pollen from urban environments is particularly difficult due to the presence of diverse ornamental species associated with consumer horticulture. Metagenetic pollen analysis represents a potential solution to this issue. Building upon prior laboratory and bioinformatic methods, we applied quantitative multilocus metabarcoding to characterize the foraging ecology of honeybee colonies situated in urban, suburban, mixed suburban–agricultural and rural agricultural sites in central Ohio, USA. In cross‐validating a subset of our metabarcoding results using microscopic palynology, we find strong concordance between the molecular and microscopic methods. Our results suggest that forage from the agricultural site exhibited decreased taxonomic diversity and temporal turnover relative to the urban and suburban sites, though the generalization of this observation will require replication across additional sites and cities. Our work demonstrates the power of honeybees as environmental samplers of floral community composition at large spatial scales, aiding in the distinction of taxa characteristically associated with urban or agricultural land use from those distributed ubiquitously across the sampled landscapes. Observed patterns of high forage diversity and compositional turnover in our more urban sites are likely reflective of the fine‐grain heterogeneity and high beta diversity of urban floral landscapes at the scale of honeybee foraging. This provides guidance for future studies investigating how relationships between urbanization and measures of pollinator health are mediated by variation in floral resource dynamics across landscapes.     

Autophagy in plants: Physiological roles and post‐translational regulation

In eukaryotes, autophagy helps maintain cellular homeostasis by degrading and recycling cytoplasmic materials via a tightly regulated pathway.Over the past few decades, significant progress has been made towards understanding the physiological functions and molecular regulation of autophagy in plant cells. Increasing evidence indicates that autophagy is essential for plant responses to several developmental and environmental cues, functioning in diverse processes such as senescence, male fertility, root meristem maintenance, responses to nutrient starvation,and biotic and abiotic stress. Recent studies have demonstrated that, similar to nonplant systems,the modulation of core proteins in the plant autophagy machinery by posttranslational modifications such as phosphorylation, ubiquitination,lipidation, S-sulfhydration, S-nitrosylation, and acetylation is widely involved in the initiation and progression of autophagy. Here, we provide an overview of the physiological roles and posttranslational regulation of autophagy in plants.