Relationship between Serum Antioxidative Vitamin Concentrations and Type 2 Diabetes in Japanese Subjects

Shared metabolic and neuroimmune mechanisms underlying Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Major Depressive Disorder

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic metabolic disease with symptoms that go beyond the domain of glucose metabolism. In fact, research has shown that T2DM is accompanied by neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. Interestingly, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), a mood disorder characterized mainly by depressed mood and anhedonia is a key feature of T2DM. A body of evidence demonstrates that there are many shared neuroimmune mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of T2DM and MDD. Therefore, here we review the state-of-art regarding the underlying factors common to both T2DM and MDD. Furthermore, we briefly discuss how depressive symptoms in diabetic patients could be tackled by using novel therapeutic approaches uncovered by these shared mechanisms. Understanding the comorbidity of depression in diabetic patients is essential to fully address T2DM pathophysiology and treatment.

CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene Editing Revolutionizes the Improvement of Horticulture Food Crops

Horticultural food crops are important sources of nutrients for humans. With the increase of the global population, enhanced horticulture food crop production has become a new challenge, and enriching their nutritional content has also been required. Gene editing systems, such as zinc finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases, and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated 9 (Cas9), have accelerated crop improvement through the modification of targeted genomes precisely. Here, we review the development of various gene editors and compare their advantages and shortcomings, especially the newly emerging CRISPR/Cas systems, such as base editing and prime editing. We also summarize their practical applications in crop trait improvement, including yield, nutritional quality, and other consumer traits.

DNA methylation: from model plants to vegetable crops

As a subgroup of horticultural crops, vegetable food is a kind of indispensable energy source for human beings, providing necessary nutritional components including vitamins, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, and active substances such as carotenoids and flavonoids. The developmental process of vegetable crops is not only regulated by environmental stimulations, but also manipulated by both genetic and epigenetic modifications. Epigenetic modifications are composed by several regulatory mechanisms, including DNA methylation, histone modification, chromatin remodeling, and non-coding RNAs. Among these modifications, DNA methylation functions in multiple biological pathways ranging from fundamental development to environmental stimulations by mediating transcriptomic alterations, resulting in the activation or silencing of target genes. In recent years, intensive studies have revealed that DNA methylation is essential to fruit development and ripening, indicating that the epigenome of fruit crops could be dynamically modified according to the specific requirements in the commercial production. Firstly, this review will present the mechanisms of DNA methylation, and update the understanding on active DNA demethylation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Secondly, this review will summarize the recent progress on the function of DNA methylation in regulating fruit ripening. Moreover, the possible functions of DNA methylation on controlling the expansion of edible organs, senescence of leafy vegetables, and anthocyanin pigmentation in several important vegetable crops will be discussed. Finally, this review will highlight the intractable issues that need to be resolved in the application of epigenome in vegetable crops, and provide perspectives for the potential challenges in the further studies.