The serotonergic nervous system of prolecithophorans shows a closer similarity to fecampiids than to triclads (Platyhelminthes)

Prolecithophora is a poorly studied flatworm order belonging to the adiaphanidan clade, together with Tricladida and Fecampiida. The phylogenetic position of the three orders within this clade is not yet resolved. Additionally, no obvious synapomorphy other than an opaque epidermis could be found so far. In this study, the serotonergic nervous system of six different prolecithophoran species has been studied for the first time with a fluorescent immunocytochemical technique. We found that all six species show a similar pattern of the serotonergic nervous system. The typical prolecithophoran serotonergic nervous system consists of a cephalic ganglion in the anterior body part from which a pair of dorsal, ventral, and lateral longitudinal nerve cords originate. Furthermore, the three longitudinal nerve cords of one body side are connected to each other at the posterior body part by a conspicuous commissure. The ventral cords, which we consider the main cords, are most prominent and show double brain roots. A comparison of the nervous system within Adiaphanida shows clearly that prolecithophorans and fecampiids are much more similar in this regard than prolecithophorans and triclads.

Embracing Defects and Disorder in Magnetic Nanoparticles

Iron oxide nanoparticles have tremendous scientific and technological potential in a broad range of technologies, from energy applications to biomedicine. To improve their performance, single-crystalline and defect-free nanoparticles have thus far been aspired. However, in several recent studies, defect-rich nanoparticles outperform their defect-free counterparts in magnetic hyperthermia and magnetic particle imaging (MPI). Here, an overview on the state-of-the-art of design and characterization of defects and resulting spin disorder in magnetic nanoparticles is presented with a focus on iron oxide nanoparticles. The beneficial impact of defects and disorder on intracellular magnetic hyperthermia performance of magnetic nanoparticles for drug delivery and cancer therapy is emphasized. Defect-engineering in iron oxide nanoparticles emerges to become an alternative approach to tailor their magnetic properties for biomedicine, as it is already common practice in established systems such as semiconductors and emerging fields including perovskite solar cells. Finally, perspectives and thoughts are given on how to deliberately induce defects in iron oxide nanoparticles and their potential implications for magnetic tracers to monitor cell therapy and immunotherapy by MPI.

Range expansion, habitat use, and choosiness in a butterfly under climate change: Marginality and tolerance of oviposition site selection

Poleward range shifts under climate change involve the colonization of new sites and hence the foundation of new populations at the expanding edge. We studied oviposition site selection in a butterfly under range expansion (Lycaena dispar), a key process for the establishment of new populations. We described and compared the microhabitats used by the species for egg laying with those available across the study sites both in edge and in core populations. We carried out an ecological niche factor analysis (ENFA) to estimate (1) the variety of microhabitats used by the butterfly for egg laying (tolerance) and (2) the extent to which these selected microhabitats deviated from those available (marginality). Microhabitat availability was similar in edge and core populations. Ambient temperature recorded at the site level above the vegetation was on average lower at core populations. In contrast with what is often assumed, edge populations did not have narrower microhabitat use compared to core populations. Females in edge populations even showed a higher degree of generalism: They laid eggs under a wider range of microhabitats. We suggest that this pattern could be related to an overrepresentation of fast deciding personalities in edge populations. We also showed that the thermal time window for active female behavior was reduced in edge populations, which could significantly decrease the time budget for oviposition and decrease the threshold of acceptance during microhabitat selection for oviposition in recently established populations.

Developmental changes in neural letter-selectivity: A 1-year follow-up of beginning readers

The developmental course of neural tuning to visual letter strings is unclear. Here we tested 39 children longitudinally, at the beginning of grade 1 (6.45 ± 0.33 years old) and 1 year after, with fast periodic visual stimulation in electroencephalography to assess the evolution of selective neural responses to letter strings and their relationship with emerging reading abilities. At both grades, frequency-tagged letter strings were discriminated from pseudofont strings (i.e. letter-selectivity) over the left occipito-temporal cortex, with effects observed at the individual level in 62% of children. However, visual words were not discriminated from pseudowords (lexical access) at either grade. Following 1 year of schooling, letter-selective responses showed a specific increase in amplitude, a more complex pattern of harmonics, and were located more anteriorly over the left occipito-temporal cortex. Remarkably, at both grades, neural responses were highly significant at the individual level and correlated with individual reading scores. The amplitude increase in letter-selective responses between grades was not found for discrimination responses of familiar keyboard symbols from pseudosymbols, and was not related to a general increase in visual stimulation responses. These findings demonstrate a rapid onset of left hemispheric letter selectivity, with 1 year of reading instruction resulting in increased emerging reading abilities and a clear quantitative and qualitative evolution within left hemispheric neural circuits for reading.

The right hemispheric dominance for face perception in preschool children depends on the visual discrimination level

The developmental origin of human adults' right hemispheric dominance in response to face stimuli remains unclear, in particular because young infants' right hemispheric advantage in face-selective response is no longer present in preschool children, before written language acquisition. Here we used fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) with scalp electroencephalography (EEG) to test 52 preschool children (5.5 years old) at two different levels of face discrimination: discrimination of faces against objects, measuring face-selectivity, or discrimination between individual faces. While the contrast between faces and nonface objects elicits strictly bilateral occipital responses in children, strengthening previous observations, discrimination of individual faces in the same children reveals a strong right hemispheric lateralization over the occipitotemporal cortex. Picture-plane inversion of the face stimuli significantly decreases the individual discrimination response, although to a much smaller extent than in older children and adults tested with the same paradigm. However, there is only a nonsignificant trend for a decrease in right hemispheric lateralization with inversion. There is no relationship between the right hemispheric lateralization in individual face discrimination and preschool levels of readings abilities. The observed difference in the right hemispheric lateralization obtained in the same population of children with two different paradigms measuring neural responses to faces indicates that the level of visual discrimination is a key factor to consider when making inferences about the development of hemispheric lateralization of face perception in the human brain.

In search of definitions: Cancer-associated fibroblasts and their markers

The tumor microenvironment has been identified as one of the driving factors of tumor progression and invasion. Inside this microenvironment, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), a type of perpetually activated fibroblasts, have been implicated to have a strong tumor-modulating effect and play a key role in areas such as drug resistance. Identification of CAFs has typically been carried based on the expression of various "CAF markers", such as fibroblast activation protein alpha (FAP) and alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA), which separates them from the larger pool of fibroblasts present in the body. However, as outlined in this Review, the expression of various commonly used fibroblast markers is extremely heterogeneous and varies strongly between different CAF subpopulations. As such, novel selection methods based on cellular function, as well as further characterizing research, are vital for the standardization of CAF identification in order to improve the cross-applicability of different research studies in the field. The aim of this review is to give a thorough overview of the commonly used fibroblast markers in the field and their various strengths and, more importantly, their weaknesses, as well as to highlight potential future avenues for CAF identification and targeting.

Homologous tropomyosins from vertebrate and invertebrate: Recombinant calibrator proteins in functional biological assays for tropomyosin allergenicity assessment of novel animal foods

BACKGROUND

Novel foods may provide new protein sources for a growing world population but entail risks of unexpected food-allergic reactions. No guidance on allergenicity assessment of novel foods exists, while for genetically modified (GM) crops it includes comparison of sequence identity with known allergens, digestibility tests and IgE serum screening.

OBJECTIVE

As a proof of concept, to evaluate non-/allergenic tropomyosins (TMs) regarding their potential as new calibrator proteins in functional biological in vitro assays for the semi-quantitative allergy risk assessment of novel TM-containing animal foods with mealworm TM as an example.

METHODS

Purified TMs (shrimp, Penaeus monodon; chicken Gallus gallus; E coli overexpression) were compared by protein sequencing, circular dichroism analysis and in vitro digestion. IgE binding was quantified using shrimp-allergic patients' sera (ELISA). Biological activities were investigated (skin testing; titrated basophil activation tests, BAT), compared to titrated biological mediator release using humanized rat basophil leukaemia (RBL) cells.

RESULTS

Shrimp and chicken TMs showed high sequence homology, both alpha-helical structures and thermal stability. Shrimp TM was stable during in vitro gastric digestion, chicken TM degraded quickly. Both TMs bound specific IgE from shrimp-allergic patients (significantly higher for shrimp TM), whereas skin reactivity was mostly positive with only shrimp TM. BAT and RBL cell assays were positive with shrimp and chicken TM, although at up to 100- to 1000-times lower allergen concentrations for shrimp than chicken TM. In RBL cell assays using both TM as calibrators, an activation of effector cells by mealworm TM similar to that by shrimp TM confirmed the already reported high allergenic potency of mealworm TM as a novel protein source.

CONCLUSIONS & CLINICAL RELEVANCE

According to current GM crops' allergenicity assessment, non-allergenic chicken TM could falsely be considered an allergen on a weight-of-evidence approach. However, calibrating allergenic potency in functional BAT and RBL cell assays with clinically validated TMs allowed for semi-quantitative discrimination of novel food protein's allergenicity. With TM calibration as a proof of concept, similar systems of homologous protein might be developed to scale on an axis of allergenicity.

Precursors for Atmospheric Plasma-Enhanced Sintering: Low-Temperature Inkjet Printing of Conductive Copper

Bidentate diamine and amino-alcohol ligands have been used to form solid, water-soluble, and air-stable monomeric copper complexes of the type [Cu(NH2CH2CH(R)Y)2(NO3)2] (1, R=H, Y=NH2; 2, R=H, Y=OH; 3, R=Me, Y=OH). The complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Irrespective of their decomposition temperature, precursors 1-3 yield highly conductive copper features [1.5×10-6 Ω m (±5×10-7 Ω m)] upon atmospheric-pressure plasma-enhanced sintering.