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Individuals competing in varsity intercollegiate sport are tasked with managing the dual roles of athletes and students. The purpose of current study was to simultaneously explore student-athletes’ perceived satisfaction of autonomy, competence and relatedness in sport and academics. A mixed-methods, person-oriented design was utilized. Quantitative data was collected with a sample of N = 238 student-athletes from various varsity intercollegiate sports. For sport, four clusters were revealed: ‘Low Need Satisfaction,’ ‘Moderately Low Need Satisfaction,’ ‘Moderate Relatedness,’ and ‘High Need Satisfaction.’ For academics, four clusters were revealed: ‘Low Need Satisfaction,’ ‘Moderate Relatedness,’ ‘Moderate Autonomy and Competence,’ and ‘High Need Satisfaction.’ Reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of n = 12 student-athletes representing all clusters revealed four themes: (a) global factors sensitized student-athletes to the experience of basic psychological needs, (b) contextual factors determined fluctuations in student-athletes’ need fulfillment, (c) student-athletes perceived interaction effects in the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs within the same domain, and (d) student-athletes’ sport participation had a cross-contextual influence on their need fulfillment in academics. Findings provide an understanding of student-athletes’ perceived basic psychological needs across the achievement domains of academics and sport.

WOS: 000458101700001 PubMed ID: 30730291 Comparative analyses of neuronal phenotypes in closely related species can shed light on neuronal changes occurring during evolution. The study of post-mortem brains of nonhuman primates (NHPs) has been limited and often does not recapitulate important species-specific developmental hallmarks. We utilize induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology to investigate the development of cortical pyramidal neurons following migration and maturation of cells grafted in the developing mouse cortex. Our results show differential migration patterns in human neural progenitor cells compared to those of chimpanzees and bonobos both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting heterochronic changes in human neurons. The strategy proposed here lays the groundwork for further comparative analyses between humans and NHPs and opens new avenues for understanding the differences in the neural underpinnings of cognition and neurological disease susceptibility between species. National Institutes of Health; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine; National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression; Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; Salk Cancer Center [NCI P30 CA014195] National Institutes of Health Research Project Grant Maria C Marchetto Alysson R Muotri Krishnan Padmanabhan Fred H Gage; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Research Grant Alysson R Muotri; National Institutes of Health Pathway to independence award Krishnan Padmanabhan; National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Young Investigator award Krishnan Padmanabhan; Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Research Project Grant Fred H Gage Salk Cancer Center NCI P30 CA014195 Fred H Gage; The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved. Williams syndrome is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by an uncommon hypersociability and a mosaic of retained and compromised linguistic and cognitive abilities. Nearly all clinically diagnosed individuals with Williams syndrome lack precisely the same set of genes, with breakpoints in chromosome band 7q11.23 (refs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). The contribution of specific genes to the neuroanatomical and functional alterations, leading to behavioural pathologies in humans, remains largely unexplored. Here we investigate neural progenitor cells and cortical neurons derived from Williams syndrome and typically developing induced pluripotent stem cells. Neural progenitor cells in Williams syndrome have an increased doubling time and apoptosis compared with typically developing neural progenitor cells. Using an individual with atypical Williams syndrome, we narrowed this cellular phenotype to a single gene candidate, frizzled 9 (FZD9). At the neuronal stage, layer V/VI cortical neurons derived from Williams syndrome were characterized by longer total dendrites, increased numbers of spines and synapses, aberrant calcium oscillation and altered network connectivity. Morphometric alterations observed in neurons from Williams syndrome were validated after Golgi staining of post-mortem layer V/VI cortical neurons. This model of human induced pluripotent stem cells fills the current knowledge gap in the cellular biology of Williams syndrome and could lead to further insights into the molecular mechanism underlying the disorder and the human social brain.

As a first step toward elucidating the in vivo function of plant bZIP proteins and their related G-box cis elements, we have introduced a dominant negative inhibitor of G-box-dependent transcriptional activation into tobacco plants by transforming them with a truncated EmBP-1 gene (δEmBP) containing the DNA binding and dimerization domains under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter. Five independent lines of transgenic plants expressing δEmBP were identified, as demonstrated by immunodetection of the transgenic protein in leaf extracts, and the ability of the protein to bind a target G-box DNA sequence. The transgenic plants exhibited an abnormal phenotype characterized by interveinal chlorosis, growth inhibition and weakening of stems and petioles, the severity of which positively correlated with δEmBP expression and G-box DNA binding capability. Furthermore, development of chlorosis and growth inhibition was dependent on growth irradiance. Low light promoted the development of interveinal chlorosis and growth inhibition in the transgenic plants, whereas high light conditions led to near-complete amelioration of the abnormal phenotype. Transgenic plants under both light regimes showed signs of impaired stem and petiole function which was not observed in wild-type tobacco. RbcS gene expression was not significantly altered by δEmBP expression, suggesting that down-regulation of this gene was not responsible for the altered phenotype. The results suggest that G-box elements specific for the EmBP-1 class of bZIP proteins have an important developmental function in vegetative plant tissues, and that the trans-dominant negative mutant approach is a useful tool for continued in vivo functional analysis of bZIP transcription factors and their corresponding cis elements in plants.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses epitope tagging for the detection of fusion protein expression in transgenic plants. The chapter describes the development of the c-myc epitope tag system for the detection of transprotein expression in transgenic tobacco plants. An expression vector for plant c-myc epitope tagging was constructed and introduced into tobacco plants via Agrobacterium -mediated transformation. The results show that c-myc epitope tagged trans-protein can be detected in extracts from as little as 5 mg of leaf tissue. The Mycl-9El0 monoclonal antibody shows no cross-reactivity to endogenous tobacco or Arabidopsis thaliana proteins. In addition, the antibody can be used to localize expression in various tissues using the tissue print method. The ability of the Mycl-9E10 antibody to detect the 10-amino acid c-myc epitope on Westerns blots and tissue prints and the absence of antibody cross reactivity to endogenous tobacco and Arabidopsis proteins make this epitope–antibody pair an excellent choice as a general marker for protein expression in transgenic plants.

Enzymes catalyzing the first and last steps in cocoa butter biosynthesis were studied in microsomal preparations from developing cocoa seeds. Both the acyl-CoA:sn-glycerol-3-phosphate 0-acyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.15) and the acyl-CoA:1,2-diacylglycerol 0-acyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.20) showed broad specificity for three fatty acid donors (palmitoyl-CoA, stearoyl-CoA and oleoyl-CoA), but the relative amounts of incorporation of these fatty acids into lysophosphatidic acid and triacylglycerol were influenced by temperature of incubation. The selectivities of the two acyltransferases for saturated vs unsaturated acyl-CoA’s also were investigated over a range of temperatures. The data indicate that, in general, the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids incorporated into glycerol esters increases with increasing temperature of incubation, consistent with the hypothesis that temperature effects on these enzymes contribute to the phenomenon of “soft” cocoa butter, i.e., that cocoa butter obtained from seeds grown in cooler climates has a lower melting point than that prepared from seeds grown in warmer climates.

Summary The availability of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) offers the opportunity to generate lineage-specific cells to investigate mechanisms of human diseases specific to brain regions. Here, we report a differentiation paradigm for hPSCs that enriches for hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) granule neurons. This differentiation paradigm recapitulates the expression patterns of key developmental genes during hippocampal neurogenesis, exhibits characteristics of neuronal network maturation, and produces PROX1+ neurons that functionally integrate into the DG. Because hippocampal neurogenesis has been implicated in schizophrenia (SCZD), we applied our protocol to SCZD patient-derived human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). We found deficits in the generation of DG granule neurons from SCZD hiPSC-derived hippocampal NPCs with lowered levels of NEUROD1, PROX1, and TBR1, reduced neuronal activity, and reduced levels of spontaneous neurotransmitter release. Our approach offers important insights into the neurodevelopmental aspects of SCZD and may be a promising tool for drug screening and personalized medicine., Highlights • Hippocampal neurogenesis is modeled using human pluripotent stem cells • Differentiated DG neurons are detected using lentiviral PROX1-GFP reporter construct • Differentiated granule neurons functionally integrate into the dentate gyrus in vivo • SCZD hiPSC-derived hippocampal NPCs present deficits in hippocampal neurogenesis, Gage and colleagues report a differentiation paradigm for human stem cells (ESCs and IPSCs) to generate hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) granule neurons. This paradigm recapitulates characteristic gene expressions and produces functional neurons that integrate into the DG. Differentiation of schizophrenia patient-derived IPSCs revealed deficits in hippocampal neurogenesis from the NPC population and produced DG granule neurons with reduced spontaneous transmitter release.

Triacylglycerols make up about 96% of mature cocoa (Theobroma cacao) seed lipid, more than half the seed dry weight, and thus are the major storage products of the seed. These storage products are a mixture of glycerol esters of oleic, palmitic, stearic, and much smaller amounts of linoleic acid. The collection of esters is called cocoa butter, a solid fat, and, at more than $4 a pound, is the most expensive edible fat in the world. Annual world production of cocoa butter is more than 2 billion pounds.