The activity of Drosophila cytosolic malate dehydrogenase (MDH; EC 1.1.1.40), a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of lipids, was found to be regulated by both the sesquiterpenoid juvenile hormone (JH), and the steroid hormone ecdysone. The responsiveness of MDH to JH largely depended on the developmental stage or endogenous titre of ecdysone. During the early through middle period of the last larv...

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) elicits a unique taste in humans called umami. Recent molecular studies suggest that glutamate receptors similar to those in brain are present in taste cells, but their precise role in taste transduction remains to be elucidated. We used giga-seal whole cell recording to examine the effects of MSG and glutamate receptor agonists on membrane properties of taste cells f...

Recent findings have shown that dendritically released dopamine (DA) plays an important modulatory role in the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr). It is therefore possible that the loss of DA observed in Parkinson's disease (PD) could hold important consequences for nigral function. Previously, we have shown that activation of presynaptically localized group II metabotropic glutamate recept...

Group III metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are selectively activated by L-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyrate (L-AP4), which produces depression of synaptic transmission. The relative contribution of different group III mGluRs to the effects of L-AP4 remains to be clarified. Here, we assessed the distribution of mGluR4 in the rat and mouse brain using affinity-purified antibodies raised agains...

The GABAergic projection neurons of the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) exert an important influence on the initiation and control of movement. The SNr is a primary output nucleus of the basal ganglia (BG) and is controlled by excitatory inputs from the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and inhibitory inputs from the striatum and globus pallidus. Changes in the output of the SNr are believed to ...

The present study aimed to identify biomarkers for peroxidasin (Pxdn) mutation-induced eye disorders and study the underlying mechanisms involved in this process. The microarray dataset GSE49704 was used, which encompasses 4 mouse samples from embryos with Pxdn mutation and 4 samples from normal tissues. After data preprocessing, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between Pxdn mutation a...