Catecholaminergic neurons control diverse cognitive, motor, and endocrine functions and are associated with multiple psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. We present global gene-expression profiles that define the four major classes of dopaminergic (DA) and noradrenergic neurons in the brain. Hypothalamic DA neurons and noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus display distinct group-...

Current strategies used to quantitatively describe the biological diversity of lipids by mass spectrometry are often limited in assessing the exact structural variability of individual molecular species in detail. A major challenge is represented by the extensive isobaric overlap present among lipids, hampering their accurate identification. This is especially true for cardiolipins, a mitochond...

New technologies that avoid the need for either gene amplification (e.g. microarrays) or nucleic acid extraction (e.g. in situ PCR) have recently been implemented in microbial ecology. Together with new approaches for culturing microorganisms and an increased understanding of the biases of molecular methods, these techniques form the most exciting advances in this field during the past year.

Coffee offers one of the most widely drunk beverages in the world, and is a very important source of foreign currency income for many countries. Coffea canephora Pierre presents a great genetic variability, with one of the widest natural geographical distribution within the subgenus. Newly developed single nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers are effective in genetic diversity detection. The o...

Morphological and molecular diversity of the monocercomonadid genera Monocercomonas, Hexamastix and Honigbergiella gen. nov 1 Morphological and molecular diversity of the monocercomonadid genera Monocercomonas, Hexamastix and Honigbergiella gen. nov. ABSTRACT Family Monocercomonadidae (Parabasala, Trichomonadida) is characterized by the absence of a costa and in most species also of an undulati...

Introduction Voltage-gated Ca2+ channels have been extensively characterized in terms of their pharmacological, electrophysiological, biochemical, and molecular biological properties. Calcium channels are multisubunit complexes composed of an ion-conducting subunit, a ,, and smaller accessory subunits. Molecular cloning studies have concentrated on the a , subunit because it appears to determin...

In this study we have examined for molecular heterogeneity of cell-matrix adhesions and the involvement of actomyosin contractility in the selective recruitment of different plaque proteins. For this purpose, we have developed a novel microscopic approach for molecular morphometry, based on automatic identification of matrix adhesions, followed by quantitative immunofluorescence and morphometri...

A growing body of molecular research is discovering a high diversity of pezizalean ectomycorrhiza (EcM), yet most remain unidentified at the genus or species level. This study describes EcM-forming taxa within the Pezizales. EcM-forming Pezizales were revealed by morphotyping and sequencing of EcM root tips from forests in Estonia and Denmark. The taxa on EcM root tips were identified using phy...

To obtain blood meals, haematophagous animals are armed with potent pharmacological molecules to overcome several of their hosts' response systems. Among them, a large number of exogenous anticoagulants which target the haemostatic system have been identified and characterised. Studies on these anticoagulants have expanded our knowledge on the blood coagulation system, and provided a valuable s...

GABAergic synapses exhibit a high degree of subcellular and molecular specialization, which contrasts with their apparent simplicity in ultrastructural appearance. Indeed, when observed in the electron microscope, GABAergic synapses fit in the symmetric, or Gray's type II category, being characterized by a relatively simple postsynaptic specialization. The inhibitory postsynaptic density cannot...