Author: Nati Infante

Environmental Research: Available online 14 May 2022, 113433 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.113433 Abstract The extent of the widespread, planetary contamination by plastic waste is difficult to fully capture. Nanoplastics (NPs) are currently in the center of research concerning plastic litter, both for the analytical challenges they pose and for their potential to provoke hazardous effects in organisms. However, there are still many unanswered questions in this multidisciplinary field, with a crucial missing piece being the quantification of NPs in fish tissues after in vivo exposures. Another relevant question that is still greatly unexplored is how a chronic exposure to NPs will affect fish health. This study aims to provide answers to both of these relevant knowled...

Un estudi liderat per la UAB i la Universitat de Kent mostra com l'estructura tridimensional del genoma de les cèl·lules germinals masculines està implicada en l'evolució dels genomes de les espècies. Publicat a Nature Communications i realitzat en espècies de rosegadors, mostra que els esdeveniments cromosòmics que ocorren durant la formació d'òvuls i espermatozoides tenen un impacte diferent en l'evolució del genoma i obre noves vies de recerca sobre l'origen genètic de l'estructura del genoma en tots els organismes. Tradicionalment, l'estudi de genomes de diferents espècies de mamífers ha mostrat que, tot i que totes les espècies tenen un catàleg molt similar de gens, aquests poden estar ordenats de manera diferent per a cada espècie, i poden activar-se i desactivar-se de divers

Ruiz-Herrera, A., Waters, P.D. Fragile, unfaithful and persistent Ys—on how meiosis can shape sex chromosome evolution. Heredity (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-022-00532-2 Abstract Sex-linked inheritance is a stark exception to Mendel’s Laws of Heredity. Here we discuss how the evolution of heteromorphic sex chromosomes (mainly the Y) has been shaped by the intricacies of the meiotic programme. We propose that persistence of Y chromosomes in distantly related mammalian phylogroups can be explained in the context of pseudoautosomal region (PAR) size, meiotic pairing strategies, and the presence of Y-borne executioner genes that regulate meiotic sex chromosome inactivation. We hypothesise that variation in PAR size can be an important driver for the evolution of recombi

Available online 4 April 2022, 101902 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2022.101902 Abstract Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, as well as the accumulation of intra-neuronal proteinaceous inclusions known as Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites. The major protein component of Lewy inclusions is the intrinsically disordered protein α-Synuclein (α-Syn), which can adopt diverse amyloid structures. Different conformational strains of α-Syn have been proposed to be related to the onset of distinct synucleinopathies; however, how specific amyloid fibrils cause distinctive pathological traits is not clear. Here, we generated three different α-Syn amyloid conformations at differe

Biofabrication, Volume 14, Number 2 https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1758-5090 Abstract One of the most promising approaches in the drug delivery field is the use of naturally occurring self-assembling protein nanoparticles, such as virus-like particles, bacterial microcompartments or vault ribonucleoprotein particles as drug delivery systems (DDSs). Among them, eukaryotic vaults show a promising future due to their structural features, in vitro stability and non-immunogenicity. Recombinant vaults are routinely produced in insect cells and purified through several ultracentrifugations, both tedious and time-consuming processes. As an alternative, this work proposes a new approach and protocols for the production of recombinant vaults in human cells by transient gene...

Marcel Albacar,Diego Velázquez,Antonio Casamayor,Joaquín Ariño https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.14330 Abstract Overexpression of Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein phosphatase Ppz1 strongly impairs cell growth. Ppz1 is negatively regulated by its subunit Hal3, and Hal3 overexpression fully counteracts the toxic effects derived from high levels of the phosphatase. We show that Ppz1 localizes at the plasma membrane, and that co-expression of Hal3 recruits Ppz1 to internal membranes (mostly vacuolar). This effect is not observed in a catalytically impaired mutant of Ppz1. Disruption of intracellular trafficking by deletion of the ESCRT-0 component VPS27 abolishes both Hal3-mediated relocalization of Ppz1 and normalization of cell growth, without affecting Ppz1