Sortases are cysteine transpeptidase enzymes that decorate the Gram-positive bacterial cell wall with various surface proteins and pili to facilitate the interactions with the host and environment for the colonization. While the sortases and sortase anchored proteins from Gram-positive pathogens have been the prime focus of the research in the past, sortases from many non-pathogenic bacteria, including Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) strains, have recently attracted attention for their potential applications in vaccine delivery and other clinical interventions.

Weeds are the major concern in crop production, thus affecting the world economy and food security. Developing glyphosate-resistant (GR) transgenic crops has revolutionized weed management practices and significantly benefited crop production. However, the major concern is that glyphosate accumulates in the plant tissues and affects physiological functions, crop yield, and quality. Cytotoxic effects of glyphosate and their complications have been reported. Hence, removing glyphosate residues is desirable.

The position of the nucleus within a cell is highly dynamic and changes frequently in response to internal and external stimuli. Proper nuclear positioning within a cell determines cell behaviour and fate and is regulated by the cytoskeleton which serves as a track along which this organelle moves.

Agarwal S, Kaur S et al. suggested a therapeutic approach against COVID-19. They described that an elevated inflammation, thrombosis and apoptotic tissue damage in the lungs causes hypoxemia leading to a decreased oxygen pressure saturation (SpO2) in circulation of SARS CoV-2 infected animals. Alpha-ketoglutarate (αKG) supplementation rescues the inflamed lungs to restore normal SpO2 by increasing PHD2-mediated inhibition of Akt phosphorylation (pAkt), without affecting anti-viral response of T cells and IgG.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ctm2.1041

Exosomes are a class of extracellular vesicles that play a role in intercellular signaling under diverse contexts. Here we describe a protocol that has been optimized for the isolation and characterization of exosomes from a Drosophila melanogaster cell line using size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The specific focus of this protocol was to examine the starvation-induced exosome-loading of a protein.

https://star-protocols.cell.com/

Biofortification of food crops has been utilized as a cost-effective and feasible strategy to increase the nutritional value of food and improve the health of populations that have limited access to diverse diets and other micronutrient interventions. Wheat is one of the most widely grown staple crop in which conventional breeding approaches have been utilized for improvement in the content of iron, zinc, provitamin A, beta-carotene and anthocyanin content.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) belong to the class of small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Approximately 50% of miRNA loci in Drosophila melanogaster reside in close proximity in the genome to form clusters that are transcribed together. Since, these clusters are transcribed as a single primary transcript, fine-tuning of the downstream effector pathways is achieved by post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms that determine the processing efficiency.

Stromal Interaction Molecule1 (STIM1) is an endoplasmic reticulum calcium (Ca2+) sensor. Several disease states and enhanced biological phenomena are associated with increased STIM1 levels and activity. However, molecular mechanisms driving STIM1 expression remain largely unappreciated. Here using melanocytes as a model system, we demonstrate that Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) is a critical regulator of STIM1 expression and thereby activity.

Xylan O-acetylation is critical for stable interaction with cellulose and other polymers in the cell wall. Its alteration improves cellulose as well as xylan digestibility. Xylan acetyl pool is regulated by Golgi and membrane localized esterase but they are not well characterized in plants. In this study, we have identified and characterized first plasma membrane localized xylan acetyl esterase and showed that its overexpression improves digestibility of polysaccharide.