This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"An international team of researchers is looking at ways to prevent cognitive impairment following the use of general anesthetics. Their work could lead to better outcomes for the over 312 million surgical patients who undergo anesthesia each year. General anesthetics are associated with the occurrence of postoperative delirium. This complication – often marked by inattention, memory disturbances and confusion – makes it hard for surgical patients to resume daily living activities, and has even been linked to an increased risk of death. The drug dexmedetomidine helps prevent postoperative delirium, but the biological basis for this protection isn’t clear. The researchers previously reported that a single exposure to the common anesthetic etomidate can trigger long-lasting changes to an inhibitory receptor in the brains of mice. Specifically, etomidate increased the number of α5 GABAA receptors expressed on the surface of neurons..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Diarrhea kills hundreds of thousands of children each year, making it one of the leading causes of childhood mortality. It’s also rampant in the livestock industry, where it causes huge losses. Diarrhea can be induced or facilitated by disruption of the gut microbiome at the colonic mucosal barrier. However, the contributions of abnormalities in barrier components called mucin O-glycans remain unclear. To learn more, researchers recently investigated the changes in microbiota- associated mucin O-glycans in a piglet post-weaning diarrhea model. Diarrhea (D) altered the structure of the colon mucus layer and changed the O-glycan profile. For example, it reduced the abundance of acidic O- glycans while increasing that of truncated O-glycans. Subsequent changes in the microbiota disrupted barrier function, which increased inflammation and ultimately impaired piglet growth..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Plants host a variety of soil microbes on their roots. This root microbiome can affect plants in different ways, including the production of hormones to spur plant growth. In turn, plants also alter the root microbiome, which has been shown to be affected by plant genotype. But it’s been unclear whether the root microbiome is influenced by plant epigenetic factors, which regulate the readouts of genetic information. In the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana, new DNA methylation, an important epigenetic mark, occurs through the RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway. So researchers decided to look for changes in the root microbiota among mutant Arabidopsis plants defective in the canonical RdDM pathway. In the dcl234 triple mutant, which has defects in three Dicer-like proteins that produce small RNAs, the team found an altered microbiome composition. Mutations in other examined parts of the RdDM pathway, however, did not result in changes to the microbiome..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders worldwide. IBS can have profound effects on quality of life, and treatment options are limited. While several studies have found associations between dietary habits and the gut microbiome in healthy individuals, studies in patients with IBS are limited. To better understand this relationship in IBS, researchers studied food diary data and sequenced gut microbiota in 149 individuals with IBS and 52 healthy controls. They found that individuals with IBS tended to show a higher intake of poorer quality food during main meals. Covariation between gut microbiota and diet corresponded with IBS symptom severity, exhaled gas, glycan metabolism, and meat/plant ratio, and IBS severity was associated with altered gut microbiota hydrogen production, with changes seen in enzymes involved in carbohydrate metabolism..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), inulin, and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) are well-known prebiotics with beneficial effects on the intestinal microbiota and host health. Combining dietary FOS and inulin with calcium phosphate stimulates commensal Lactobacillus and protects the host against pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae. However, the effects of combining dietary GOS with different calcium phosphate levels are unclear. To learn more, a recent study analyzed the microbiomes of rats fed diets with or without GOS or inulin plus a high or low level of calcium phosphate (Hca or Lca, respectively). After two weeks, the researchers performed rRNA gene sequencing and organic acid profiling on fecal samples. The Hca diets favored Firmicutes bacteria, while the Lca diets favored mucin-degrading Bacteroidetes and Verrucomicrobia bacteria. Regardless of the calcium phosphate level, GOS and inulin strongly stimulated Bifidobacterium abundance..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Nutrient-poor diets can increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and diets poor in fiber are widespread, especially in industrialized nations. However, whether fiber deficiency—which alters the gut microbiota—impairs cognition through the gut–brain axis remains unclear. To find out, researchers recently analyzed mice fed a fiber-deficient diet for 15 weeks. Compared to normal mice, the fiber-deficient mice exhibited cognitive impairment and were unable to complete typical activities like nest organization. In addition, the synapses in the brain area regulating cognitive function were damaged, and neuroinflammation occurred. Immune cells called microglia (indicated by Iba1) engulfed synapses (indicated by PSD-95) in the fiber-deficient mice. Furthermore, the fiber-deficient mice exhibited gut microbiota disruption that was associated with, and possibly responsible for, the cognitive deficits..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The composition of the gut microbiome is affected by diet as well as obesity, which can itself be diet-related, but the comparative influences of these factors are unclear. To explore the complex interactions among diet, obesity, and gut microbes, researchers examined female monkeys fed either a Western or Mediterranean diet. Metagenomic sequencing of fecal samples revealed that diet was the main contributor to gut bacterial diversity. Compared with the Western diet group, the Mediterranean diet group had greater overall diversity and different abundance of 54 bacterial species. Within each diet group, leaner and heavier monkeys also had subtly different microbiomes. Interestingly, the Western diet-fed group had more Prevotella copri and had high-P. copri and low-P. copri subgroups. High-P. copri monkeys had lower diversity than low-P. copri monkeys and different proportions of some microbes. Untargeted metabolomics of urine and plasma also suggested that the high-P..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"This is germ cell-expressed protein (GCE). Across the scientific literature, GCE is treated as equivalent to Methoprene tolerant protein (MET) as both are hormone receptors that prevent the premature development of the common fruit fly. But a new study indicates that subtle structural differences between GCE and MET contribute to functional distinctions that should make each protein a unique object of research. These differences lie along the long C-terminal fragments of the proteins, dubbed GCEC and METC. Structural characterization experiments suggest that GCEC is a long, asymmetrical, and coil-like intrinsically disordered protein. Compared with METC, GCEC is less compact, contains more molecular recognition elements, and is more susceptible to folding. That, according to NMR data, enables GCEC to interact with the nuclear receptor FTZ-F1. which can force GCEC to adopt a more fixed structure and different function than METC..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) mediate intercellular communication by carrying RNA, proteins, and lipids between cells. These cargo molecules mirror the physiological state of their donor cells, but they are selectively loaded into sEVs. sEVs can cross the blood-brain barrier, and their contents may be influenced by neurological disorders, making them potential biomarkers. Identifying cell-specific signatures could be an important first step in the biomarker discovery process. Recently researchers examined sEVs isolated from cultures of primary mouse cortical neurons and astrocytes. They identified distinct total RNA and miRNA profiles between the two cell types. While astrocytes had a greater number of detected miRNAs than neurons, neurons expressed more sEV-associated miRNAs than astrocytes. They also identified short miRNA sequence motifs that were differentially loaded to or excluded from sEVs..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"It might not be your first choice for a meal, but many mammals appear to find earth an appetizing addition to their diet Known as geophagy, scientists still aren’t sure what causes the surprisingly common urge to eat soil or clay To understand soil eating and its causes, researchers reviewed every documented case of soil eating in monkeys and apes They identified cases of soil eating in 136 species – over half of all monkeys and apes found around the globe – suggesting the behavior is more common than previously thought Evidence from the 287 articles reviewed also suggests that geophagy is a form of self-medication Geophagy may provide protection against disease-causing pathogens and supplement essential nutrients Although more research is needed, the work lays a foundation for future investigations into the causes and health impacts of geophagy The findings could also reveal new ways to promote the health of both wild and captive primate populations Pebsworth PA, et al..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Adherent-invasive E. coli, or AIEC, are bacteria that are abnormally abundant in the gut of individuals with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. To determine whether targeting AIEC could help relieve symptoms of Crohn’s disease, researchers recently explored the possibility of simply making these bacteria less sticky. The team applied a compound known as TAK-018 to gut samples gathered from patients. TAK-018 binds to the bacterial adhesin FimH, blocking bacteria clinging and interaction with cells along the intestinal wall. Tests revealed that TAK-018 not only prevented AIEC bacteria from adhering to intestinal tissue but also reduced inflammation, helping preserve the integrity of this important barrier. While more work is needed to understand how TAK-018 operates in the body, the drug is known to be safe and well-tolerated in patients and is currently undergoing phase II testing for the treatment of Crohn’s disease..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Glioblastoma is a devastatingly aggressive and prevalent primary brain tumor. Despite the discovery of many potential biomarkers and treatment targets, there has been little improvement in survival. One unexplored pathway in glioblastoma is chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), which has been implicated in a variety of human malignancies. A new paper examined CMA and its key component, lysosome-associated membrane protein type 2A (LAMP-2A), using clinical samples, in vitro experiments, and a mouse xenograft model. In clinical samples, glioblastoma showed elevated expression of LAMP-2A compared to peritumoral regions and low-grade glioma and an associated decrease in nuclear receptor co-repressor (N-CoR). Glioblastoma with high LAMP-2A expression also had inhibited unfolded protein response and apoptosis. In vitro, silencing LAMP-2A up-regulated N-CoR and activated the unfolded protein response pathway, which led to apoptosis..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The human intestinal microbiota plays a central role in regulating metabolism and immunity. Disturbances in homeostasis can lead to dysbiosis, which is associated with various diseases. A recent study aimed to discover novel small proteins under 100 amino acids (sProteins) contributing to the composition of the human intestinal microbiota. Using a proteogenomics approach, researchers identified novel sProteins in the gut microbiota, focusing on species belonging to the simplified human intestinal microbiota (SIHUMIx), a lower-complexity model system for the intestinal microbiome. This approach identified 31 novel sProteins, with 30 of those supported by metatranscriptomics and 25 validated by synthetic peptides. Six of these novel sProteins were only identified in the SIHUMIx community, indicating a potentially important role in the organization of microbial communities..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The physiological effects of melatonin are far reaching, from acting as an neuroprotective agent to regulating circadian rhythms and sleep cycles. An imbalance of this hormone has even been linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s. The precise molecular mechanism by which melatonin exerts these effects, however, remains a mystery. To shed light on this process, a team of researchers has developed a melatonin-like compound that is unable to penetrate the cell membrane and binds only to cell-surface receptors. Melatonin’s physiological effects on the brain are controlled by the lock-and-key-like properties of this hormone and its receptors. When melatonin binds to its corresponding receptor, a biochemical signal is sent into the cell. But recent data suggests that this interaction may also occur inside the cell, itself. Specifically, on mitochondria within brain cells..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The plant microbiome plays integral roles in plant growth and health, and the soil environment of the roots, known as the rhizosphere, can recruit beneficial microbes to suppress soil-borne pathogens. However, the processes that regulate microbiome assembly and function both below- and aboveground during pathogen invasion are unclear. To learn more, researchers recently compared the microbiomes of different parts of chili pepper plants with or without Fusarium wilt disease (FWD). Sequencing analysis revealed that FWD affected the root/stem microbiomes (particularly the upper stem microbiome) more than the fruit microbiome. FWD also affected fungal communities more strongly than bacterial communities and made the roots and stems more susceptible to colonization by pathogenic fungi..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Though tiny, microorganisms and their interactions play a big role in how ecosystems operate. But despite abundant data, these interactions remain largely a mystery. Now, a computational tool called EnDED could help scientists identify key associations, and, more importantly, eliminate false associations that could provoke misleading interpretations of data. EnDED, short for Environmentally Driven Edge Detection, predicts indirect edges, which are simply environmentally driven. For example, different kinds of microorganisms can coincide in certain areas and seasons, but it’s likely an environmental factor (like temperature) that brings them together and not a causal relationship. EnDED uses up to four algorithms to prune misleading connections due solely to environmental factors. EnDED uses up to four algorithms to prune misleading connections due solely to environmental factors. EnDED uses up to four algorithms to prune misleading connections due solely to environmental factors..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Microbial interactions play a crucial role in the functioning and biogeochemical cycling of Earth's ecosystem. But these connections are highly dynamic and poorly understood. A clear picture of how microbes interact over time could help gain insight into processes that influence nutrient cycling, productivity, and the overall health of marine ecosystems. Researchers investigated microbial dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea on a monthly basis over 10 years. To pinpoint persistent, seasonal, and temporary microbial associations, the researchers identified a temporal network capturing the interactomes of each sample. This network followed an annual cycle that collapsed and reassembled with changes in water temperature. And microbial associations were more repeatable in colder versus warmer months. However, only 16 associations could be validated in the literature, underlining a serious knowledge gap in marine microbial ecological interactions..."

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This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The bacterial flagellum is one of the most amazing structures in biology. The whip-like appendage rotates as many as 300 times per second, allowing bacteria to swim around. That speed is thanks to a powerful internal motor, and a strong hook that acts as a universal joint and transmits torque. Scientists know a lot about how these machines work, but there are still important questions, like how hook proteins function. Now, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology and their collaborators have identified a surprisingly important role for a disordered segment of the hook protein. The biologists first noticed that many bacterial species share a 40- to 60-residue section of their rod and hook proteins. This part lacks structure and is considered intrinsically disordered, but it might, in its flexibility, be essential. The team named this peptide ID-Rod-Stretch since it was conserved in length in the rod protein, but varied in the hook protein..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"When someone loses consciousness, one of the main things that happens is a loss of integrated activity across functionally separate brain networks. But there isn’t a single way of measuring this that tracks with the degree of consciousness. That could soon change given the findings of a new article in the journal Anesthesiology. A group of international researchers examined functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, data and found support for the use of something called the “global brain signal”. The global signal is an average of all gray-matter brain activity across each voxel in a scan, and reflects global coordination at a given time. When there’s high coordination, voxels will all be mostly positive -- or negative -- and the sum will be positive or negative. In contrast, if there’s less coordination, the voxels across the brain won’t match and the values will cancel out..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Past research has already tied our gut microbiome to many diseases. However, most research to date has focused on the large intestine, as collecting stool samples is less invasive than sampling the small intestine. Recently, researchers used standard-of-care endoscopies as an opportunity to collect samples from the first section of the small intestine, the duodenum. Using quantitative sequencing, they evaluated the patients' microbial loads. They found preliminary evidence of microbes traveling from the mouth to the small intestine, as 89% of the microbial taxa found in duodenum samples were also present in saliva samples from the same patient. Within the duodenum, the researchers identified a collection of bacterial taxa that, when present, often dominated the microbial population. These ‘disruptor taxa’ appeared to replace the strict anaerobes common in the duodenum and were more prevalent in individuals with the serious GI disorder small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)..."

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