This article tested the cross-species application of the Affymetrix 600K Chicken SNP array in five species of North American prairie grouse (Centrocercus and Tympanuchus genera). This study study provided evidence for successful cross-species application of the chicken SNP array in grouse which diverged ca. 37 mya from the chicken lineage. As far as the authors are concerned, this is the first reported application of a SNP array in non-passerine birds, and it demonstrates the feasibility of using commercial SNP arrays in research on non-model bird species.

This article explores the ability of Arabidopsis thaliana to recover after exposure to freezing temperatures.

This article communicates the results of a study conducted on red-winged blackbirds where brain phospholipid composition during development was measured and diet was manipulated. The dietary study confirmed that nestling brains are sensitive to fatty acid supply. The findings of this article suggest that Red-winged blackbirds may be able to advance cognitive development relative to other altricial species owing to their aquatic maternal diet.

Article describing the anatomy of the trunk muscles, their properties that determine muscle performance (mass, length and physiological cross-sectional area [PCSA]) and investigating their scaling in juvenile Alligator mississippiensis spanning an order of magnitude in body mass (359 g–5.5 kg). Findings support existing anecdotal evidence that crocodilians shift their breathing mechanics as they increase in size.

Article reporting that transgenic Arabidopsis plants constitutively expressing the Cys2/His2 zinc finger protein Zat7 have suppressed growth and are more tolerant to salinity stress. Findings demonstrate that the EAR-domain of Cys2/His2-type zinc finger proteins plays a key role in the defense response of Arabidopsis to abiotic stresses.

This article identifies, in Arabidopsis, an oxalyl-CoA decarboxylase (AtOXC) that is capable of catalyzing the second step in the proposed pathway of oxalate catabolism.

Article describes the results of the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative's efforts to sequence the vegetative transcriptomes of 1,124 species that span the diversity of plants in a broad sense (Archaeplastida), including green plants (Viridiplantae), glaucophytes (Glaucophyta) and red algae (Rhodophyta).

This article presents a study with the purpose to deliver a Notch Intracellular Domain (NICD)-encoded plasmid via poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles and to investigate the toxic environmental side effects for an in vivo experiment. This research demonstrates that PLGA nanoparticle-mediated target delivery to upregulate Notch related genes can be a potential therapeutic approach with minimum toxic effects.

Article describes study in which mRNA expression of iGluR was quantified in two sensory neuron clusters of two cohorts of Aplysia californica (Aplysia) at both sexual maturity (~8 months) and advanced age (~12 months) in order to examine if changes in ionotropic L-Glu receptor (iGluR) transcription underlie reduced physiology8

Article highlights the importance of pectin in cell wall integrity and the value of lignin modification as a tool to interrogate the informational content of plant cell walls.

Article studying thrombocyte function and development in adult zebrafish. The authors performed single-cell RNA sequencing of the young and mature zebrafish thrombocytes and compared the two datasets for young and mature thrombocyte transcripts.

Article claims antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the healthcare system worldwide with the rise of emerging drug resistant infectious agents. To infer novel resistance genes, we used complete gene sets of several bacterial strains known to be susceptible or resistant to specific drugs and associated phenotypic information within a machine learning framework that enabled prioritizing genes potentially involved in resistance.