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Probiotics are increasingly used to treat conditions associated with gastrointestinal injury and permeability, including exercise-induced gastrointestinal discomfort. This study assessed safety and efficacy of a probiotic in altering the intestinal milieu and mitigating gastrointestinal symptoms (GIS) in endurance runners. In a double blind, crossover study, 16 runners were randomized to 4 weeks of daily supplementation with a probiotic cocktail containing Pediococcus acidilactici bacteria and Lactobacillus plantarum or placebo. Fasting blood and stool samples were collected for measurement of gut permeability markers, immune parameters, and microbiome analyses. Treadmill run tests were performed before and after treatment; participants ran at 65%–70% of VO2max at 27 °C for a maximum of 90 min or until fatigue/GIS developed. A blood sample was collected after the treadmill run test. In healthy individuals, 4 weeks of probiotic supplementation did not alter health parameters, although a marginal reduction in aspartate aminotransferase levels was observed with probiotic treatment only (p = 0.05). GIS, gut permeability-associated parameters (intestinal fatty acid binding protein, lipopolysaccharide binding protein, zonulin, and cytokines), and intestinal microbial content were not altered by the probiotic supplementation. Post-run measurements of GIS and gut-associated parameters did not differ between groups; however, the observed lack of differences is confounded by an absence of measurable functional outcome as GIS was not sufficiently induced during the run. Under the current study conditions, the probiotic was safe to use, and did not affect gut- or immune-associated parameters, or intestinal symptoms in a healthy population. The probiotic might reduce tissue damage, but more studies are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Botanic gardens and arboreta are amongst our most loved public spaces. There are over 2500 botanic gardens and arboreta across the world visited by an estimated half a billion people each year. In addition to their cultural value, botanic gardens and arboreta undertake world‐leading scientific research to address global challenges. This virtual issue highlights key articles that feature research linked to the work of botanic gardens, arboreta and herbaria. The papers give a sense of the diverse research endeavours of these institutions, from evaluating biodiversity loss, and conservation of critically endangered species through understanding the importance of ecosystem services that plants provide to people and addressing societal and global challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial highlight interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches in plant-based research to address major global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security. It feature novel experimental or computational methods, tools, protocols, and analytical approaches, as well as narrative-style pieces that provide authoritative opinions and solutions for methodological challenges associated with interdisciplinary work.

Non-targeted and suspect screening analysis using liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) holds great promise to comprehensively characterize complex chemical mixtures. Data preprocessing is a crucial part of the process, however, some limitations are observed: (i) peak-picking and feature extraction might be incomplete, especially for low abundant compounds, and (ii) limited reproducibility has been observed between laboratories and software for detected features and their relative quantification. We first conducted a critical review of existing solutions that could improve the reproducibility of preprocessing for LC-HRMS. Solutions include providing repositories and reporting guidelines, open and modular processing workflows, public benchmark datasets, tools to optimize the data preprocessing and to filter out false positive detections. We then propose harmonized quality assurance/quality control guidelines that would allow to assess the sensitivity of feature detection, reproducibility, integration accuracy, precision, accuracy, and consistency of data preprocessing for human biomonitoring, food and environmental communities. • Preprocessing of raw data from SS and NTA by (LC-HRMS) is affected by reproducibility and incomplete peak peaking. • Optimization tools and guidelines were developed to improve SSA/NTA LC-HRMS data preprocessing. • QA/QC provisions for SSA/NTS LC-HRMS data preprocessing are proposed to assess performance of preprocessing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biosynthetic pathways, plant biotechnology, plant regulatory circuits, plant signalling cascades, plant bioengineering, plant gene editing, plant synthetic biology Keywords: biosynthetic pathways; plant bioengineering; plant biotechnology; plant gene editing; plant regulatory circuits; plant signalling cascades; plant synthetic biology EN biosynthetic pathways plant bioengineering plant biotechnology plant gene editing plant regulatory circuits plant signalling cascades plant synthetic biology 5 6 2 12/08/22 20230101 NES 230101 In the first issue of I New Phytologist i , in 1902, the founding editor, Sir Arthur Tansley told his readers that 'Topics are constantly arising on which ... discussion would be valuable not only to the one or two people immediately interested, but to the rest of their colleagues'. [Extracted from the article]

As with all submissions to I New Phytologist i , a Community resource article should be characterised by novelty and will be likely to have a significant impact on research in plant sciences. We remain true to Tansley's aims, and are delighted to announce a new article type: Community resources. Arthur Tansley, Community resources, Editorial, New Phytologist, root traits. [Extracted from the article]

In this case, multiple breakthrough rhythms have been demonstrated in a single patient undergoing radio-frequency ablation with the aid of newly available tools. Our stepwise procedure utilized a mix of novel and standard mapping techniques to demonstrate different arrhythmia mechanisms. This case demonstrates the presence of multiple arrhythmias in the background of frequently seen persistent atrial fibrillation, highlighting the depth and complexity of the disease. The automated analysis of the electrogram enables the Electrophysiologist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Phytologist Tansley Medal 2019 - Philippa Borrill and Kai Zhu She considers the opportunities for using cereal crops as experimental systems in her Tansley insight "Blurring the boundaries between cereal crops and model plants" (in this issue of I New Phytologist i , Borrill, pp. 1721-1727). Kai's Tansley insight is entitled 'Understanding forest dynamics by integrating age and environmental change' (Zhu, pp. 1728-1733) and it explores how global forest-age data and and hierarchical models can help us better understand forest dynamics. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses problems being encountered by the editorial board of "New Phytologist" magazine with articles, either during the submission process or post-publication, which include correcting the scientific records through Corrigendum.

The article announces that Stella T. Cesari, a postdoctoral scientist at the National Institute for Agricultural Research in Montpellier, France ha received the New Phytologist Medal award.

The article announces that William Anderegg awarded with Tansley Medal 2014 for excellence in plant science.

The article announces that the 2016 "New Phytologist" Tansley Medal was given to Etienne Laliberté of the University of Montreal, Quebec.

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including the diversity of nonmycorrhizal and mycorrhizal plants, the function of for nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) nutrition, and the biodiversity of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi.

The article announces that Doctor Alexander M. Jones of the Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge, England is the awardee of the 2015 Tansley Medal for his contribution to plant science.

In the article, the author discusses the additional column of the journal titled "Viewpoint" as of August 2015.

Simple Summary: Despite intensive research, effective tools for detection and monitoring of prostate cancer remain to be found. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA), commonly used in prostate cancer assessments, can lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of indolent disease. This highlights the need for supporting non-invasive diagnostic, prognostic, and disease stratification biomarkers that could complement PSA in clinical decision-taking via increased sensitivity and specificity. In order to address this need, we uncover novel prostate cancer protein signatures by leveraging a cutting-edge analytical technique to measure proteins in patient samples. This strategy was used as a discovery tool to identify changes in protein levels in the serum of newly diagnosed patients as compared with healthy controls; the feature set was then further validated by reference to a second cohort of patients, achieving a high discriminatory ability. The proteomic maps generated also identified relevant changes in biological functions, notably the complement cascade. Prostate cancer is the most common malignant tumour in men. Improved testing for diagnosis, risk prediction, and response to treatment would improve care. Here, we identified a proteomic signature of prostate cancer in peripheral blood using data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry combined with machine learning. A highly predictive signature was derived, which was associated with relevant pathways, including the coagulation, complement, and clotting cascades, as well as plasma lipoprotein particle remodeling. We further validated the identified biomarkers against a second cohort, identifying a panel of five key markers (GP5, SERPINA5, ECM1, IGHG1, and THBS1) which retained most of the diagnostic power of the overall dataset, achieving an AUC of 0.91. Taken together, this study provides a proteomic signature complementary to PSA for the diagnosis of patients with localised prostate cancer, with the further potential for assessing risk of future development of prostate cancer. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD025484. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the formation of symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi in plant species. He states the mutualism and parasitism balnce in arbuscular mycorrhizas (AM), the key role of mycorrhizal fungi in the carbon cycle, and the acquisition of bacterial genes coding for enzyme decomposition. The author also discusses the mycorrhizal symbiosis which with basal nonvascular land plants such as liverworts.

Toxoplasmosis, caused by the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, is one of the most common infections in the world due to the lifelong persistence of this parasite in a latent stage. This parasite hijacks host signaling pathways through epigenetic mechanisms which converge on key nuclear proteins. Here, we report a new parasite persistence strategy involving T. gondii rhoptry protein ROP16 secreted early during invasion, which targets the transcription factor UHRF1 (ubiquitin-like containing PHD and RING fingers domain 1), and leads to host cell cycle arrest. This is mediated by DNMT activity and chromatin remodeling at the cyclin B1 gene promoter through recruitment of phosphorylated UHRF1 associated with a repressive multienzymatic protein complex. This leads to deacetylation and methylation of histone H3 surrounding the cyclin B1 promoter to epigenetically silence its transcriptional activity. Moreover, T. gondii infection causes DNA hypermethylation in its host cell, by upregulation of DNMTs. ROP16 is already known to activate and phosphorylate protective immunity transcription factors such as STAT 3/6/5 and modulate host signaling pathways in a strain-dependent manner. Like in the case of STAT6, the strain-dependent effects of ROP16 on UHRF1 are dependent on a single amino-acid polymorphism in ROP16. This study demonstrates that Toxoplasma hijacks a new epigenetic initiator, UHRF1, through an early event initiated by the ROP16 parasite kinase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale A novel data-independent acquisition method is detailed that incorporates a scanning quadrupole in front of an orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight (TOF) mass analyser. This approach is described and the attributes are compared and contrasted to other DIA approaches. Methods Specific application of the method to both targeted and untargeted lipidomic identification strategies is discussed, with data from both shotgun and LC separated lipidomics experiments presented. Results The benefits of the fast quadrupole scanning technique are highlighted, and include improvements in speed and specificity for complex mixtures providing high quality qualitative and quantitative data. Conclusions In particular the high specificity afforded by the scanning quadrupole improves qualitative information for lipid identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glioblastomas (GBMs) are highly aggressive, invasive brain tumors with bad prognosis and unmet medical need. These tumors are heterogeneous being constituted by a variety of cells in different states of differentiation. Among these, cells endowed with stem properties, tumor initiating/propagating properties and particularly resistant to chemo- and radiotherapies are designed as the real culprits for tumor maintenance and relapse after treatment. These cells, termed cancer stem-like cells, have been designed as prominent targets for new and more efficient cancer therapies. G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), a family of membrane receptors, play a prominent role in cell signaling, cell communication and crosstalk with the microenvironment. Their role in cancer has been highlighted but remains largely unexplored. Here, we report a descriptive study of the differential expression of the endo-GPCR repertoire in human glioblastoma cancer stem-like cells (GSCs), U-87 MG cells, human astrocytes and fetal neural stem cells (f-NSCs). The endo-GPCR transcriptome has been studied using Taqman Low Density Arrays. Of the 356 GPCRs investigated, 138 were retained for comparative studies between the different cell types. At the transcriptomic level, eight GPCRs were specifically expressed/overexpressed in GSCs. Seventeen GPCRs appeared specifically expressed in cells with stem properties (GSCs and f-NSCs). Results of GPCR expression at the protein level using mass spectrometry and proteomic analysis are also presented. The comparative GPCR expression study presented here gives clues for new pathways specifically used by GSCs and unveils novel potential therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]