Biology subjects

Delgado, M. R.

Publications and source records attributed to Delgado, M. R..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

SELF-PRUNING 5G interplays with age and gibberellin pathways downstream of SlCOL1 to orchestrate photoperiodic tomato flowering

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is classified as a day-neutral plant, whereas its wild relatives exhibit delayed flowering under long day (LD) conditions due to higher activity of the SELF-PRUNING 5G (SP5G). In Arabidopsis thaliana, CONSTANS (CO) activates FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), a homolog of SP5G, but whether and how CO integrates with SP5G in tomato flowering was unclear. Here, we demonstrate that SlCOL1 (the tomato CO homolog) delays flowering by directly activating SP5G in a PHYTOCHROME B1 (PHYB1)-dependent manner. Importantly, genetic and molecular analyses combining a photoperiod-responsive tomato line carrying the wild SP5G allele from S. pennellii, together with SlCOL1 and flowering-pathway mutants, revealed synergistic crosstalk among the photoperiodic SlCOL1-SP5G module, age-dependent pathway (mediated mainly by the microRNA156-SlSBP module), gibberellin (GA) pathway, and SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (SFT) pathway. Mechanistically, we show that SP5G forms a complex with miR156-targeted SlSBP13 to directly regulate SFT expression, and that GA may interfere with SP5G activity. Together, these findings revealed a coordinated network that integrates multiple flowering signals to modulate both shared and pathway-specific targets. Our findings provide a significant advance in understanding the molecular regulation of tomato flowering and offer promising avenues for breeding strategies optimized for diverse environmental conditions and latitudes.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Towards a Neurometric-based Construct Validity of Trust

Trust is a nebulous construct central to successful cooperative exchanges and interpersonal relationships. In this study, we introduce a new approach to establishing construct validity of trust using "neurometrics". We develop a whole-brain multivariate pattern capable of classifying whether new participants will trust a relationship partner in the context of a cooperative interpersonal investment game (n=40) with 90% accuracy and find that it also generalizes to a variant of the same task collected in a different country with 82% accuracy (n=17). Moreover, we establish the convergent and discriminant validity by testing the pattern on thirteen separate datasets (n=1,427) and find that trust is reliably related to beliefs of safety, inversely related to negative affect, but unrelated to reward, cognitive control, social perception, theory of mind, and self-referential processing. Together these results provide support for the notion that the psychological experience of trust contains elements of beliefs of reciprocation and fear of betrayal aversion. Contrary to our predictions, we found no evidence that trust is related to anticipated reward. This work demonstrates how "neurometrics" can be used to characterize the psychological processes associated with brain-based multivariate representations.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

The influence of relationship closeness on default-mode network connectivity during social interactions

Reciprocated trust plays a critical role in forming and maintaining relationships, and has consistently been shown to implicate neural circuits involved in reward-related processing and social cognition. Less is known about neural network connectivity during social interactions involving trust, however, particularly as a function of closeness between an investor and a trustee. We examined network reactivity and connectivity in participants who played an economic trust game with close friends, strangers and a computer. Network reactivity analyses showed enhanced activation of the DMN to social relative to non-social outcomes. A novel network psychophysiological interaction analysis (nPPI) revealed enhanced connectivity between the DMN and the superior frontal gyrus and superior parietal lobule when experiencing reciprocated vs. violated trust from friends relative to strangers. Such connectivity tracked with differences in self-reported social closeness with these partners. Interestingly, reactivity of the executive control network (ECN), involved in decision processes, demonstrated no social vs. non-social preference, and ECN-ventral striatum (VS) connectivity did not track social closeness. Taken together, these novel findings suggest that DMN interacts with components of attention and control networks to signal the relative importance of positive experiences with close others vs. strangers.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

DYRK1A-related intellectual disability: a syndrome associated with congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract

PurposeHaploinsufficiency of DYRK1A causes a recognizable clinical syndrome. The goal of this paper is to investigate congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) and genital defects (GD) in patients with DYRK1A mutations.\n\nMethodsA large database of clinical exome sequencing (ES) was queried for de novo DYRK1A mutations and CAKUT/GD phenotypes were characterized. Xenopus laevis (frog) was chosen as a model organism to assess Dyrk1as role in renal development.\n\nResultsPhenotypic details and mutations of 19 patients were compiled after an initial observation that one patient with a de novo pathogenic mutation in DYRK1A had GD. CAKUT/GD data were available from 15 patients, 11 of whom present with CAKUT/GD. Studies in Xenopus embryos demonstrate that knockdown of Dyrk1a disrupts the development of segments of developing embryonic nephrons, which ultimately give rise to the entire genitourinary (GU) tract. These defects could be rescued by co-injecting wildtype human DYRK1A RNA, but not with truncated DYRK1AR205* RNA.\n\nConclusionEvidence supports routine GU screening of all individuals with de novo DYRK1A pathogenic variants to ensure optimized clinical management. Collectively, the reported clinical data and loss of function studies in Xenopus substantiate a novel role for DYRK1A in GU development.

genetics↗