Behav Sci (Basel)
August 2025
"The whole day movement matters to health." has become an important topic while the associations between executive function and different movement behaviors (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHorizontal gene transfers (HGT) have been observed across the tree of life. While their adaptive importance in bacteria is conspicuous, the occurrence of HGT and their evolutionary significance in Eukaryotes has only recently started to be considered. In this review, we explore the extent of HGT in the plant kingdom, indicating the widespread occurrence of microbe - plant HGT and Plant - Plant HGT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPercept Mot Skills
August 2025
Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach, this study investigated the development of fundamental motor skills (FMS) in 219 Head Start preschoolers (age = 4.33, = 0.63; 56% girls; 53% Hispanic) and examined how family environments, including parental and sibling influences, shapes FMS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver the last decade, collaborative efforts in plant evolutionary research have elucidated the phylogenetic relationships in the green plant lineage and provided insights into the emergence of land plants from a group of terrestrial and freshwater streptophyte algae. A foremost finding was that the genetic underpinnings of several key traits emerged much earlier than land plants - they were present in their streptophyte algal progenitors. Currently, the field is at a crossroads, transitioning from genomics-informed descriptions of streptophyte algae to a functional understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying their unique physiology, as well as to understanding their origin and evolution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
June 2025
Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) with soilborne Glomeromycota fungi was pivotal in the conquest of land by plants almost half a billion years ago. In flowering plants, it is hypothesized that AM is initiated by the perception of AM fungi-derived chito- and lipochito-oligosaccharides (COs/LCOs) in the host via Lysin Motif Receptor-Like Kinases (LysM-RLKs). However, it remains uncertain whether plant perception of these molecules is a prerequisite for AM establishment and for its origin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant adaptation to terrestrial life started 450 million years ago and has played a major role in the evolution of life on Earth. The genetic mechanisms allowing this adaptation to a diversity of terrestrial constraints have been mostly studied by focusing on flowering plants. Here, we gathered a collection of 133 accessions of the model bryophyte Marchantia polymorpha and studied its intraspecific diversity using selection signature analyses, a genome-environment association study and a pangenome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBeetles that feed on the nutritionally depauperate and recalcitrant tissues provided by the leaves, stems, and roots of living plants comprise one-quarter of herbivorous insect species. Among the key adaptations for herbivory are plant cell wall-degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) that break down the fastidious polymers in the cell wall and grant access to the nutritious cell content. While largely absent from the non-herbivorous ancestors of beetles, such PCWDEs were occasionally acquired via horizontal gene transfer (HGT) or by the uptake of digestive symbionts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Plants have colonized lands 450 million years ago. This terrestrialization was facilitated by developmental and functional innovations. Recent evo-devo approaches have demonstrated that one of these innovations was the mutualistic arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis (AMS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Lifestyle Med
December 2023
Many children in Head Start programs do not meet physical activity (PA) and dietary intake recommendations and have increased risk for obesity. The purpose of this pilot study was to formatively assess a multi-level intervention, exploring strategies to encourage PA and healthy eating among north Texas Head Start families. In year 1, 5 Head Start sites with 217 children began the Head Start to Healthy Lifestyles (HSHL) project.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNon-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) are antimicrobial peptides, involved in several plant biological processes including root nodule nitrogen fixation (RNF). Nodulating plants belonging to the RNF clade establish symbiosis with the nitrogen-fixing bacteria rhizobia (legumes symbiosis model) and Frankia (actinorhizal symbiosis model) leading to root nodule formation. nsLTPs are involved in processes active in early step of symbiosis and functional nodule in both models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Reg Health Am
July 2023
Symbiotic interactions such as the nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbiosis (RNS) have structured ecosystems during the evolution of life. Here we aimed at reconstructing ancestral and intermediate steps that shaped RNS observed in extant flowering plants. We compared the symbiotic transcriptomic responses of nine host plants, including the mimosoid legume Mimosa pudica for which we assembled a chromosome-level genome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe filamentous and unicellular algae of the class Zygnematophyceae are the closest algal relatives of land plants. Inferring the properties of the last common ancestor shared by these algae and land plants allows us to identify decisive traits that enabled the conquest of land by plants. We sequenced four genomes of filamentous Zygnematophyceae (three strains of and one strain of ) and generated chromosome-scale assemblies for all strains of the emerging model system .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2023
In plants, the topological organization of membranes has mainly been attributed to the cell wall and the cytoskeleton. Additionally, few proteins, such as plant-specific remorins have been shown to function as protein and lipid organizers. Root nodule symbiosis requires continuous membrane re-arrangements, with bacteria being finally released from infection threads into membrane-confined symbiosomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Womens Health (Larchmt)
April 2023
Rates of unintended pregnancy may be higher in women living with human immunodeficiency virus (WLWH) than in the general population, and it is unclear how populations of WLWH with intended and unintended pregnancy differ. We compared baseline characteristics and outcomes between WLWH with intended and unintended pregnancy. We conducted a retrospective analysis of WLWH enrolled in a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Pregnancy clinic from 2003 to 2014.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Child Fam Stud
November 2022
Limited empirical evidence is available about preschoolers' sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA) patterns in Head Start programs, we explored (a) preschoolers' SB and PA patterns (ranging from SB to light-moderate-vigorous physical activity [LMVPA]) and (b) their relationships with sociodemographic factors, weight status, and motor development. Participants included 216 preschoolers ( = 4.32 ± 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Biol
October 2022
The Zygnematophyceae is the sister clade to the land plants, but their biology remains mysterious. In a new study, a resolved phylogeny and a scenario for the evolution of multicellularity in that clade are proposed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn flowering plants, strigolactones (SLs) have dual functions as hormones that regulate growth and development, and as rhizosphere signaling molecules that induce symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Here, we report the identification of bryosymbiol (BSB), an SL from the bryophyte Marchantia paleacea. BSB is also found in vascular plants, indicating its origin in the common ancestor of land plants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Racial Ethn Health Disparities
August 2023
Objectives: Guided by the social ecological model, this study aimed to examine the relations of built environments (i.e., walking/cycling infrastructure, recreation facilities, neighborhood safety/crime), youth's transition abilities, and changes of youth's physical activity (PA) and play behaviors due to COVID-19-based restrictions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants display a tremendous diversity of developmental and physiological features, resulting from gains and losses of functional innovations across the plant phylogeny. Among those, the most impactful have been undoubtedly the ones that allowed plant terrestrializations, the transitions from an aquatic to a terrestrial environment. Although the embryophyte terrestrialization has been particularly scrutinized, others occurred across the plant phylogeny with the involvement of mutualistic symbioses as a common theme.
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