Publications by authors named "Michael Groszmann"

Background: Despite the high prevalence of mental health disorders in children and young people with long-term health conditions, access to timely and effective treatment is often difficult. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of drop-in mental health services for young people with long-term health conditions and their families at six paediatric healthcare settings in England.

Methods: This was a prospective non-randomised single-arm multi-centre interventional study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Environmental change necessitates increased crop production with limited water use to meet global food demands, presenting a challenge in balancing water use efficiency (iWUE) and carbon assimilation.
  • Sorghum, known for its drought tolerance, was studied using 89 genotypes with diverse genetic backgrounds to examine the physiological mechanisms behind iWUE and its inheritance.
  • Results indicated significant genetic variation influencing iWUE traits, highlighting the role of specific aquaporin alleles (SbPIP1.1 and SbTIP3.2) in improving water efficiency without sacrificing photosynthetic capacity, thus offering potential targets for breeding efforts in C4 crops.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Despite the high prevalence of mental health difficulties in children and young people with long-term health conditions (LTCs), these difficulties and experiences are often overlooked and untreated. Previous research demonstrated the effectiveness of psychological support provided via a drop-in mental health centre located in a paediatric hospital. The aim of this prospective non-randomised single-arm multi-centre interventional study is to determine the clinical effectiveness of drop-in mental health services when implemented at paediatric hospitals in England.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dynamic changes in aquaporin gene expression occur during seed germination. One example is the ~30-fold increase in Arabidopsis thaliana PIP2;1 transcripts within 24h of seed imbibition. To investigate whether AtPIP2;1 can influence seed germination wild-type Columbia-0, single (Atpip2;1 ) and double (Atpip2;1-Atpip2;2 ) loss-of-function mutants, along with transgenic 2x35S::AtPIP2;1 over-expressing (OE) lines and null-segregant controls, were examined.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Engineering membrane transporters to achieve desired functionality is reliant on availability of experimental data informing structure-function relationships and intelligent design. Plant aquaporin (AQP) isoforms are capable of transporting diverse substrates such as signaling molecules, nutrients, metalloids, and gases, as well as water. AQPs can act as multifunctional channels and their transport function is reliant on many factors, with few studies having assessed transport function of specific isoforms for multiple substrates.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Photosynthetic manipulation provides new opportunities for enhancing crop yield. However, understanding and quantifying the importance of individual and multiple manipulations on the seasonal biomass growth and yield performance of target crops across variable production environments is limited. Using a state-of-the-art cross-scale model in the APSIM platform we predicted the impact of altering photosynthesis on the enzyme-limited (A ) and electron transport-limited (A ) rates, seasonal dynamics in canopy photosynthesis, biomass growth, and yield formation via large multiyear-by-location crop growth simulations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In recent years, researchers have attempted to improve photosynthesis by introducing components from cyanobacterial and algal CO2-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) into terrestrial C3 plants. For these attempts to succeed, we need to understand the CCM components in more detail, especially carbonic anhydrase (CA) and bicarbonate (HCO3−) transporters. Heterologous complementation systems capable of detecting carbonic anhydrase activity (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In plants with C3 photosynthesis, increasing the diffusion conductance for CO2 from the substomatal cavity to chloroplast stroma (mesophyll conductance) can improve the efficiencies of both CO2 assimilation and photosynthetic water use. In the diffusion pathway from substomatal cavity to chloroplast stroma, the plasmalemma and chloroplast envelope membranes impose a considerable barrier to CO2 diffusion, limiting photosynthetic efficiency. In an attempt to improve membrane permeability to CO2, and increase photosynthesis in tobacco, we generated transgenic lines in Nicotiana tabacum L.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A fundamental limitation of photosynthetic carbon fixation is the availability of CO. In C plants, primary carboxylation occurs in mesophyll cytosol, and little is known about the role of CO diffusion in facilitating C photosynthesis. We have examined the expression, localization, and functional role of selected plasma membrane intrinsic aquaporins (PIPs) from (foxtail millet) and discovered that SiPIP2;7 is CO-permeable.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Direct risk from infection from COVID-19 for children and young people (CYP) is low, but impact on services, education and mental health (so-called collateral damage) appears to have been more significant. In North Central London (NCL) during the first wave of the pandemic, in response to the needs and demands for adults with COVID-19, general paediatric wards in acute hospitals and some paediatric emergency departments were closed. Paediatric mental health services in NCL mental health services were reconfigured.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aquaporins (AQPs) are membrane-spanning channel proteins with exciting applications for plant engineering and industrial applications. Translational outcomes will be improved by better understanding the extensive diversity of plant AQPs. However, gene families are complex, making exhaustive identification difficult, especially in polyploid species.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The dynamics of leaf photosynthesis in fluctuating light affects carbon gain by plants. Mesophyll conductance (gm) limits CO2 assimilation rate (A) under the steady state, but the extent of this limitation under non-steady-state conditions is unknown. In the present study, we aimed to characterize the dynamics of gm and the limitations to A imposed by gas diffusional and biochemical processes under fluctuating light.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The phosphorylation state of two serine residues within the C-terminal domain of AtPIP2;1 (S280, S283) regulates its plasma membrane localization in response to salt and osmotic stress. Here, we investigated whether the phosphorylation state of S280 and S283 also influence AtPIP2;1 facilitated water and cation transport. A series of single and double S280 and S283 phosphomimic and phosphonull AtPIP2;1 mutants were tested in heterologous systems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Cellular membranes in plants are dynamic and adapt to various signals and stresses, utilizing both active and passive transporters to facilitate the movement of substances across membranes, with aquaporins (AQPs) being a significant type of channel protein that allows rapid transport of water and other solutes.
  • The AQP family in Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco), which has been extensively studied for agricultural applications, comprises 76 members across five subfamilies, showcasing a high level of diversity in their expression, localization, and functions.
  • The study not only characterized the physiological properties of tobacco AQPs but also explored their evolutionary background by examining the parental genomes, revealing insights into their phylogenetic relationships and potential implications for enhancing plant
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The interaction of C-TERMINALLY ENCODED PEPTIDES (CEPs) with CEP RECEPTOR1 (CEPR1) controls root growth and development, as well as nitrate uptake, but has no known role in determining yield. We used physiological, microscopic, molecular, and grafting approaches to demonstrate a reproductive tissue-specific role for in controlling yield and seed size. Independent Arabidopsis () null mutants showed disproportionately large reductions in yield and seed size relative to their decreased vegetative growth.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wild radish is a major weed of Australian cereal crops. A rapid establishment, fast growth, and abundant seed production are fundamental to its success as an invasive species. Wild radish has developed resistance to a number of commonly used herbicides increasing the problem.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Seeds are the typical dispersal and propagation units of angiosperms and gymnosperms. Water movement into and out of seeds plays a crucial role from the point of fertilization through to imbibition and seed germination. A class of membrane intrinsic proteins called aquaporins (AQPs) assist with the movement of water and other solutes within seeds.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To conduct a UK-wide survey of young people who have experienced cancer, carers and professionals, to identify and prioritise research questions to inform decisions of research funders and support the case for research with this unique cancer population.

Design: James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership.

Setting: UK health service and community.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hybrids are used extensively in agriculture due to their superior performance in seed yield and plant growth, yet the molecular mechanisms underpinning hybrid performance are not well understood. Recent evidence has suggested that a decrease in basal defense response gene expression regulated by reduced levels of salicylic acid (SA) may be important for vigor in certain hybrid combinations. Decreasing levels of SA in the Arabidopsis () accession C24 through the introduction of the SA catabolic enzyme salicylate1 hydroxylase (NahG) increases plant size, phenocopying the large-sized C24/Landsberg (L) F1 hybrids.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hybrid Arabidopsis plants undergo epigenetic reprogramming producing decreased levels of 24-nt siRNAs and altered patterns of DNA methylation that can affect gene expression. Driving the changes in methylation are the processes trans-chromosomal methylation (TCM) and trans-chromosomal demethylation (TCdM). In TCM/TCdM the methylation state of one allele is altered to resemble the other allele.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aquaporins are channel proteins that function to increase the permeability of biological membranes. In plants, aquaporins are encoded by multigene families that have undergone substantial diversification in land plants. The plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs) subfamily of aquaporins is of particular interest given their potential to improve plant water relations and photosynthesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Plant hybrids are extensively used in agriculture to deliver increases in yields, yet the molecular basis of their superior performance (heterosis) is not well understood. Our transcriptome analysis of a number of Arabidopsis F1 hybrids identified changes to defense and stress response gene expression consistent with a reduction in basal defense levels. Given the reported antagonism between plant immunity and growth, we suggest that these altered patterns of expression contribute to the greater growth of the hybrids.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

F1 hybrids can outperform their parents in yield and vegetative biomass, features of hybrid vigor that form the basis of the hybrid seed industry. The yield advantage of the F1 is lost in the F2 and subsequent generations. In Arabidopsis, from F2 plants that have a F1-like phenotype, we have by recurrent selection produced pure breeding F5/F6 lines, hybrid mimics, in which the characteristics of the F1 hybrid are stabilized.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Genome-wide approaches to the study of hybrid vigor have identified epigenetic changes in the hybrid nucleus in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), maize (Zea mays), and rice (Oryza sativa). DNA methylation associated with 24-nucleotide small interfering RNAs exhibits transallelic effects in hybrids of Arabidopsis and other species. Some of the transmethylation changes are inherited and some affect gene expression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Heterosis is important for agriculture; however, little is known about the mechanisms driving hybrid vigor. Ultimately, heterosis depends on the interactions of specific alleles and epialleles provided by the parents, which is why hybrids can exhibit different levels of heterosis, even within the same species. We characterize the development of several intraspecific Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) F1 hybrids that show different levels of heterosis at maturity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF