Development and Applications of Fluorogen/Light-Up RNA Aptamer Pairs for RNA Detection and More.

The central role of RNA in living systems made it highly desirable to have noninvasive and sensitive technologies allowing for imaging the synthesis and the location of these molecules in living cells. This need motivated the development of small pro-fluorescent molecules called "fluorogens" that become fluorescent upon binding to genetically encodable RNAs called "light-up aptamers." Yet, the development of these fluorogen/light-up RNA pairs is a long and thorough process starting with the careful design of the fluorogen and pursued by the selection of a specific and efficient synthetic aptamer. This chapter summarizes the main design and the selection strategies used up to now prior to introducing the main pairs. Then, the vast application potential of these molecules for live-cell RNA imaging and other applications is presented and discussed.journal article2020importe

Are the literacy difficulties that characterize developmental dyslexia associated with a failure to integrate letters and speech sounds?

The ‘automatic letter-sound integration hypothesis’ (Blomert, 2011) proposes that dyslexia results from a failure to fullyintegrate letters and speech sounds into automated audio-visual objects. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of English-speaking children with dyslexic difficulties (N = 13) and samples of chronological-age-matched (CA; N = 17) and reading-age-matched controls (RA; N = 17) aged 7–13 years. Each child took part in two priming experiments in which speech soundswere preceded by congruent visual letters (congruent condition) or Greek letters (baseline). In a behavioural experiment,responses to speech sounds in the two conditions were compared using reaction times. These data revealed faster reaction timesin the congruent condition in all three groups. In a second electrophysiological experiment, responses to speech sounds in the two conditions were compared using event-related potentials (ERPs). These data revealed a significant effect of congruency on (1)the P1 ERP over left frontal electrodes in the CA group and over fronto-central electrodes in the dyslexic group and (2) the P2ERP in the dyslexic and RA control groups. These findings suggest that our sample of English-speaking children with dyslexic difficulties demonstrate a degree of letter-sound integration that is appropriate for their reading level, which challenges the letter-sound integration hypothesis

Are the literacy difficulties that characterise developmental dyslexia associated with a failure to integrate letters and speech sounds?

The ‘automatic letter sound integration hypothesis’ (Blomert, 2011), proposes that dyslexia results from a failure to fully integrate letters and speech sounds into automated audio-visual objects. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of English-speaking children with dyslexic difficulties (N = 13) and samples of chronological age-matched (CA; N = 17) and reading-age matched controls (RA; N = 17) aged 7–13 years. Each child took part in two priming experiments in which speech sounds were preceded by congruent visual letters (congruent condition) or Greek letters (baseline). In a behavioural experiment, responses to speech sounds in the two conditions were compared using reaction times. These data revealed faster reaction times in the congruent condition in all three groups. In a second electrophysiological experiment, responses to speech sounds in the two conditions were compared using event-related potentials (ERPs). These data revealed a significant effect of congruency on (1) the P1 ERP over left frontal electrodes in the CA group and over fronto-central electrodes in the dyslexic group and (2) the P2 ERP in the dyslexic and RA control groups. These findings suggest that our sample of English-speaking children with dyslexic difficulties demonstrate a degree of letter-sound integration that is appropriate for their reading level, which challenges the letter-sound integration hypothesis