Athletes’ and coaches’ perspectives of performance analysis in women’s sports in Singapore

To date, little consideration has been given to the context in which performance analysis (PA) is used by female athletes, in women’s sports and in an Asian context. Through the use of an online questionnaire and follow-up semi-structured interviews, the perspectives towards the use of PA and feedback by athletes and coaches in two female’s sports in Singapore (water polo: one coach and 13 athletes; netball: one coach and eight athletes) were explored. Four key themes emerged from the inductive analysis of the data: (1) learning environment in teams, (2) considerations onthe use of PA to aid development and learning, (3) application of game-related learning into practice through PA and (4) organisation of PA sessions: duration and design. The results indicated female athletes from Asian cultures welcomed group discussions, viewed information around areas for development in a positive light and were receptive to longer video reviews. Coaches and analysts should acknowledge the culture of the learner or group in addition to the session format when planning and delivering PA provisions to best meet the learners’ needs

Increasing the nutritive value of potato by metabolic engineering of cysteine content. A Review.

Plants are the basis of the human nutrition and have been selected and improved to assure this purpose. Nowadays, new technologies such as genetic-, metabolic engineering and genomics approaches allow further improvement of plants. The nutritional quality of a crop is not only dependent on its energy supply in the form of sugars/starch, but also on the amino acid composition of its storage proteins. Potato, the most important non-cereal food crop, is deficient in the sulphur containing amino acids, methionine and cysteine. The manipulation of the targeted amino acid biosynthesis can be a way to circumvent this problem. Cysteine is synthesised from O -acetyl-L-serine formed by serine acetyltransferase (SAT). The main results and some unpublished ones are summarised here. They present the key role of SAT enzyme in the biosynthesis of cysteine and the biotechnological approaches of nutritive value improvement through elevation of cysteine content

Biotechnological approach in exploring vegetative desiccation tolerance: from aseptic culture to molecular breeding

What is remarkable about resurrection plants is the ability of vegetative tissues (root, shoot, stem, leaves) to tolerate dehydration of the tissues and then return as functional units on rehydration. This phenomenon made resurrection plants exciting targets for molecular analysis of the poikilohydric ability and drought tolerance. The protective mechanisms of vegetative desiccation tolerance appear to involve three major components, sugars, proteins and antioxidants. According to the recent scientific consensus all three are postulated to be involved in maintaining cellular integrity during the drying phases. The aim of this review is to establish a provisional hierarchy among these stress avoiding mechanisms that are associated with desiccation tolerance. The main reason for ranking these signal metabolites and protective agents is their potential importance in practical applications. Although vegetative desiccation tolerance is a complex trait both genetically and physiologically, there are already examples where outcomes of targeted studies in resurrection plants are going to be directly utilized to engineer crop plants genetically. Here we also show that conventional genetic transformation techniques, via in vitro plant regeneration systems, still represent an unavoidable part of the high-throughput technology chain of molecular breeding

LPA(1) receptor-mediated thromboxane A(2) release is responsible for lysophosphatidic acid-induced vascular smooth muscle contraction

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) has been recognized recently as an endothelium-dependent vasodilator, but several lines of evidence indicate that it may also stimulate vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), thereby contributing to vasoregulation and remodeling. In the present study, mRNA expression of all 6 LPA receptor genes was detected in murine aortic VSMCs, with the highest levels of LPA(1), LPA(2), LPA(4), and LPA(6). In endothelium-denuded thoracic aorta (TA) and abdominal aorta (AA) segments, 1-oleoyl-LPA and the LPA(1–3) agonist VPC31143 induced dose-dependent vasoconstriction. VPC31143-induced AA contraction was sensitive to pertussis toxin (PTX), the LPA(1&3) antagonist Ki16425, and genetic deletion of LPA(1) but not that of LPA(2) or inhibition of LPA(3), by diacylglycerol pyrophosphate. Surprisingly, vasoconstriction was also diminished in vessels lacking cyclooxygenase-1 [COX1 knockout (KO)] or the thromboxane prostanoid (TP) receptor (TP KO). VPC31143 increased thromboxane A(2) (TXA(2)) release from TA of wild-type, TP-KO, and LPA(2)-KO mice but not from LPA(1)-KO or COX1-KO mice, and PTX blocked this effect. Our findings indicate that LPA causes vasoconstriction in VSMCs, mediated by LPA(1)-, G(i)-, and COX1-dependent autocrine/paracrine TXA(2) release and consequent TP activation. We propose that this new-found interaction between the LPA/LPA(1) and TXA(2)/TP pathways plays significant roles in vasoregulation, hemostasis, thrombosis, and vascular remodeling.—Dancs, P. T., Ruisanchez, E., Balogh, A., Panta, C. R., Miklós, Z., Nüsing, R. M., Aoki, J., Chun, J., Offermanns, S., Tigyi, G., Benyó, Z. LPA(1) receptor-mediated thromboxane A(2) release is responsible for lysophosphatidic acid-induced vascular smooth muscle contraction

Lysophosphatidic acid induces vasodilation mediated by LPA1 receptors, phospholipase C, and endothelial nitric oxide synthase.

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) has been implicated as a mediator of several cardiovascular functions, but its potential involvement in the control of vascular tone is obscure. Here, we show that both LPA (18:1) and VPC31143 (a synthetic agonist of LPA1-3 receptors) relax intact mouse thoracic aorta with similar Emax values (53.9 and 51.9% of phenylephrine-induced precontraction), although the EC50 of LPA- and VPC31143-induced vasorelaxations were different (400 vs. 15 nM, respectively). Mechanical removal of the endothelium or genetic deletion of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) not only diminished vasorelaxation by LPA or VPC31143 but converted it to vasoconstriction. Freshly isolated mouse aortic endothelial cells expressed LPA1, LPA2, LPA4 and LPA5 transcripts. The LPA1,3 antagonist Ki16425, the LPA1 antagonist AM095, and the genetic deletion of LPA1, but not that of LPA2, abolished LPA-induced vasorelaxation. Inhibition of the phosphoinositide 3 kinase-protein kinase B/Akt pathway by wortmannin or MK-2206 failed to influence the effect of LPA. However, pharmacological inhibition of phospholipase C (PLC) by U73122 or edelfosine, but not genetic deletion of PLCepsilon, abolished LPA-induced vasorelaxation and indicated that a PLC enzyme, other than PLCepsilon, mediates the response. In summary, the present study identifies LPA as an endothelium-dependent vasodilator substance acting via LPA1, PLC, and eNOS.-Ruisanchez, E., Dancs, P., Kerek, M., Nemeth, T., Farago, B., Balogh, A., Patil, R., Jennings, B. L., Liliom, K., Malik, K. U., Smrcka, A. V., Tigyi, G., Benyo, Z. Lysophosphatidic acid induces vasodilation mediated by LPA1 receptors, phospholipase C, and endothelial nitric oxide synthase