Los pescadores de perlas

Coreògraf : Joan Magrinyà ; Mestre de cor : Riccardo Bottino ; Mestre apuntador : Àngel AngladaEmpresa Juan A. PamiasFunció a benefici dels empleats permanents, porters i acomodadors del LiceuIntèrpret : Alfredo KrausOrquestra del Gran Teatre del Liceu dirigida per C.F. Cillari

Glutamatergic regulation of ghrelin-induced activation of the mesolimbic dopamine system

Recently, we demonstrated that the central ghrelin signalling system, involving the ghrelin receptor (GHS-R1A), is important for alcohol reinforcement. Ghrelin targets a key mesolimbic circuit involved in natural as well as drug-induced reinforcement, that includes a dopamine projection from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens. The aim of the present study was to determine whether it is possible to suppress ghrelin's effects on this mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway can be suppressed, by interrupting afferent inputs to the VTA dopaminergic cells, as shown previously for cholinergic afferents. Thus, the effects of pharmacological suppression of glutamatergic, orexin A and opioid neurotransmitter systems on ghrelin-induced activation of the mesolimbic dopamine system were investigated. We found in the present study that ghrelin-induced locomotor stimulation was attenuated by VTA administration of the N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor antagonist (AP5) but not by VTA administration of an orexin A receptor antagonist (SB334867) or by peripheral administration of an opioid receptor antagonist (naltrexone). Intra-VTA administration of AP5 also suppressed the ghrelin-induced dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Finally the effects of peripheral ghrelin on locomotor stimulation and accumbal dopamine release were blocked by intra-VTA administration of a GHS-R1A antagonist (BIM28163), indicating that GHS-R1A signalling within the VTA is required for the ghrelin-induced activation of the mesolimbic dopamine system. Given the clinical knowledge that hyperghrelinemia is associated with addictive behaviours (such as compulsive overeating and alcohol use disorder) our finding highlights a potential therapeutic strategy involving glutamatergic control of ghrelin action at the level of the mesolimbic dopamine system

Identification of the Bovine Arachnomelia Mutation by Massively Parallel Sequencing Implicates Sulfite Oxidase (SUOX) in Bone Development

Arachnomelia is a monogenic recessive defect of skeletal development in cattle. The causative mutation was previously mapped to a ∼7 Mb interval on chromosome 5. Here we show that array-based sequence capture and massively parallel sequencing technology, combined with the typical family structure in livestock populations, facilitates the identification of the causative mutation. We re-sequenced the entire critical interval in a healthy partially inbred cow carrying one copy of the critical chromosome segment in its ancestral state and one copy of the same segment with the arachnomelia mutation, and we detected a single heterozygous position. The genetic makeup of several partially inbred cattle provides extremely strong support for the causality of this mutation. The mutation represents a single base insertion leading to a premature stop codon in the coding sequence of the SUOX gene and is perfectly associated with the arachnomelia phenotype. Our findings suggest an important role for sulfite oxidase in bone development