Male offspring born to mildly ZIKV-infected mice are at risk of developing neurocognitive disorders in adulthood

Congenital Zika virus (ZIKV) syndrome may cause fetal microcephaly in -1% of affected newborns. Here, we investigate whether the majority of clinically inapparent newborns might suffer from long-term health impairments not readily visible at birth. Infection of immunocompetent pregnant mice with high-dose ZIKV caused severe offspring phenotypes, such as fetal death, as expected. By contrast, low-dose (LD) maternal ZIKV infection resulted in reduced fetal birth weight but no other obvious phenotypes. Male offspring born to LD ZIKV-infected mothers had increased testosterone (TST) levels and were less likely to survive in utero infection compared to their female littermates. Males also presented an increased number of immature neurons in apical and basal hippocampal dendrites, while female offspring had immature neurons in basal dendrites only. Moreover, male offspring with high but not very high (storm) TST levels were more likely to suffer from learning and memory impairments compared to females. Future studies are required to understand the impact of TST on neuropathological and neurocognitive impairments in later life. In summary, increased sex-specific vigilance is required in countries with high ZIKV prevalence, where impaired neurodevelopment may be camouflaged by a healthy appearance at birth.Peer reviewe

Isolation in Globalizing Academic Fields: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Early Career Researchers

This study examines academic isolation – an involuntary perceived separation from the academic field to which one aspires to belong, associated with a perceived lack of agency in terms of one’s engagement with the field – as a key challenge for researchers in increasingly globalized academic careers. While prior research describes early career researchers’ isolation in their institutions, we theorize early career researchers’ isolation in their academic fields and reveal how they attempt to mitigate isolation to improve their career prospects. Using a collaborative autoethnographic approach, we generate and analyze a dataset focused on the experiences of ten early career researchers in a globalizing business academic field known as Consumer Culture Theory. We identify bricolage practices, polycentric governance practices, and integration mechanisms that work to enhance early career researchers’ perceptions of agency and consequently mitigate their academic isolation. Our findings extend discussions on isolation and its role in new academic careers. Early career researchers, in particular, can benefit from a deeper understanding of practices that can enable them to mitigate isolation and reclaim agency as they engage with global academic fields

The Golgi-Associated PDZ Domain Protein Gopc/PIST Is Required for Synaptic Targeting of mGluR5

In neuronal cells, many membrane receptors interact via their intracellular, C-terminal tails with PSD-95/discs large/ZO-1 (PDZ) domain proteins. Some PDZ proteins act as scaffold proteins. In addition, there are a few PDZ proteins such as Gopc which bind to receptors during intracellular transport. Gopc is localized at the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and binds to a variety of receptors, many of which are eventually targeted to postsynaptic sites. We have analyzed the role of Gopc by knockdown in primary cultured neurons and by generating a conditional Gopc knockout (KO) mouse line. In neurons, targeting of neuroligin 1 (Nlgn1) and metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGlu5) to the plasma membrane was impaired upon depletion of Gopc, whereas NMDA receptors were not affected. In the hippocampus and cortex of Gopc KO animals, expression levels of Gopc-associated receptors were not altered, while their subcellular localization was disturbed. The targeting of mGlu5 to the postsynaptic density was reduced, coinciding with alterations in mGluR-dependent synaptic plasticity and deficiencies in a contextual fear conditioning paradigm. Our data imply Gopc in the correct subcellular sorting of its associated mGlu5 receptor in vivo