Ricerc@Sapienza

An increasing number of studies show that both inflammation and neural plasticity act as key players in the vulnerability and recovery from psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. However, the interplay between these two players has been limitedly explored. In fact, while a few studies reported an immune activation, others conveyed an immune suppression, associated with an impairment in neural plasticity. Therefore, we hypothesized that deviations in inflammatory levels in both directions may impair neural plasticity.

Durum wheat is naturally more susceptible to Fusarium graminerum infection in comparison to common wheat. The improvement of durum wheat resistance against F. graminearum is a challenge due to the lack of resistance sources in its gene pool. FHB-resistance factors were introduced in durum wheat by generating recombinant inbred lines (RILs), obtained by crossing the hexaploid resistant accession 02-5B-318 with the susceptible durum wheat cv. Saragolla. In this work we explored the possible contribution of cell wall (CW) in RILs with improved FHB resistance.

MicroRNAs are endogenous, noncoding RNAs crucial for the post-transcriptional regulation of gene
expression. In this study, we investigated the role of miR-335-5p in spatial learning and synaptic plastic- ity.
To this end we first showed spatial learning induced down-regulation of miR-335-5p. Next we found
impairment in long-term memory and reduction in hippocampal long-term potentiation by exogenous
administration of the miRNA. These findings demonstrate that miR-335-5p is a key coordinator of the