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  1. Abstract

    Williams syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder exhibiting cognitive and behavioral abnormalities, including increased social motivation, risk of anxiety and specific phobias along with perturbed motor function. Williams syndrome is caused by a microdeletion of 26–28 genes on chromosome 7, includingGTF2IRD1, which encodes a transcription factor suggested to play a role in the behavioral profile of Williams syndrome. Duplications of the full region also lead to frequent autism diagnosis, social phobias and language delay. Thus, genes in the region appear to regulate social motivation in a dose‐sensitive manner. A “complete deletion” mouse, heterozygously eliminating the syntenic Williams syndrome region, has been deeply characterized for cardiac phenotypes, but direct measures of social motivation have not been assessed. Furthermore, the role ofGtf2ird1in these behaviors has not been addressed in a relevant genetic context. Here, we have generated a mouse overexpressingGtf2ird1, which can be used both to model duplication of this gene alone and to rescueGtf2ird1expression in the complete deletion mice. Using a comprehensive behavioral pipeline and direct measures of social motivation, we provide evidence that the Williams syndrome critical region regulates social motivation along with motor and anxiety phenotypes, but thatGtf2ird1complementation is not sufficient to rescue most of these traits, and duplication does not decrease social motivation. However,Gtf2ird1complementation does rescue light‐aversive behavior and performance on select sensorimotor tasks, perhaps indicating a role for this gene in sensory processing or integration.

     
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  2. Abstract

    Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a 1.5–1.8 Mbp deletion on chromosome 7q11.23, affecting the copy number of 26–28 genes. Phenotypes of WS include cardiovascular problems, craniofacial dysmorphology, deficits in visual–spatial cognition and a characteristic hypersocial personality. There are still no genes in the region that have been consistently linked to the cognitive and behavioral phenotypes, although human studies and mouse models have led to the current hypothesis that the general transcription factor 2 I family of genes, GTF2I and GTF2IRD1, are responsible. Here we test the hypothesis that these two transcription factors are sufficient to reproduce the phenotypes that are caused by deletion of the WS critical region (WSCR). We compare a new mouse model with loss of function mutations in both Gtf2i and Gtf2ird1 to an established mouse model lacking the complete WSCR. We show that the complete deletion (CD) model has deficits across several behavioral domains including social communication, motor functioning and conditioned fear that are not explained by loss of function mutations in Gtf2i and Gtf2ird1. Furthermore, transcriptome profiling of the hippocampus shows changes in synaptic genes in the CD model that are not seen in the double mutants. Thus, we have thoroughly defined a set of molecular and behavioral consequences of complete WSCR deletion and shown that genes or combinations of genes beyond Gtf2i and Gtf2ird1 are necessary to produce these phenotypic effects.

     
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  3. Abstract

    The efficient delivery of reactive and toxic gaseous reagents to organic reactions was studied using metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs). The simultaneous cargo vehicle and catalytic capabilities of several MOFs were probed for the first time using the examples of aromatization, aminocarbonylation, and carbonylative Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions. These reactions highlight that MOFs can serve a dual role as a gas cargo vehicle and a catalyst, leading to product formation with yields similar to reactions employing pure gases. Furthermore, the MOFs can be recycled without sacrificing product yield, while simultaneously maintaining crystallinity. The reported findings were supported crystallographically and spectroscopically (e.g., diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy), foreshadowing a pathway for the development of multifunctional MOF‐based reagent‐catalyst cargo vessels for reactive gas reagents as an attractive alternative to the use of toxic pure gases or gas generators.

     
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  4. Abstract

    The efficient delivery of reactive and toxic gaseous reagents to organic reactions was studied using metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs). The simultaneous cargo vehicle and catalytic capabilities of several MOFs were probed for the first time using the examples of aromatization, aminocarbonylation, and carbonylative Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions. These reactions highlight that MOFs can serve a dual role as a gas cargo vehicle and a catalyst, leading to product formation with yields similar to reactions employing pure gases. Furthermore, the MOFs can be recycled without sacrificing product yield, while simultaneously maintaining crystallinity. The reported findings were supported crystallographically and spectroscopically (e.g., diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy), foreshadowing a pathway for the development of multifunctional MOF‐based reagent‐catalyst cargo vessels for reactive gas reagents as an attractive alternative to the use of toxic pure gases or gas generators.

     
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