The ROS wheel: refining ROS transcriptional footprints

In the last decade, microarray studies have delivered extensive inventories of transcriptome-wide changes in messenger RNA levels provoked by various types of oxidative stress in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Previous cross-study comparisons indicated how different types of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and their subcellular accumulation sites are able to reshape the transcriptome in specific manners. However, these analyses often employed simplistic statistical frameworks that are not compatible with large-scale analyses. Here, we reanalyzed a total of 79 Affymetrix ATH1 microarray studies of redox homeostasis perturbation experiments. To create hierarchy in such a high number of transcriptomic data sets, all transcriptional profiles were clustered on the overlap extent of their differentially expressed transcripts. Subsequently, meta-analysis determined a single magnitude of differential expression across studies and identified common transcriptional footprints per cluster. The resulting transcriptional footprints revealed the regulation of various metabolic pathways and gene families. The RESPIRATORY BURST OXIDASE HOMOLOG F-mediated respiratory burst had a major impact and was a converging point among several studies. Conversely, the timing of the oxidative stress response was a determining factor in shaping different transcriptome footprints. Our study emphasizes the need to interpret transcriptomic data sets in a systematic context, where initial, specific stress triggers can converge to common, aspecific transcriptional changes. We believe that these refined transcriptional footprints provide a valuable resource for assessing the involvement of ROS in biological processes in plants

Measurement of plant growth in view of an integrative analysis of regulatory networks

As the regulatory networks of growth at the cellular level are elucidated at a fast pace, their complexity is not reduced; on the contrary, the tissue, organ and even whole-plant level affect cell proliferation and expansion by means of development-induced and environment-induced signaling events in growth regulatory processes. Measurement of growth across different levels aids in gaining a mechanistic understanding of growth, and in defining the spatial and temporal resolution of sampling strategies for molecular analyses in the model Arabidopsis thaliana and increasingly also in crop species. The latter claim their place at the forefront of plant research, since global issues and future needs drive the translation from laboratory model-acquired knowledge of growth processes to improvements in crop productivity in field conditions

Hydro-chemical modelling of in situ behaviour of bituminized radioactive waste in Boom Clay

The hydro-chemical (CH) interaction between swelling Eurobitum bituminized radioactive waste (BW) and Boom Clay was investigated to assess the feasibility of geological disposal for the long-term management of this waste. First, the long-term behaviour of BW in contact with water was studied. A CH formulation of chemically and hydraulically coupled flow processes in porous materials containing salt crystals is discussed. The formulation incorporates the strong dependence of the osmotic efficiency of the bitumen membrane on porosity and assumes the existence of high salt concentration gradients that are maintained for a long time and that influence the density and motion of the fluid. The impacts of temporal and spatial variations of key transport parameters (i.e. osmotic efficiency (s), intrinsic permeability (k), diffusion, etc.) were investigated. Porosity was considered the basic variable. For BW porosity varies in time because of the water uptake and subsequent processes (i.e. dissolution of salt crystals, swelling of hydrating layers, compression of highly leached layers). New expressions of s and k describing the dependence of these parameters on porosity are proposed. Several cases were analysed. The numerical analysis was proven to be able to furnish a satisfactory representation of the main observed patterns of the behaviour in terms of osmotic-induced swelling, leached mass of NaNO3 and progression of the hydration front when heterogeneous porosity and crystal distributions have been assumed. Second, the long-term behaviour of real Eurobitum drums in disposal conditions, and in particular its interaction with the surrounding clay, was investigated. Results of a CH analysis are presented.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The Transcriptional Landscape of the Photosynthetic Model Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC6803.

Cyanobacteria exhibit a great capacity to adapt to different environmental conditions through changes in gene expression. Although this plasticity has been extensively studied in the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, a detailed analysis of the coordinated transcriptional adaption across varying conditions is lacking. Here, we report a meta-analysis of 756 individual microarray measurements conducted in 37 independent studies-the most comprehensive study of the Synechocystis transcriptome to date. Using stringent statistical evaluation, we characterized the coordinated adaptation of Synechocystis' gene expression on systems level. Evaluation of the data revealed that the photosynthetic apparatus is subjected to greater changes in expression than other cellular components. Nevertheless, network analyses indicated a significant degree of transcriptional coordination of photosynthesis and various metabolic processes, and revealed the tight co-regulation of components of photosystems I, II and phycobilisomes. Detailed inspection of the integrated data led to the discovery a variety of regulatory patterns and novel putative photosynthetic genes. Intriguingly, global clustering analyses suggested contrasting transcriptional response of metabolic and regulatory genes stress to conditions. The integrated Synechocystis transcriptome can be accessed and interactively analyzed via the CyanoEXpress website (http://cyanoexpress.sysbiolab.eu)

A Novel Tool for Visualization of Water Molecular Structure and Its Changes, Expressed on the Scale of Temperature Influence

Aquaphotomics utilizes water-light interaction for in-depth exploration of water, its structure and role in aqueous and biologic systems. The aquagram, a major analytical tool of aquaphotomics, allows comparison of water molecular structures of different samples by comparing their respective absorbance spectral patterns. Temperature is the strongest perturbation of water changing almost all water species. To better interpret and understand spectral patterns, the objective of this work was to develop a novel, temperature-scaled aquagram that provides standardized information about changes in water molecular structure caused by solutes, with its effects translated to those which would have been caused by respective temperature changes. NIR spectra of Milli-Q water in the temperature range of 20-70 °C and aqueous solutions of potassium chloride in concentration range of 1 to 1000 mM were recorded to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed novel tool. The obtained results presented the influence of salt on the water molecular structure expressed as the equivalent effect of temperature in degrees of Celsius. The temperature-based aquagrams showed the well-known structure breaking and structure making effects of salts on water spectral pattern, for the first time presented in the terms of temperature influence on pure water. This new method enables comparison of spectral patterns providing a universal tool for evaluation of various bio-aqueous systems which can provide better insight into the system's functionality