TRANSNATIONAL CONVERSIONS: GREEK CATHOLIC MIGRANTS AND RUSSKY ORTHODOX CONVERSION MOVEMENTS IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, RUSSIA, AND THE AMERICAS (1890-1914)

Beginning in the 1890s, communities of migrants from Austria-Hungary, living and laboring in the United States, converted from one form of Eastern Christianity, known as Greek Catholicism, to another, called Russky (or Russian) Orthodoxy. In doing so, they also underwent ethnic, national, and racial conversions as “Rusyns,” “Russians,” “Ukrainians,” “Hungarians,” “Slavs,” and “Whites.” Soon, migrants also began converting en masse in Canada, Brazil, and Argentina. Ultimately, the conversions, likely numbering 100,000 by 1914, spread to migrants’ villages of origin in the Austro-Hungarian regions of Galicia and Subcarpathia, through remigrations and correspondence. For twenty-five years, conversion and counter-conversion movements in each of these regions interacted with and mutually influenced one another, in the context of transnational migration. As a consequence of these transnational conversions, a great war broke out, and not only in a metaphorical sense. For in addition to the protracted, heated, and periodically violent battles erupting between converts and opponents of conversion in all affected regions, these multi-continental ethnoreligious shifts also cast sparks, which contributed substantially to the outburst of that great global conflagration, beginning in September 1914, called World War I. Diplomatic tensions arose as statesmen at the highest governmental levels in Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Germany, as well as the major Great Power presses, vied with one another to define the conversions: either as Russian political machinations among “Ruthenians,” justifying future annexation of Austro-Hungarian territories inhabited by presumed “Russians”—identifiable by Orthodox religion—or as mere religious movements among Russia’s innocent, co-national expatriates, persecuted by the Austro-Hungarian regime. The same statesmen in July 1914 engaged in diplomatic hostilities surrounding Serbia, but the preceding years, months, and weeks, devoted to the issue of converting Greek Catholics, had helped set the stage for the July Crisis. Because the “East European” conversions resulted primarily through transatlantic migration, this study argues for the “American” origins of the Great War. In its simplest, most reductive, and unqualified form, it suggests that, because a migrant coal miner in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania decided to attend a different church one day, World War I happened

Translational regulation contributes to the elevated CO2 response in two Solanum species.

Understanding the impact of elevated CO2 (eCO2 ) in global agriculture is important given climate change projections. Breeding climate-resilient crops depends on genetic variation within naturally varying populations. The effect of genetic variation in response to eCO2 is poorly understood, especially in crop species. We describe the different ways in which Solanum lycopersicum and its wild relative S. pennellii respond to eCO2 , from cell anatomy, to the transcriptome, and metabolome. We further validate the importance of translational regulation as a potential mechanism for plants to adaptively respond to rising levels of atmospheric CO2

Pseudomonas daroniae sp. nov. and Pseudomonas dryadis sp. nov., isolated from pedunculate oak affected by acute oak decline in the UK

Twenty-two cream-coloured bacterial strains were isolated from oak trees affected by acute oak decline (AOD) in Southern England. Isolates were Gram-negative, motile, slightly curved rods, aerobic, non-spore-forming, catalase positive and oxidase positive. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis placed the strains in two separate phylogenetic clusters in the Pseudomonas straminea group, with Pseudomonas flavescens as the closest phylogenetic relative. Multilocus sequence analyses of the gyrB, rpoD and rpoB genes supported the delineation of the strains into two separate taxa, which could be differentiated phenotypically and chemotaxonomically from each other, and their closest relatives. Average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA-DNA hybridization values revealed percentages of genome similarity below the species threshold (95 and 70 %, respectively) between the two taxa and the closest relatives, confirming their novel species status. Therefore, on the basis of this polyphasic approach we propose two novel Pseudomonas species, Pseudomonasdaroniae sp. nov. (type strain FRB 228T=LMG 31087T=NCPPB 4672T) and Pseudomonasdryadis sp. nov. (type strain FRB 230T=LMG 31087T=NCPPB 4673T)

Molecular Mechanisms Driving Switch Behavior in Xylem Cell Differentiation.

Plant xylem cells conduct water and mineral nutrients. Although most plant cells are totipotent, xylem cells are unusual and undergo terminal differentiation. Many genes regulating this process are well characterized, including the Vascular-related NAC Domain 7 (VND7), MYB46, and MYB83 transcription factors, which are proposed to act in interconnected feedforward loops (FFLs). Less is known regarding the molecular mechanisms underlying the terminal transition to xylem cell differentiation. Here, we generate whole-root and single-cell data, which demonstrate that VND7 initiates sharp switching of root cells to xylem cell identity. Based on these data, we identified 4 candidate VND7 downstream target genes capable of generating this switch. Although MYB46 responds to VND7 induction, it is not among these targets. This system provides an important model to study the emergent properties that may give rise to totipotency relative to terminal differentiation and reveals xylem cell subtypes