The antitumor drug vinblastine induces the phosphorylation of annexin A2

Comunicaciones a congreso

Seismotectonics zoning of Morocco and adjacent region

In the present work, a new seismotectonics zoning of the Morocco and adjacent region is proposed. It is supported on a new database including recent geological (active faults, slip rates, geometrical characteristics, chronology of some recent tectonic phases) and geophysical (both instrumental and historical seismicity, focal mechanisms, nature of the crust) studies. In addition, the geodynamic context of the convergence of the Africa-Europe plates in the area, going from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar, has been taken into account. The newly suggested seismotectonics zoning is not limited to the borders of northern Morocco. It considers all the seismic sources (up to 400 km of distance) able to generate large and destructive earthquakes, such as the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, located in the Azores-Gibraltar transforming fault. New catalogues including the historical and instrumental seismicity since 1045 to 2005, and active faults were elaborated and used in this work. The most influential parameters having effects on the definition of the source area characteristics were determined with a suitable accuracy. The new performed zoning includes 12 shallow seismotectonics sources, each one corresponding to a certain volume of the Earth’s crust, whose known data were used to determine its static and dynamic conditions. Each seismotectonics zone has been analysed and interpreted, presenting certain homogeneity in the seismic potential and mode of deformation, obtained from the seismicity data, the strain and the stresses. For zones including faults, we have specified the geometrical characteristics, the chronology of the different movements corresponding to the successive tectonic episodes, and the associated seismicity. This new zoning will provide an improved contribution for both future probabilistic studies on seismic hazard, determining the ground acceleration, and seismic risk in the north of Morocco

Downregulation of NAC transcription factors modifies cell wall composition and increases strawberry fruit firmness

The strawberry is a soft fruit with a very short post-harvest shelf life. The changes in texture during fruit ripening are mainly due to the dissolution of the middle lamellae, reducing cell-to-cell adhesion, and the weakening of parenchymal cell walls as result of the action of cell wall modifying enzymes. At present, no master regulator of this process has been discovered yet. NAC transcription factors have been involved in numerous physiological processes, including fruit ripening. In strawberry, the NAC family comprises more than 110 genes, and at least 6 of them are expressed during fruit development. In this research, we performed a functional analysis of two ripening-related NAC genes, FaNAC2 and FaNAC3, in Fragaria x ananassa Duch. cv. Chandler. Several RNAi transgenic lines showing low FaNAC2 or FaNAC3 mRNA levels in fruit were obtained through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. These lines produced fruits significantly firmer than control at the ripe stage, being the increase in firmness higher in FaNAC2 silenced plants. Cell walls were extracted from ripe transgenic fruits and characterized by ELISA and Epitope Detection Chromatography (EDC), using monoclonal antibodies against different polysaccharide epitopes. FaNAC2 transgenic lines showed more extensive changes than FaNAC3; these modifications involved increased amounts of demethylated pectins (LM19) in water and CDTA fractions and an alteration of the lateral branches of RG-I, decreasing the amount of arabinan epitopes and increasing galactan epitopes detected by LM6 and LM5, respectively. The amount of arabinogalactan proteins recognized by the JIM13 antibody was also affected, decreasing in the Na2CO3 fraction and increasing in the 4M KOH and cellulase fraction of the transgenic lines.The results obtained indicate that NAC genes could be involved in the regulation of cell wall disassembly associated to strawberry fruit softening.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Upregulation of NKG2D ligands impairs hematopoietic stem cell function in Fanconi anemia

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER); Next Generation EU; EUROFANCOLEN); Comunidad de Madrid (AvanCell, B2017/BMD-3692); ICREA-Academia program.Fanconi anemia (FA) is the most prevalent inherited bone marrow failure (BMF) syndrome. Nevertheless, the pathophysiological mechanisms of BMF in FA have not been fully elucidated. Since FA cells are defective in DNA repair, we hypothesized that FA hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) might express DNA damage-associated stress molecules such as natural killer group 2 member D ligands (NKG2D-Ls). These ligands could then interact with the activating NKG2D receptor expressed in cytotoxic NK or CD8+ T cells, which may result in progressive HSPC depletion. Our results indeed demonstrated upregulated levels of NKG2D-Ls in cultured FA fibroblasts and T cells, and these levels were further exacerbated by mitomycin C or formaldehyde. Notably, a high proportion of BM CD34+ HSPCs from patients with FA also expressed increased levels of NKG2D-Ls, which correlated inversely with the percentage of CD34+ cells in BM. Remarkably, the reduced clonogenic potential characteristic of FA HSPCs was improved by blocking NKG2D-NKG2D-L interactions. Moreover, the in vivo blockage of these interactions in a BMF FA mouse model ameliorated the anemia in these animals. Our study demonstrates the involvement of NKG2D-NKG2D-L interactions in FA HSPC functionality, suggesting an unexpected role of the immune system in the progressive BMF that is characteristic of FA

New explanation of the strange baryon rapidity distributions in ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions

A model of multiparticle production in hadronic collisions at ultra-relativistic energies, based on the assumption of independent string fragmentation, reproduces the rapidity spectra of $\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Lambda}$ in sulphur-sulphur collisions reported by the NA35 Collaboration. This is achieved after a reconsideration of the intermediate multi-string states and the structure of the diquarks. Nuclear stopping power is also studied through the computation of the $p-\bar{p}$ rapidity spectra.Comment: Final version as it will appear in Nucl. Phys. A. It contains 27 pages including 12 figure

Principales fallas activas de las Cuencas de Granada y Guadix-Baza (Cordillera Bética)

The Granada and Guadix-Baza Basins, the largest Neogene-Quaternary intramontane basins of the Betic Cordillera (southern Spain), undergo active deformation with an associated moderate level of seismic activity. This deformation is controlled by a NNWSSE compressive regime and an approximate orthogonal tensional regime. The compression produced N70ºE to E-W folds of several scales, the Sierra Nevada antiform being the largest one. The tension is accommodated mainly by NW-SE active normal faults, the most notable being the Baza Fault, in the Guadix-Baza Basin, and the Granada, Sierra Elvira-Dílar and Padul-Dúrcal Faults, in the Granada Basin. In addition, other active faults with different orientations also exist, such as the Alfahuara-Botardo and the Galera faults in the Guadix-Baza Basin, and the Huenes, Obéilar-Pinos Puente and N of Sierra Tejeda Faults in the Granada Basin. Moreover, in several sectors, the presence of orthogonal normal fault sets suggests alternating trends or even radial extension. Slip rates of these active faults, based on geologic markers, vary between 0.06 and 0.5 mm/year. Estimates for the maximum expected magnitude of earthquakes caused by these faults vary between MW 6.0 and 7.0. The N of Sierra Tejeda and the Baza Faults, the largest faults in the Granada and Guadix-Baza Basins, respectively, have the greatest seismic potential. They could cause events up to a magnitude of MW 6.5-7.0, although their reference earthquakes, computed for a return period of 475 years, are on the order of MW 5.0-5.5.Las Cuencas de Granada y Guadix-Baza, las mayores cuencas intramontañosas del Neógeno y Cuaternario de la Cordillera Bética (sur de España), experimentan una deformación activa y tienen asociada una actividad sísmica moderada. La deformación está controlada por una compresión NNO-SSE y una tensión aproximadamente perpendicular. La compresión ha formado pliegues de dirección N70ºE a E-O de muy diferentes tamaños, siendo el antiforme de Sierra Nevada el mayor. La tensión se acomoda sobre todo por fallas normales NO-SE, siendo las más notables de ellas la falla de Baza, en la cuenca de Guadix-Baza, y las de Granada, Sierra Elvira-Dílar y Padul-Dúrcal, en la cuenca de Granada. Además, existen otras fallas activas con diferentes orientaciones, tales como la de Alfahuara-Botardo y la de Galera en la cuenca de Guadix-Baza y las de Huenes, Obéilar-Pinos Puente y norte de Sierra Tejeda en la cuenca de Granada. Además, en varios sectores, la presencia de juegos de fallas ortogonales sugiere cambios en el elipsoide de esfuerzos e incluso una extensión radial. Las tasas de desplazamiento de estas fallas activas, calculadas a partir de marcadores geológicos, varían entre 0,06 y 0,5 mm/año. La estimación del potencial sísmico indica que la máxima magnitud esperable de los terremotos producidos por estas fallas varía entre MW 6,0 y 7,0. La falla del N de Sierra Tejeda y la de Baza, las mayores respectivamente en las Cuencas de Granada y Guadix-Baza, tienen el mayor potencial sísmico. Podrían causar eventos con magnitudes del orden de MW 6,5-7,0, aunque sus terremotos de referencia para un periodo de retorno de 475 años son del orden de MW 5,0-5,5

Progress in Detection and Projection of Climate Change in Spain since the 2010 CLIVAR-Spain regional climate change assessment report

The Iberian Peninsula region offers a challenging benchmark for climate variability studies for several reasons. It exhibits a wide variety of climatic regimes, ranging from wet Atlantic climates with annual precipitation around 2000 mm, to extensive semiarid regions with severe hydrological stress, to even cold alpine environments in some isolated areas

Electric field and exciton structure in CdSe nanocrystals

Quantum Stark effect in semiconductor nanocrystals is theoretically investigated, using the effective mass formalism within a $4\times 4$ Baldereschi-Lipari Hamiltonian model for the hole states. General expressions are reported for the hole eigenfunctions at zero electric field. Electron and hole single particle energies as functions of the electric field ($\mathbf{E}_{QD}$) are reported. Stark shift and binding energy of the excitonic levels are obtained by full diagonalization of the correlated electron-hole Hamiltonian in presence of the external field. Particularly, the structure of the lower excitonic states and their symmetry properties in CdSe nanocrystals are studied. It is found that the dependence of the exciton binding energy upon the applied field is strongly reduced for small quantum dot radius. Optical selection rules for absorption and luminescence are obtained. The electric-field induced quenching of the optical spectra as a function of $\mathbf{E}_{QD}$ is studied in terms of the exciton dipole matrix element. It is predicted that photoluminescence spectra present anomalous field dependence of the emission lines. These results agree in magnitude with experimental observation and with the main features of photoluminescence experiments in nanostructures.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl