Traçage minéralogique de l’origine des sédiments aux confluents de cours d’eau

Traçage minéralogique de l'origine des sédiments aux confluents de cours d'eau. La dynamique sédimentaire des confluents de cours d'eau peut s'étudier par l'intermédiaire de traceurs marquant l'origine des particules. La connaissance de la source sédimentaire est essentielle pour comprendre les processus de mélange des sédiments du lit et établir des relations causales entre les sources de contamination et la dynamique des sites contaminés liés à l'arrivée d'un tributaire. On a examiné les particules du lit d'un confluent naturel sablonneux où la minéralogie des sédiments composant les bassins-versants est différenciée. En raison de leurs forme et densité, les feldspaths K s'avèrent des traceurs efficaces et indiquent qu'à la jonction étudiée le mélange des apports sédimentaires est presque complété à une distance de mélange de 2,1 (distance à partir de l'apex/largeur du confluent). Par contre, les micas et le pourcentage de minéraux lourds, sensibles au tri hydraulique, ne révèlent pas la provenance des particules. La méthode a aussi été employée pour déterminer le patron de dispersion des particules à un confluent du Saint-Laurent. Ici la minéralogie des particules diffère peu entre les bassins-versants. Toutefois, les variations spatiales du pourcentage de minéraux lourds sont directement liées à la morphologie du lit caractérisée par un banc d'accumulation se terminant par un abrupt à l'entrée du tributaire. Les faibles teneurs en minéraux lourds sur la pente de l'abrupt démontrent que le fluide est peu compétent à l'abri de la construction sédimentaire. Par contre, à son pied et à son sommet, le fluide effectue un tri hydraulique efficace, ce qui entraîne une concentration des particules lourdes. Ces variations des teneurs en minéraux lourds sont indicatrices du tri hydraulique plutôt que de la source sédimentaire.Sedimentary dynamics of river channel confluences may be studied through the use of natural tracers. The information supplied by tracers is of crucial interest to understand the mixing processes of bed material from the confluent channels and of potential zones of accumulation of contaminated sediments. We examined the bed material of a confluence where the mineralogy of the sediments of the tributary watershed differs from that of the main channel. The potential of two tracers (K feldspars and micas) and the heavy mineral concentrations is assessed. Due to its shape and density, K feldspars is the most efficient tracer to reveal the mixing between the sediment loads coming from the upstream channels. The spatial distribution of the tracer suggests a very rapid mixing of the loads: at a distance equivalent to 2.1 channel width, mixing is nearly completed. Micas and heavy mineral concentrations are less reliable indicators of the sedimentary dynamics. The technique was also applied at a confluence along the St. Lawrence River. In this case, clear mineralogical differences between the sediments of the watersheds are absent. The spatial pattern of heavy mineral concentrations is controlled by the main morphological feature of the confluence, that is, the avalanche face at the edge of a tributary mouth bar prograding within the St. Lawrence. Low heavy mineral concentrations are located on the avalanche face itself while higher concentrationms are found at the foot and top of the face. This pattern reflects variations in sorting regime rather than origin of particles.Die Sediment-Dynamik der Zusammenflusse von Wasserlàufen kann mit Hilfe von Aufspùrern, welche die Herkunft der Teilchen markieren, studiert werden. Die Kenntnis der Sedimentquelle ist unerlâsslich fur das Verstàndnis der Mischprozesse der Flussbettsedimente und die Herstellung von kausalen Beziehungen zwischen den Quellen der Verunreinigung und der Dynamik der verunreinigten Plàtze aufgrund eines tributàren Zuflusses. Man hat die Teilchen des Bettes eines natùrlichen sandigen Zusammenflusses untersucht, wo die Minéralogie der die Flussbecken bildenden Sedimente unterschiedlich ist. Wegen ihrer Form und Dichte erweisen sich die K-Feldspate als erfolgreiche Aufspiirer und sie zeigen, dass am untersuchten Zusammenfluss die Mischung der Sedimentzufuhr in einer Mischungsentfernung von 2,1 (Entfemung vom Scheitel/ von der Breite des Zusammenflusses) fast vollstândig ist. Dieselbe Méthode wurde auch verwendet, urn das Dispersionsmuster der Teilchen an einem Zusammenfluss des Sankt-Lorenz zu bestimmen. Hier unterscheidet sich die Minéralogie der Teilchen zwischen den Flussbecken wenig. Dennoch sind die râumlichen Abweichungen des Prozentsatzes schwerer Minérale direkt mit der Morphologie des Flusses verbunden, welche sich durch eine Aufschûttungsbank charakterisiert, die mit einem Abbruch am tributàren Zufluss endet. Der geringe Anteil von schweren Mineralen am Gefàlle des Abbruchs zeigt, dass die Flùssigkeit im Schutz des Sedimentbaus wenig Einfluss hat. Jedoch bewirkt die Flùssigkeit an seinem Fuss und seiner Spitze ein erfolgreiches hydraulisches Sortieren, was zu einer Konzentration der schweren Teilchen fùhrt. Dièse Abweichungen im Gehalt an schweren Mineralen spiegeln eher das hydraulische Sortieren als die Sedimentherkunft

The Arabidopsis

The Arabidopsis thaliana multi-stress regulator TSPO is transiently induced by abiotic stresses. The final destination of this polytopic membrane protein is the Golgi apparatus, where its accumulation is strictly regulated, and TSPO is downregulated through a selective autophagic pathway. TSPO-related proteins regulate the physiology of the cell by generating functional protein complexes. A split-ubiquitin screen for potential TSPO interacting partners uncovered a plasma membrane aquaporin, PIP2;7. Pull-down assays and fluorescence imaging approaches revealed that TSPO physically interacts with PIP2;7 at the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi membranes in planta. Intriguingly, constitutive expression of fluorescently tagged PIP2;7 in TSPO-overexpressing transgenic lines resulted in patchy distribution of the fluorescence, reminiscent of the pattern of constitutively expressed yellow fluorescent protein-TSPO in Arabidopsis. Mutational stabilization of TSPO or pharmacological inhibition of the autophagic pathway affected concomitantly the detected levels of PIP2;7, suggesting that the complex containing both proteins is degraded through the autophagic pathway. Coexpression of TSPO and PIP2;7 resulted in decreased levels of PIP2;7 in the plasma membrane and abolished the membrane water permeability mediated by transgenic PIP2;7. Taken together, these data support a physiological role for TSPO in regulating the cell-surface expression of PIP2;7 during abiotic stress conditions through protein-protein interaction and demonstrate an aquaporin regulatory mechanism involving TSPO

The grapevine uncharacterized intrinsic protein 1 (VvXIP1) is regulated by drought stress and transports glycerol, hydrogen peroxide, heavy metals but not water

A MIP (Major Intrinsic Protein) subfamily called Uncharacterized Intrinsic Proteins (XIP) was recently described in several fungi and eudicot plants. In this work, we cloned a XIP from grapevine, VvXIP1, and agrobacterium-mediated transformation studies in Nicotiana benthamiana revealed that the encoded aquaporin shows a preferential localization at the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Stopped-flow spectrometry in vesicles from the aqy-null yeast strain YSH1172 overexpressing VvXIP1 showed that VvXIP1 is unable to transport water but is permeable to glycerol. Functional studies with the ROS sensitive probe CM-H(2)DCFDA in intact transformed yeasts showed that VvXIP1 is also able to permeate hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Drop test growth assays showed that besides glycerol and H2O2, VvXIP1 also transports boric acid, copper, arsenic and nickel. Furthermore, we found that VvXIP1 transcripts were abundant in grapevine leaves from field grown plants and strongly repressed after the imposition of severe water-deficit conditions in potted vines. The observed downregulation of VvXIP1 expression in cultured grape cells in response to ABA and salt, together with the increased sensitivity to osmotic stress displayed by the aqy-null yeast overexpressing VvXIP1, corroborates the role of VvXIP1 in osmotic regulation besides its involvement in H2O2 transport and metal homeostasis.This work was supported by European Union Funds (FEDER/COMPETE Operational Competitiveness Programme) and Portuguese national Funds (FCT-Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology): KBBE-2012-6-3117 "Inovinne", FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022692 and PTDC/AGR-ALI/100636/2008. HN (SFRH/BD/74257/2010) and APM (SFRH/BD/65046/2009) were supported by PhD grants from FCT. The Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme-Belgian Science Policy (IAP7/29) and the Belgian French community ARC11/16-036 project.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Objective comparison of particle tracking methods

Particle tracking is of key importance for quantitative analysis of intracellular dynamic processes from time-lapse microscopy image data. Because manually detecting and following large numbers of individual particles is not feasible, automated computational methods have been developed for these tasks by many groups. Aiming to perform an objective comparison of methods, we gathered the community and organized an open competition in which participating teams applied their own methods independently to a commonly defined data set including diverse scenarios. Performance was assessed using commonly defined measures. Although no single method performed best across all scenarios, the results revealed clear differences between the various approaches, leading to notable practical conclusions for users and developers

Cellular and Behavioral Effects of Cranial Irradiation of the Subventricular Zone in Adult Mice

Background: In mammals, new neurons are added to the olfactory bulb (OB) throughout life. Most of these new neurons, granule and periglomerular cells originate from the subventricular zone (SVZ) lining the lateral ventricles and migrate via the rostral migratory stream toward the OB. Thousands of new neurons appear each day, but the function of this ongoing neurogenesis remains unclear. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, we irradiated adult mice to impair constitutive OB neurogenesis, and explored the functional impacts of this irradiation on the sense of smell. We found that focal irradiation of the SVZ greatly decreased the rate of production of new OB neurons, leaving other brain areas intact. This effect persisted for up to seven months after exposure to 15 Gray. Despite this robust impairment, the thresholds for detecting pure odorant molecules and short-term olfactory memory were not affected by irradiation. Similarly, the ability to distinguish between odorant molecules and the odorant-guided social behavior of irradiated mice were not affected by the decrease in the number of new neurons. Only long-term olfactory memory was found to be sensitive to SVZ irradiation. Conclusion/Significance: These findings suggest that the continuous production of adult-generated neurons is involved i