Emerging roles in plant biotechnology for the second messenger cGMP - guanosine 3’, 5’-cyclic monophosphate

Second messengers are small transient molecules that transmit and/or modulate environmental or hormonal signals linking them to complex and often systemic physiological responses. Recent reports have renewed interest in the second messenger guanosine 3’, 5’-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) since it has been shown to directly mediate an ever increasing number of plant responses ranging from themodification of cyclic nucleotide gated ion channels to the regulation of tran scription of many cGMPresponsive genes. Here some of these cGMP dependent responses will be reviewed emphasising their role in plant stress responses. Finally, potential applications of cGMP in plant biotechnology will be discussed

Pressure Induced Quantum Phase Transitions

A quantum critical point is approached by applying pressure in a number of magnetic metals. The observed dependence of Tc on pressure necessarily means that the magnetic energy is coupled to the lattice. A first order phase transition occurs if this coupling exceeds a critical value: this is inevitable if diverges as Tc approaches zero. It is argued that this is the cause of the first order transition that is observed in many systems. Using Landau theory we obtain expressions for the boundaries of the region where phase separation occurs that agree well with experiments done on MnSi and other materials. The theory can be used to obtain very approximate values for the temperature and pressure at the tricritical point in terms of quantities measured at ambient pressure and the measured values of along the second order line. The values of the tricritical temperature for various materials obtained from Landau theory are too low but it is shown that the predicted values will rise if the effects of fluctuations are included.Comment: 12 pages including figure

Monte Carlo simulations for Ising spins with spin greater than 1/2 applied to the square and triangular lattices with antiferromagnetic interactions and comparing results using Kawasaki and Glauber dynamics

This paper has a pedagogical introduction. We describe the correct method for performing Monte Carlo simulations of Ising model systems with spin greater than one half. Correct and incorrect procedures are clearly outlined and the consequences of using the incorrect procedure are shown. The difference between Kawasaki and Glauber dynamics is then outlined and both methods are applied to the antiferromagnetic square and triangular lattices for S =1