Augmentation of abscisic acid (ABA) levels by drought does not induce short-term stomatal sensitivity to CO2 in two divergent conifer species

The stomata of conifers display very little short-term response to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration (Ca), whereas the stomatal responses of angiosperms to Ca increase in response to water stress. This behaviour of angiosperm stomata appears to be dependent on foliar levels of abscisic acid (ABAf). Here two alternative explanations for the stomatal insensitivity of conifers to Ca are tested: that conifers have either low ABAf or a higher or absent threshold for ABA-induced sensitivity. The responsiveness of stomatal conductance (gs) to a sequence of transitions in Ca (386, 100, and 600 μmol mol−1) was recorded over a range of ABAf in an angiosperm and two divergent conifer species. The different ABA levels were induced by a mild drought cycle. Although the angiosperm and conifer species showed similar proportional increases in ABAf following drought, conifer stomata remained insensitive to changes in Ca whereas angiosperm stomata showed enhanced sensitivity with increasing ABAf. The conifers, however, had much higher ABAf prior to drought than the angiosperm species, suggesting that non-sensitivity to Ca in these conifers was due to an absent or inactive response/signalling pathway rather than insufficient ABAf

Diurnal cycles of embolism formation and repair in petioles of grapevine (Vitis vinifera cv. Chasselas)

The impact of water deficit on stomatal conductance (gs), petiole hydraulic conductance (Kpetiole), and vulnerability to cavitation (PLC, percentage loss of hydraulic conductivity) in leaf petioles has been observed on field-grown vines (Vitis vinifera L. cv. Chasselas). Petioles were highly vulnerable to cavitation, with a 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity at a stem xylem water potential (Ψx) of –0.95 MPa, and up to 90% loss of conductivity at a Ψx of –1.5 MPa. Kpetiole described a daily cycle, decreasing during the day as water stress and evapotranspiration increased, then rising again in the early evening up to the previous morning's Kpetiole levels. In water-stressed vines, PLC increased sharply during the daytime and reached maximum values (70–90%) in the middle of the afternoon. Embolism repair occurred in petioles from the end of the day through the night. Indeed, PLC decreased in darkness in water-stressed vines. PLC variation in irrigated plants showed the same tendency, but with a smaller amplitude. The Chasselas cultivar appears to develop hydraulic segmentation, in which petiole cavitation plays an important role as a ‘hydraulic fuse’, thereby limiting leaf transpiration and the propagation of embolism and preserving the integrity of other organs (shoots and roots) during water stress. In the present study, progressive stomatal closure responded to a decrease in Kpetiole and an increase in cavitation events. Almost total closure of stomata (90%) was measured when PLC in petioles reached >90%

Midday measurements of leaf water potential and stomatal conductance are highly correlated with daily water use of Thompson Seedless grapevines

A study was conducted to determine the relationship between midday measurements of vine water status and daily water use of grapevines measured with a weighing lysimeter. Water applications to the vines were terminated on August 24th for 9 days and again on September 14th for 22 days. Daily water use of the vines in the lysimeter (ETLYS) was approximately 40 L vine−1 (5.3 mm) prior to turning the pump off, and it decreased to 22.3 L vine−1 by September 2nd. Pre-dawn leaf water potential (ΨPD) and midday Ψl on August 24th were −0.075 and −0.76 MPa, respectively, with midday Ψl decreasing to −1.28 MPa on September 2nd. Leaf g s decreased from ~500 to ~200 mmol m−2 s−1 during the two dry-down periods. Midday measurements of g s and Ψl were significantly correlated with one another (r = 0.96) and both with ETLYS/ETo (r = ~0.9). The decreases in Ψl, g s, and ETLYS/ETo in this study were also a linear function of the decrease in volumetric soil water content. The results indicate that even modest water stress can greatly reduce grapevine water use and that short-term measures of vine water status taken at midday are a reflection of daily grapevine water us

A multiscale hybrid model for pro-angiogenic calcium signals in a vascular endothelial cell

Cytosolic calcium machinery is one of the principal signaling mechanisms by which endothelial cells (ECs) respond to external stimuli during several biological processes, including vascular progression in both physiological and pathological conditions. Low concentrations of angiogenic factors (such as VEGF) activate in fact complex pathways involving, among others, second messengers arachidonic acid (AA) and nitric oxide (NO), which in turn control the activity of plasma membrane calcium channels. The subsequent increase in the intracellular level of the ion regulates fundamental biophysical properties of ECs (such as elasticity, intrinsic motility, and chemical strength), enhancing their migratory capacity. Previously, a number of continuous models have represented cytosolic calcium dynamics, while EC migration in angiogenesis has been separately approached with discrete, lattice-based techniques. These two components are here integrated and interfaced to provide a multiscale and hybrid Cellular Potts Model (CPM), where the phenomenology of a motile EC is realistically mediated by its calcium-dependent subcellular events. The model, based on a realistic 3-D cell morphology with a nuclear and a cytosolic region, is set with known biochemical and electrophysiological data. In particular, the resulting simulations are able to reproduce and describe the polarization process, typical of stimulated vascular cells, in various experimental conditions.Moreover, by analyzing the mutual interactions between multilevel biochemical and biomechanical aspects, our study investigates ways to inhibit cell migration: such strategies have in fact the potential to result in pharmacological interventions useful to disrupt malignant vascular progressio

Protein docking by Rotation-Based Uniform Sampling (RotBUS) with fast computing of intermolecular contact distance and residue desolvation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Protein-protein interactions are fundamental for the majority of cellular processes and their study is of enormous biotechnological and therapeutic interest. In recent years, a variety of computational approaches to the protein-protein docking problem have been reported, with encouraging results. Most of the currently available protein-protein docking algorithms are composed of two clearly defined parts: the sampling of the rotational and translational space of the interacting molecules, and the scoring and clustering of the resulting orientations. Although this kind of strategy has shown some of the most successful results in the CAPRI blind test <url>http://www.ebi.ac.uk/msd-srv/capri</url>, more efforts need to be applied. Thus, the sampling protocol should generate a pool of conformations that include a sufficient number of near-native ones, while the scoring function should discriminate between near-native and non-near-native proposed conformations. On the other hand, protocols to efficiently include full flexibility on the protein structures are increasingly needed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In these work we present new computational tools for protein-protein docking. We describe here the RotBUS (Rotation-Based Uniform Sampling) method to generate uniformly distributed sets of rigid-body docking poses, with a new fast calculation of the optimal contacting distance between molecules. We have tested the method on a standard benchmark of unbound structures and we can find near-native solutions in 100% of the cases. After applying a new fast filtering scheme based on residue-based desolvation, in combination with FTDock plus pyDock scoring, near-native solutions are found with rank ≤ 50 in 39% of the cases. Knowledge-based experimental restraints can be easily included to reduce computational times during sampling and improve success rates, and the method can be extended in the future to include flexibility of the side-chains.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This new sampling algorithm has the advantage of its high speed achieved by fast computing of the intermolecular distance based on a coarse representation of the interacting surfaces. In addition, a fast desolvation scoring permits the screening of millions of conformations at low computational cost, without compromising accuracy. The protocol presented here can be used as a framework to include restraints, flexibility and ensemble docking approaches.</p

Lattice permutations and Poisson-Dirichlet distribution of cycle lengths

We study random spatial permutations on Z^3 where each jump x -> \pi(x) is penalized by a factor exp(-T ||x-\pi(x)||^2). The system is known to exhibit a phase transition for low enough T where macroscopic cycles appear. We observe that the lengths of such cycles are distributed according to Poisson-Dirichlet. This can be explained heuristically using a stochastic coagulation-fragmentation process for long cycles, which is supported by numerical data.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figure

Influence of soil water content and atmospheric conditions on leaf water potential in cv. "Touriga Nacional" deep-rooted vineyards

Abstract In this study, the influence of soil and atmosphere conditions on noon and basal leaf water potential of vines ‘‘Touriga Nacional’’ in the Da˜o region submitted to different irrigation treatments is analysed. Both indicators showed to be dependent on environmental conditions at the time of measurement. Leaf water potential at noon of fully watered plants was linearly related with atmospheric conditions, with values registered when vapour pressure deficit (VPD) was higher than approximately 3 kPa being no different from the values registered in stressed plants. Therefore, this indicator cannot be reliably used to distinguish different plant water stress levels when atmospheric conditions induce high evaporative demands. The basal leaf water potential (wb) was also influenced by VPD at the time of measurement for all soil water conditions. In well irrigated plants, it was even possible to establish a baseline that can therefore be used to identify nonwater stressed conditions (wb (MPa) = -0.062–0.0972 VPD (kPa), r2 = 0.78). A good correlation was found between soil humidity and wb. However, more than the average value of the whole thickness of soil monitored, the wb values were dependent on the distribution of soil humidity, with the plants responding to the presence of wet layers