Root hydrotropism is controlled via a cortex-specific growth mechanism

Plants can acclimate by using tropisms to link the direction of growth to environmental conditions. Hydrotropism allows roots to forage for water, a process known to depend on abscisic acid (ABA) but whose molecular and cellular basis remains unclear. Here, we show that hydrotropism still occurs in roots after laser ablation removed the meristem and root cap. Additionally, targeted expression studies reveal that hydrotropism depends on the ABA signalling kinase, SnRK2.2, and the hydrotropism-specific MIZ1, both acting specifically in elongation zone cortical cells. Conversely, hydrotropism, but not gravitropism, is inhibited by preventing differential cell-length increases in the cortex, but not in other cell types. We conclude that root tropic responses to gravity and water are driven by distinct tissue-based mechanisms. In addition, unlike its role in root gravitropism, the elongation zone performs a dual function during a hydrotropic response, both sensing a water potential gradient and subsequently undergoing differential growth

Insights into the regulation of DMSP synthesis in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana through APR activity, proteomics and gene expression analyses on cells acclimating to changes in salinity, light and nitrogen

Despite the importance of dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) in the global sulphur cycle and climate regulation, the biological pathways underpinning its synthesis in marine phytoplankton remain poorly understood. The intracellular concentration of DMSP increases with increased salinity, increased light intensity and nitrogen starvation in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. We used these conditions to investigate DMSP synthesis at the cellular level via analysis of enzyme activity, gene expression and proteome comparison. The activity of the key sulphur assimilatory enzyme, adenosine 5′- phosphosulphate reductase was not coordinated with increasing intracellular DMSP concentration. Under all three treatments coordination in the expression of sulphur assimilation genes was limited to increases in sulphite reductase transcripts. Similarly, proteomic 2D gel analysis only revealed an increase in phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase following increases in DMSP concentration. Our findings suggest that increased sulphur assimilation might not be required for increased DMSP synthesis, instead the availability of carbon and nitrogen substrates may be important in the regulation of this pathway. This contrasts with the regulation of sulphur metabolism in higher plants, which generally involves upregulation of several sulphur assimilatory enzymes. In T. pseudonana changes relating to sulphur metabolism were specific to the individual treatments and, given that little coordination was seen in transcript and protein responses across the three growth conditions, different patterns of regulation might be responsible for the increase in DMSP concentration seen under each treatment

Selected reactive oxygen species and antioxidant enzymes in common bean after Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola and Botrytis cinerea infection

Phaseolus vulgaris cv. Korona plants were inoculated with the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola (Psp), necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea (Bc) or with both pathogens sequentially. The aim of the experiment was to determine how plants cope with multiple infection with pathogens having different attack strategy. Possible suppression of the non-specific infection with the necrotrophic fungus Bc by earlier Psp inoculation was examined. Concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as superoxide anion (O2 -) and H2O2 and activities of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) were determined 6, 12, 24 and 48 h after inoculation. The measurements were done for ROS cytosolic fraction and enzymatic cytosolic or apoplastic fraction. Infection with Psp caused significant increase in ROS levels since the beginning of experiment. Activity of the apoplastic enzymes also increased remarkably at the beginning of experiment in contrast to the cytosolic ones. Cytosolic SOD and guaiacol peroxidase (GPOD) activities achieved the maximum values 48 h after treatment. Additional forms of the examined enzymes after specific Psp infection were identified; however, they were not present after single Bc inoculation. Subsequent Bc infection resulted only in changes of H2O2 and SOD that occurred to be especially important during plant–pathogen interaction. Cultivar Korona of common bean is considered to be resistant to Psp and mobilises its system upon infection with these bacteria. We put forward a hypothesis that the extent of defence reaction was so great that subsequent infection did not trigger significant additional response

The influence of semantic and phonological factors on syntactic decisions: An event-related brain potential study

During language production and comprehension, information about a word's syntactic properties is sometimes needed. While the decision about the grammatical gender of a word requires access to syntactic knowledge, it has also been hypothesized that semantic (i.e., biological gender) or phonological information (i.e., sound regularities) may influence this decision. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured while native speakers of German processed written words that were or were not semantically and/or phonologically marked for gender. Behavioral and ERP results showed that participants were faster in making a gender decision when words were semantically and/or phonologically gender marked than when this was not the case, although the phonological effects were less clear. In conclusion, our data provide evidence that even though participants performed a grammatical gender decision, this task can be influenced by semantic and phonological factors

Strong-coupling expansion and effective hamiltonians

When looking for analytical approaches to treat frustrated quantum magnets, it is often very useful to start from a limit where the ground state is highly degenerate. This chapter discusses several ways of deriving {effective Hamiltonians} around such limits, starting from standard {degenerate perturbation theory} and proceeding to modern approaches more appropriate for the derivation of high-order effective Hamiltonians, such as the perturbative continuous unitary transformations or contractor renormalization. In the course of this exposition, a number of examples taken from the recent literature are discussed, including frustrated ladders and other dimer-based Heisenberg models in a field, as well as the mapping between frustrated Ising models in a transverse field and quantum dimer models.Comment: To appear as a chapter in "Highly Frustrated Magnetism", Eds. C. Lacroix, P. Mendels, F. Mil

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes that recognize decameric peptide sequences of retinoblastoma binding protein 1 (RBP-1) associated with human breast cancer

Retinoblastoma binding protein 1 (RBP-1) is a 143-kDa nuclear phosphoprotein that promotes cell growth by inhibiting the product of retinoblastoma tumour suppressor gene (pRB). We recently found that RBP-1 contains KASIFLK, a heptameric peptide (250–256) recognized by human antibodies and overexpressed by breast cancer cells. In the present study, we demonstrate that human T-cells stimulated with RBP-1 decameric peptides containing KASIFLK can kill human breast cancer cells. These decamers, GLQKASIFLK (247–256) and KASIFLKTRV (250–259), have anchor motifs for both HLA-A2 and HLA-A3. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from 41 normal donors were stimulated by these peptides in culture media containing 15 IU ml−1 interleukin-2, 25 IU ml−1 interleukin-7 and 500 IU ml−1 granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Cytotoxic activity of the T-cells was assessed against autologous B lymphoblastoid cells pulsed with each peptide. Stimulation by GLQKASIFLK generated specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) lines from HLA-A2, A3 donors, HLA-A2 donors and HLA-A3 donors. Stimulation with KASIFLKTRV generated specific CTL lines from HLA-A2 donors. No HLA-A2−, A3− CTL line showed specific cytotoxicity against these target cells. These CTL lines were also cytotoxic against HLA-A2 and HLA-A3 breast cancer cells but not against normal fibroblastoid cell lines, normal epidermal cell lines, or a melanoma cell line. RBP-1 peptide antigens may be of clinical significance as a potential peptide vaccine against human breast cancer. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

The role of multiple marks in epigenetic silencing and the emergence of a stable bivalent chromatin state

We introduce and analyze a minimal model of epigenetic silencing in budding yeast, built upon known biomolecular interactions in the system. Doing so, we identify the epigenetic marks essential for the bistability of epigenetic states. The model explicitly incorporates two key chromatin marks, namely H4K16 acetylation and H3K79 methylation, and explores whether the presence of multiple marks lead to a qualitatively different systems behavior. We find that having both modifications is important for the robustness of epigenetic silencing. Besides the silenced and transcriptionally active fate of chromatin, our model leads to a novel state with bivalent (i.e., both active and silencing) marks under certain perturbations (knock-out mutations, inhibition or enhancement of enzymatic activity). The bivalent state appears under several perturbations and is shown to result in patchy silencing. We also show that the titration effect, owing to a limited supply of silencing proteins, can result in counter-intuitive responses. The design principles of the silencing system is systematically investigated and disparate experimental observations are assessed within a single theoretical framework. Specifically, we discuss the behavior of Sir protein recruitment, spreading and stability of silenced regions in commonly-studied mutants (e.g., sas2, dot1) illuminating the controversial role of Dot1 in the systems biology of yeast silencing.Comment: Supplementary Material, 14 page

A peptide corresponding to the neuropilin-1-binding site on VEGF165 induces apoptosis of neuropilin-1-expressing breast tumour cells

There is increasing evidence that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has autocrine as well as paracrine functions in tumour biology. Vascular endothelial growth factor-mediated cell survival signalling occurs via the classical tyrosine kinase receptors Flt-1, KDR/Flk-1 and the more novel neuropilin (NP) receptors, NP-1 and NP-2. A 24-mer peptide, which binds to neuropilin-1, induced apoptosis of murine and human breast carcinoma cells, whereas a peptide directed against KDR had no effect. Both anti-NP1 and anti-KDR peptides induced endothelial cell apoptosis. Confocal microscopy using 5-(6)-carboxyfluorescein-labelled peptides showed that anti-NP1 bound to both tumour and endothelial cells, whereas anti-KDR bound endothelial cells only. This study demonstrates that NP-1 plays an essential role in autocrine antiapoptotic signalling by VEGF in tumour cells and that NP1-blockade induces tumour cell and endothelial cell apoptosis. Specific peptides can therefore be used to target both autocrine (tumour cells) and paracrine (endothelial cells) signalling by VEGF

Induction of isoprenyl diphosphate synthases, plant hormones and defense signalling genes correlates with traumatic resin duct formation in Norway spruce (Picea abies)

Norway spruce (Picea abies) defends itself against herbivores and pathogens by formation of traumatic resin ducts filled with terpenoid-based oleoresin. An important group of enzymes in terpenoid biosynthesis are the short-chain isoprenyl diphosphate synthases which produce geranyl diphosphate (C10), farnesyl diphosphate (C15), and geranylgeranyl diphosphate (C20) as precursors of monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and diterpene resin acids, respectively. After treatment with methyl jasmonate (MJ) we investigated the expression of all isoprenyl diphosphate synthase genes characterized to date from Norway spruce and correlated this with formation of traumatic resin ducts and terpene accumulation. Formation of traumatic resin ducts correlated with higher amounts of monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and diterpene resin acids and an upregulation of isoprenyl diphosphate synthase genes producing geranyl diphosphate or geranylgeranyl diphosphate. Among defense hormones, jasmonate and jasmonate-isoleucine conjugate accumulated to higher levels in trees with extensive traumatic resin duct formation, whereas salicylate did not. Jasmonate and ethylene are likely to both be involved in formation of traumatic resin ducts based on elevated transcripts of genes encoding lipoxygenase and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidase associated with resin duct formation. Other genes involved in defense signalling in other systems, mitogen-activated protein kinase3 and nonexpressor of pathogenesis-related gene1, were also associated with traumatic resin duct formation. These responses were detected not only at the site of MJ treatment, but also systemically up to 60 cm above the site of treatment on the trunk