25,849 research outputs found
Subcellular immunocytochemical analysis detects the highest concentrations of glutathione in mitochondria and not in plastids
The tripeptide glutathione is a major antioxidant and redox buffer with multiple roles in plant metabolism. Glutathione biosynthesis is restricted to the cytosol and the plastids and the product is distributed to the various organelles by unknown mechanisms. In the present study immunogold cytochemistry based on anti-glutathione antisera and transmission electron microscopy was used to determine the relative concentration of glutathione in different organelles of Arabidopsis thaliana leaf and root cells. Glutathione-specific labelling was detected in all cellular compartments except the apoplast and the vacuole. The highest glutathione content was surprisingly not found in plastids, which have been described before as a major site of glutathione accumulation, but in mitochondria which lack the capacity for glutathione biosynthesis. Mitochondria of both leaf and root cells contained 7-fold and 4-fold, respectively, higher glutathione levels than plastids while the density of glutathione labelling in the cytosol, nuclei, and peroxisomes was intermediate. The accuracy of the glutathione labelling is supported by two observations. First, pre-adsorption of the anti-glutathione antisera with glutathione reduced the density of the gold particles in all organelles to background levels. Second, the overall glutathione-labelling density was reduced by about 90% in leaves of the glutathione-deficient Arabidopsis mutant pad2-1 and increased in transgenic plants with enhanced glutathione accumulation. Hence, there was a strong correlation between immunocytochemical and biochemical data of glutathione accumulation. Interestingly, the glutathione labelling of mitochondria in pad2-1 remained very similar to wild-type plants thus suggesting that the high mitochondrial glutathione content is maintained in a situation of permanent glutathione-deficiency at the expense of other glutathione pools. High and constant levels of glutathione in mitochondria appear to be particularly important in cell survival strategies and it is predicted that mitochondria must have highly competitive mitochondrial glutathione uptake systems. The present results underline the suggestion that subcellular glutathione concentrations are not controlled by a global mechanism but are controlled on an individual basis and it is therefore not possible to conclude from global biochemical glutathione analysis on the status of the various organellar pool
Inhomogeneous holographic thermalization
The sudden injection of energy in a strongly coupled conformal field theory
and its subsequent thermalization can be holographically modeled by a shell
falling into anti-de Sitter space and forming a black brane. For a homogeneous
shell, Bhattacharyya and Minwalla were able to study this process analytically
using a weak field approximation. Motivated by event-by-event fluctuations in
heavy ion collisions, we include inhomogeneities in this model, obtaining
analytic results in a long wavelength expansion. In the early-time window in
which our approximations can be trusted, the resulting evolution matches well
with that of a simple free streaming model. Near the end of this time window,
we find that the stress tensor approaches that of second-order viscous
hydrodynamics. We comment on possible lessons for heavy ion phenomenology.Comment: 53 pages, 10 figures; v2: references adde
Inhomogeneous Thermalization in Strongly Coupled Field Theories
To describe theoretically the creation and evolution of the quark-gluon
plasma, one typically employs three ingredients: a model for the initial state,
non-hydrodynamic early time evolution, and hydrodynamics. In this paper we
study the non-hydrodynamic early time evolution using the AdS/CFT
correspondence in the presence of inhomogeneities. We find that the AdS
description of the early time evolution is well-matched by free streaming. Near
the end of the early time interval where our analytic computations are
reliable, the stress tensor agrees with the second order hydrodynamic stress
tensor computed from the local energy density and fluid velocity. Our
techniques may also be useful for the study of far-from-equilibrium strongly
coupled systems in other areas of physics.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor clarifications and reference adde
From ferromagnetism to spin-density wave: Magnetism in the two channel periodic Anderson model
The magnetic properties of the two-channel periodic Anderson model for
uranium ions, comprised of a quadrupolar and a magnetic doublet are
investigated through the crossover from the mixed-valent to the stable moment
regime using dynamical mean field theory. In the mixed-valent regime
ferromagnetism is found for low carrier concentration on a hyper-cubic lattice.
The Kondo regime is governed by band magnetism with small effective moments and
an ordering vector \q close to the perfect nesting vector. In the stable
moment regime nearest neighbour anti-ferromagnetism dominates for less than
half band filling and a spin density wave transition for larger than half
filling. is governed by the renormalized RKKY energy scale \mu_{eff}^2
^2 J^2\rho_0(\mu).Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 3 eps figure
Observation of the spin-orbit gap in bilayer graphene by one-dimensional ballistic transport
We report on measurements of quantized conductance in gate-defined quantum
point contacts in bilayer graphene that allow the observation of subband
splittings due to spin-orbit coupling. The size of this splitting can be tuned
from 40 to 80 eV by the displacement field. We assign this gate-tunable
subband-splitting to a gap induced by spin-orbit coupling of Kane-Mele type,
enhanced by proximity effects due to the substrate. We show that this
spin-orbit coupling gives rise to a complex pattern in low perpendicular
magnetic fields, increasing the Zeeman splitting in one valley and suppressing
it in the other one. In addition, we observe the existence of a spin-polarized
channel of 6 e/h at high in-plane magnetic field and of signatures of
interaction effects at the crossings of spin-split subbands of opposite spins
at finite magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Supplement 6 figure
Diffusion and dispersion of passive tracers: Navier-Stokes versus MHD turbulence
A comparison of turbulent diffusion and pair-dispersion in homogeneous,
macroscopically isotropic Navier-Stokes (NS) and nonhelical magnetohydrodynamic
(MHD) turbulence based on high-resolution direct numerical simulations is
presented. Significant differences between MHD and NS systems are observed in
the pair-dispersion properties, in particular a strong reduction of the
separation velocity in MHD turbulence as compared to the NS case. It is shown
that in MHD turbulence the average pair-dispersion is slowed down for
, being
the Kolmogorov time, due to the alignment of the relative Lagrangian tracer
velocity with the local magnetic field. Significant differences in turbulent
single-particle diffusion in NS and MHD turbulence are not detected. The fluid
particle trajectories in the vicinity of the smallest dissipative structures
are found to be characterisically different although these comparably rare
events have a negligible influence on the statistics investigated in this work.Comment: Europhysics Letters, in prin
Paramagnetic reentrant effect in high purity mesoscopic AgNb proximity structures
We discuss the magnetic response of clean Ag coated Nb proximity cylinders in
the temperature range 150 \mu K < T < 9 K. In the mesoscopic temperature
regime, the normal metal-superconductor system shows the yet unexplained
paramagnetic reentrant effect, discovered some years ago [P. Visani, A. C.
Mota, and A. Pollini, Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 1514 (1990)], superimposing on full
Meissner screening. The logarithmic slope of the reentrant paramagnetic
susceptibility chi_para(T) \propto \exp(-L/\xi_N) is limited by the condition
\xi_N=n L, with \xi_N=\hbar v_F/2 \pi k_B T, the thermal coherence length and
n=1,2,4. In wires with perimeters L=72 \mu m and L=130 \mu m, we observe
integer multiples n=1,2,4. At the lowest temperatures, \chi_para compensates
the diamagnetic susceptibility of the \textit{whole} AgNb structure.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures (color
Stiff polymer in monomer ensemble
We make use of the previously developed formalism for a monomer ensemble and
include angular dependence of the segments of the polymer chains thus
described. In particular we show how to deal with stiffness when the polymer
chain is confined to certain regions. We investigate the stiffness from the
perspectives of a differential equation, integral equations, or recursive
relations for both continuum and lattice models. Exact analytical solutions are
presented for two cases, whereas numerical results are shown for a third case.Comment: 10 pages, including 6 figure
- …