The influence of heterogeneous groundwater discharge on the timescales of contaminant mass flux from streambed sediments ? field evidence and long-term predictions

International audienceStreambed sediments can act as long-term storage zones for organic contaminants originating from the stream water. Until the early 1990s, the small man-made stream, subject of our study, in the industrial area of Bitterfeld (Germany), was used for waste water discharge from the chemical industry nearby. The occurrence of contaminants in the streambed is resulting from aqueous-phase transport and particle facilitated deposition. Groundwater discharge through the streambed can otherwise induce a remobilization and an advective contaminant flux so that contaminants are released back from the streambed to the stream water. We investigated the long-term mass flow rates of chlorinated benzenes (MCB, DCBs) from the streambed to the overlying stream water driven by advection of groundwater. The spatial patterns and magnitudes of groundwater discharge were examined along a reach of 220 m length. At 140 locations groundwater discharge was quantified using streambed temperatures and ranged from 11.0 to 455.0 Lm?2d?1. According to locations with high and low groundwater discharge, time-integrating passive samplers were used to monitor current contaminant concentrations in the streambed. Streambed contaminant concentrations at high groundwater discharge locations were found to be lower than at low discharge locations. Based on data from batch experiments and field observations we parameterized and run multiple one-dimensional advective transport models for the observed range of groundwater discharge magnitudes to simulate the timescales of contaminant release and their dependence on the magnitude of groundwater discharge. The results of the long-term predictive modeling revealed that the time required to reduce the concentrations and the resulting mass fluxes to the water to 10% of the initial values will be in the scale of decades for high-discharge locations and centuries for low-discharge locations, respectively

ASYMMETRIC LEAVES1 reveals knox gene redundancy in Arabidopsis

The shoot apical meristem comprises undifferentiated stem cells and their derivatives, which include founder cells for lateral organs such as leaves. Meristem maintenance and lateral organ specification are regulated in part by negative interactions between the myb domain transcription factor ASYMMETRIC LEAVES1, which is expressed in lateral organ primordia, and homeobox transcription factors which are expressed in the shoot apical meristem (knox genes). The knox gene SHOOT MERISTEMLESS (STAT) negatively regulates ASYMMETRIC LEAVES1 (AS1) which, in turn, negatively, regulates other knox genes including KNAT1 and KNAT2, and positively regulates the novel gene LATERAL ORGAN BOUNDARIES (LOB). Genetic interactions with a second gene, ASYMMETRIC LEAVES2 (AS2), indicate it acts at the same position in this hierarchy as AS1. We have used a second-site suppressor screen to isolate mutations in KNAT1 and we show that KNAT1 is partially redundant with STM in regulating stem cell function. Mutations in KNAT2 show no such interaction. We discuss the regulation and evolution of redundancy among knox genes

Noncoding RNAs and gene silencing

Noncoding RNA has long been proposed to control gene expression via sequence-specific interactions with regulatory regions. Here, we review the role of noncoding RNA in heterochromatic silencing and in the silencing of transposable elements (TEs), unpaired DNA in meiosis, and developmentally excised DNA. The role of cotranscriptional processing by RNA interference and by other mechanisms is discussed, as well as parallels with RNA silencing in imprinting, paramutation, polycomb silencing, and X inactivation. Interactions with regulatory sequences may well occur, but at the RNA rather than at the DNA level

Redundant regulation of meristem identity and plant architecture by FRUITFULL, APETALA1 and CAULIFLOWER

The transition from vegetative to reproductive phases during Arabidopsis development is the result of a complex interaction of environmental and endogenous factors. One of the key regulators of this transition is LEAFY (LFY), whose threshold levels of activity are proposed to mediate the initiation of flowers. The closely related APETALA1 (AP1) and CAULIFLOWER (CAL) meristem identity genes are also important for flower initiation, in part because of their roles in upregulating LFY expression. We have found that mutations in the FRUITFULL (FUL) MADS-box gene, when combined with mutations in AP1 and GAL, lead to a dramatic non-flowering phenotype in which plants continuously elaborate leafy shoots in place of flowers. We demonstrate that this phenotype is caused both by the lack of LFY upregulation and by the ectopic expression of the TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1) gene. Our results suggest that the FUL, AP1 and CAL genes act redundantly to control inflorescence architecture by affecting the domains of LFY and TFL1 expression as well as the relative levels of their activities

The FRUITFULL MADS-box gene mediates cell differentiation during Arabidopsis fruit development

Fruit morphogenesis is a process unique to flowering plants, and yet little is known about its developmental control, Following fertilization, fruits typically undergo a dramatic enlargement that is accompanied by differentiation of numerous distinct cell types. We have identified a mutation in Arabidopsis called fruitfull (ful-1), which abolishes elongation of the silique after fertilization. The ful-1 mutation is caused by the insertion of a DsE transposable enhancer trap element into the 5' untranslated leader of the AGL8 MADS-box gene. beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene expression in the enhancer trap line is observed specifically in all cell layers of the valve tissue, but not in the replum, the septum or the seeds, and faithfully mimics RNA in situ hybridization data reported previously, The lack of coordinated growth of the fruit tissues leads to crowded seeds, a failure of dehiscence and, frequently, the premature rupture of the carpel valves, The primary defect of ful-1 fruits is within the valves, whose cells fail to elongate and differentiate. Stomata, which are frequent along the epidermis of wild-type valves, are completely eliminated in the ful mutant valves. In addition to the effect on fruit development, ful cauline leaves are broader than those of wild type and show a reduction in the number of internal cell layers. These data suggest that AGL8/FUL regulates the transcription of genes required for cellular differentiation during fruit and leaf development

Somatically heritable switches in the DNA modification of Mu transposable elements monitored with a suppressible mutant in maize

Many transposable elements in maize alternate between active and inactive phases associated with the modification of their DNA. Elements in an inactive phase lose their ability to transpose, their ability to excise from reporter alleles and, in some cases, their ability to enhance or suppress mutant phenotypes caused by their insertion. The maize mutant hcf106 is a recessive pale green seedling lethal caused by the insertion of the transposable element Mu1. We show that the hcf106 mutant phenotype is suppressed in lines that have lost Mu activity. That is, homozygous hcf106 seedlings are dark green and viable when transposable elements belonging to the Robertson's Mutator family are modified in their terminal inverted repeats, a diagnostic feature of inactive lines. This property of the mutant phenotype has been used to follow clonal leaf sectors containing modified Mu elements that arise from single somatic cells during plant development. The distribution of these sectors indicates that epigenetic switches involving Mu DNA modification occur progressively as the meristem ages

Phyllotactic pattern and stem cell fate are determined by the Arabidopsis homeobox gene BELLRINGER

Lateral organs in plants arise from the meristem in a stereotypical pattern known as phyllotaxy. Spiral patterns result from initiation of successive organs at a fixed angle of divergence but variable patterns of physical contact. Such patterns ultimately give rise to individual leaves and flowers at positions related to each other by consecutive terms in the mathematical series first described by Leonardo Fibonacci. We demonstrate that a BELL1 related homeodomain protein in Arabidopsis, BELLRINGER, maintains the spiral phyllotactic pattern. In the absence of BELLRINGER, the regular pattern of organ initiation is disturbed and lateral organs are initiated more frequently. BELLRINGER is also required for maintenance of stem cell fate in the absence of the regulatory genes SHOOT MERISTEMLESS and ASYMMETRIC LEAVES1. We propose a model whereby BELLRINGER coordinates the maintenance of stem cells with differentiation of daughter cells in stem cell lineages

Time interval distributions of atoms in atomic beams

We report on the experimental investigation of two-particle correlations between neutral atoms in a Hanbury Brown and Twiss experiment. Both an atom laser beam and a pseudo-thermal atomic beam are extracted from a Bose-Einstein condensate and the atom flux is measured with a single atom counter. We determine the conditional and the unconditional detection probabilities for the atoms in the beam and find good agreement with the theoretical predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Chromosome conformation maps in fission yeast reveal cell cycle dependent sub nuclear structure

Successful progression through the cell cycle requires spatial and temporal regulation of gene transcript levels and the number, positions and condensation levels of chromosomes. Here we present a high resolution survey of genome interactions in Schizosaccharomyces pombe using synchronized cells to investigate cell cycle dependent changes in genome organization and transcription. Cell cycle dependent interactions were captured between and within S. pombe chromosomes. Known features of genome organization (e.g. the clustering of telomeres and retrotransposon long terminal repeats (LTRs)) were observed throughout the cell cycle. There were clear correlations between transcript levels and chromosomal interactions between genes, consistent with a role for interactions in transcriptional regulation at specific stages of the cell cycle. In silico reconstructions of the chromosome organization within the S. pombe nuclei were made by polymer modeling. These models suggest that groups of genes with high and low, or differentially regulated transcript levels have preferred positions within the S. pombe nucleus. We conclude that the S. pombe nucleus is spatially divided into functional sub-nuclear domains that correlate with gene activity. The observation that chromosomal interactions are maintained even when chromosomes are fully condensed in M phase implicates genome organization in epigenetic inheritance and bookmarking

CRL4-like Clr4 complex in Schizosaccharomyces pombe depends on an exposed surface of Dos1 for heterochromatin silencing

Repressive histone H3 lysine 9 methylation (H3K9me) and its recognition by HP1 proteins are necessary for pericentromeric heterochromatin formation. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, H3K9me deposition depends on the RNAi pathway. Cryptic loci regulator 4 (Clr4), the only known H3K9 methyltransferase in this organism, is a subunit of the Clr4 methyltransferase complex (CLRC), whose composition is reminiscent of a CRL4 type cullin-RING ubiquitin ligase (CRL) including its cullin Cul4, the RING-box protein Pip1, the DNA damage binding protein 1 homolog Rik1, and the DCAF-like protein delocalization of Swi6 1 (Dos1). Dos2 and Stc1 have been proposed to be part of the complex but do not bear similarity to canonical ubiquitin ligase components. CLRC is an active E3 ligase in vitro, and this activity is necessary for heterochromatin assembly in vivo. The similarity between CLRC and the CRLs suggests that the WD repeat protein Dos1 will act to mediate target recognition and substrate specificity for CLRC. Here, we present a pairwise interaction screen that confirms a CRL4-like subunit arrangement and further identifies Dos2 as a central component of the complex and recruiter of Stc1. We determined the crystal structure of the Dos1 WD repeat domain, revealing an eight-bladed beta-propeller fold. Functional mapping of the putative target-binding surface of Dos1 identifies key residues required for heterochromatic silencing, consistent with Dos1's role as the specificity factor for the E3 ubiquitin ligase