Performing Griko beyond ‘death’

This article examines the ways in which Griko, a ‘dying’ language of Greek origins, may ‘live’ despite its limited use as a medium of daily communication and the death of its speakers. It argues that, while its use as a vehicle to convey information has progessively faded out, its performative and artistic use has increased, rendering Griko a cultural and social resource. This shift in the language ideology of the locals would have not occurred without the legacy of a variety of local actors and activists, which keeps allowing for Griko to be a performative post-linguistic vernacular, despite the death of its very speakers

L’esperienza di Mons. Boļeslavs Sloskāns nella Russia sovietica attraverso le sue memorie di prigionia (1927-1933).

La Russia sovietica degli anni Venti e Trenta vede un graduale inasprimento della persecuzione religiosa, compresa quella messa in atto nei confronti dei cattolici lì presenti. Mentre la diplomazia vaticana si muove tra mille difficoltà per ripristinare una gerarchia ecclesiastica cattolica in Russia, sono pochi i Vescovi di Roma che restano saldamente al loro posto in quei territori pur di non abbandonare il gregge loro affidato. Uno di questi è il Vescovo Boļeslavs Sloskāns, che, fedele al suo motto episcopale, Hostia pro fratibus, affronta arresti, interrogatori, prigionia e tutto quello che normalmente subivano le vittime delle persecuzioni staliniane. Testimonianza della sua esperienza di quegli anni è il Diario di prigionia (che copre gli anni dal 1927 al 1933) ritrovato tra i documenti vaticani e di cui qui vengono proposti e commentati diversi passaggi dell’originale manoscritto francese

At the root of the wood wide web: self recognition an nonself incompatibility in mycorrhizal networks.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are mutualistic symbionts living in the roots of 80% of land plant species, and developing extensive, below-ground extraradical hyphae fundamental for the uptake of soil nutrients and their transfer to host plants. Since AM fungi have a wide host range, they are able to colonize and interconnect contiguous plants by means of hyphae extending from one root system to another. Such hyphae may fuse due to the widespread occurrence of anastomoses, whose formation depends on a highly regulated mechanism of self recognition. Here, we examine evidences of self recognition and non-self incompatibility in hyphal networks formed by AM fungi and discuss recent results showing that the root systems of plants belonging to different species, genera and families may be connected by means of anastomosis formation between extraradical mycorrhizal networks, which can create indefinitely large numbers of belowground fungal linkages within plant communities

A surge of late-occurring meiotic double-strand breaks rescues synapsis abnormalities in spermatocytes of mice with hypomorphic expression of SPO11

Meiosis is the biological process that, after a cycle of DNA replication, halves the cellular chromosome complement, leading to the formation of haploid gametes. Haploidization is achieved via two successive rounds of chromosome segregation, meiosis I and II. In mammals, during prophase of meiosis I, homologous chromosomes align and synapse through a recombination-mediated mechanism initiated by the introduction of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by the SPO11 protein. In male mice, if SPO11 expression and DSB number are reduced below heterozygosity levels, chromosome synapsis is delayed, chromosome tangles form at pachynema, and defective cells are eliminated by apoptosis at epithelial stage IV at a spermatogenesis-specific endpoint. Whether DSB levels produced in Spo11 +/− spermatocytes represent, or approximate, the threshold level required to guarantee successful homologous chromosome pairing is unknown. Using a mouse model that expresses Spo11 from a bacterial artificial chromosome, within a Spo11 −/− background, we demonstrate that when SPO11 expression is reduced and DSBs at zygonema are decreased (approximately 40 % below wild-type level), meiotic chromosome pairing is normal. Conversely, DMC1 foci number is increased at pachynema, suggesting that under these experimental conditions, DSBs are likely made with delayed kinetics at zygonema. In addition, we provide evidences that when zygotene-like cells receive enough DSBs before chromosome tangles develop, chromosome synapsis can be completed in most cells, preventing their apoptotic elimination

Changes in soil aggregation and glomalin-related soil protein content as affected by the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species Glomus mosseae and Glomus intraradices.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are key organisms of the soil/plant system, influencing soil fertility and plant nutrition, and contributing to soil aggregation and soil structure stability by the combined action of extraradical hyphae and of an insoluble, hydrophobic proteinaceous substance named glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP). Since the GRSP extraction procedures have recently revealed problems related to co-extracting substances, the relationship between GRSP and AM fungi still remains to be verified. In this work the hypothesis that GRSP concentration is positively correlated with the occurrence of AM fungi was tested by using Medicago sativa plants inoculated with different isolates of Glomus mosseae and Glomus intraradices in a microcosm experiment. Our results show that (i) mycorrhizal establishment produced an increase in GRSP concentration – compared to initial values – in contrast with non-mycorrhizal plants, which did not produce any change; (ii) aggregate stability, evaluated as mean weight diameter (MWD) of macroaggregates of 1–2 mm diameter, was significantly higher in mycorrhizal soils compared to non-mycorrhizal soil; (iii) GRSP concentration and soil aggregate stability were positively correlated with mycorrhizal root volume and weakly correlated with total root volume; (iv) MWD values of soil aggregates were positively correlated with values of total hyphal length and hyphal density of the AM fungi utilized. The different ability of AM fungal isolates to affect GRSP concentration and to form extensive and dense mycelial networks, which may directly affect soil aggregates stability by hyphal enmeshment of soil particles, suggests the possibility of selecting the most efficient isolates to be utilized for soil quality improvement and land restoration programs