Late Neoproterozoic passive margin of East Gondwana: geochemical constraints from the Anakie Inlier, central Queensland, Australia

Development of the East Gondwana passive margin and when it occurred are constrained by the composition of low grade mafic schists and U-Pb ages of detrital zircons in psammitic schists from the Bathampton Metamorphics in the Anakie Inlier of central Queensland. These rocks show considerable variation in light lithophile elements due to post-magmatic processes. They have flat heavy rare earth element patterns, low-TiO2 (\u3c2 wt%) contents and their immobile element Ti, V, Y, La, Nb, Th and Zr values, indicate that they have an NMORB- like magmatic affinity. However, they differ from N-MORB in that they show light rare earth depleted patterns and lower incompatible trace element contents. Their relative low abundance and association with metasediments suggest they formed in a magma-poor rifted margin setting. They are associated with psammitic rocks with detrital zircon ages indicating probable deposition in the late Neoproterozoic at ca 600 Ma. A magma-poor rifted margin in northeastern Australia differs from the volcanic passive setting that occurred in southeastern Australia at this time. These findings support development of the East Gondwana margin at 600 Ma that may have been related to rifting of a microcontinent off East Gondwana well after the breakup of Rodinia at ca 750 Ma

High-pressure metamorphism in the southern New England Orogen: Implications for long-lived accretionary orogenesis in eastern Australia

New geochemical, metamorphic, and isotopic data are presented from high-pressure metamorphic rocks in the southern New England Orogen (eastern Australia). Conventional and optimal thermobarometry are augmented by U-Pb zircon and 40Ar/39Ar phengite dating to define pressure-temperature-time (P-T-t) histories for the rocks. The P-T-t histories are compared with competing geodynamic models for the Tasmanides, which can be summarized as (i) a retreating orogen model, the Tasmanides formed above a continuous, west dipping, and eastward retreating subduction zone, and (ii) a punctuated orogen model, the Tasmanides formed by several arc accretion, subduction flip, and/or transference events. Whereas both scenarios are potentially supported by the new data, an overlap between the timing of metamorphic recrystallization and key stages of Tasmanides evolution favors a relationship between a single, long-lived subduction zone and the formation, exhumation, and exposure of the high-pressure rocks. By comparison with the retreating orogen model, the following links with the P-T-t histories emerge: (i) exhumation and underplating of oceanic eclogite during the Delamerian Orogeny, (ii) recrystallization of underplated and exhuming high-pressure rocks at amphibolite facies conditions coeval with a period of rollback, and (iii) selective recrystallization of high-pressure rocks at blueschist facies conditions, reflecting metamorphism in a cooled subduction zone. The retreating orogen model can also account for the anomalous location of the Cambrian-Ordovician high-pressure rocks in the Devonian-Carboniferous New England Orogen, where sequential rollback cycles detached and translated parts of the leading edge of the overriding plate to the next, younger orogenic cycle

Backarc basin and ocean island basalts in the Narooma Accretionary Complex, Australia: setting, geochemistry and tectonics

The Cambrian-Ordovician Wagonga Group contains basalts at Melville Point and Barlings Beach, 20 km south of Batemans Bay, New South Wales. At Melville Point, the succession has basal altered basalts overlain by chert and interbedded siliceous mudstone of the Wagonga Group, in turn overlain by turbidites and chert of the Adaminaby Group with a latest Cambrian to earliest Ordovician age. By contrast, at Barlings Beach, basalt is associated with highly disrupted chert (tectonic mélange), various slivers of mudstone and turbidites, and turbidites of the Adaminaby Group. Immobile elements in the basalts show consistent patterns that allow the magmatic affinity and tectonic setting to be determined in spite of pervasive hydrothermal alteration and subsequent lower greenschist facies metamorphism that accompanied strong folding and multiple foliation development. The Melville Point basalts show Ti/V ratios transitional between arc and MORB and therefore may have formed in either a forearc or backarc basin setting. However, these rocks have higher Ti/V ratios, LREE, Th and Nb than found in forearc basalts and are therefore considered to have formed in a backarc basin setting. In contrast to Melville Point, most basalts at Barlings Beach have a geochemical signature distinctive of ocean island settings like those reported from elsewhere in the Wagonga Group. We believe these rocks developed in a Cambrian backarc basin setting. In the Early to Middle Ordovician, much of the ocean basin was inundated by quartzose turbidites followed by basin destruction with accretion/underplating at a Late Ordovician-early Silurian Benambran subduction zone and formation of the Narooma Accretionary Complex

The promoter of ZmMRP-1, a maize transfer cell-specific transcriptional activator, is induced at solute exchange surfaces and responds to transport demands

Transfer cells have specializations that facilitate the transport of solutes across plant exchange surfaces. ZmMRP-1 is a maize (Zea mays) endosperm transfer cell-specific transcriptional activator that plays a central role in the regulatory pathways controlling transfer cell differentiation and function. The present work investigates the signals controlling the expression of ZmMRP-1 through the production of transgenic lines of maize, Arabidopsis, tobacco and barley containing ZmMRP-1promoter:GUS reporter constructs. The GUS signal predominantly appeared in regions of active transport between source and sink tissues, including nematode-induced feeding structures and at sites of vascular connection between developing organs and the main plant vasculature. In those cases, promoter induction was associated with the initial developmental stages of transport structures. Significantly, transfer cells also differentiated in these regions suggesting that, independent of species, location or morphological features, transfer cells might differentiate in a similar way under the influence of conserved induction signals. In planta and yeast experiments showed that the promoter activity is modulated by carbohydrates, glucose being the most effective inducer

The F-actin cytoskeleton in syncytia from non-clonal progenitor cells

The actin cytoskeleton of plant syncytia (a multinucleate cell arising through fusion) is poorly known: to date, there have only been reports about F-actin organization in plant syncytia induced by parasitic nematodes. To broaden knowledge regarding this issue, we analyzed F-actin organization in special heterokaryotic Utricularia syncytia, which arise from maternal sporophytic tissues and endosperm haustoria. In contrast to plant syncytia induced by parasitic nematodes, the syncytia of Utricularia have an extensive F-actin network. Abundant F-actin cytoskeleton occurs both in the region where cell walls are digested and the protoplast of nutritive tissue cells fuse with the syncytium and also near a giant amoeboid in the shape nuclei in the central part of the syncytium. An explanation for the presence of an extensive F-actin network and especially F-actin bundles in the syncytia is probably that it is involved in the movement of nuclei and other organelles and also the transport of nutrients in these physiological activity organs which are necessary for the development of embryos in these unique carnivorous plants. We observed that in Utricularia nutritive tissue cells, actin forms a randomly arranged network of F-actin, and later in syncytium, two patterns of F-actin were observed, one characteristic for nutritive cells and second—actin bundles—characteristic for haustoria and suspensors, thus syncytia inherit their F-actin patterns from their progenitors

Proto-Pacific-margin source for the Ordovician turbidite submarine fan, Lachlan Orogen, southeast Australia: geochemical constraints

The Early Palaeozoic proto-Pacific Pacific margin of Gondwana was characterised by a huge turbidite submarine fan with abundant clastic detritus derived from unknown sources within Gondwana. These deposits are widespread in the Lachlan Orogen of southeast Australia and include the Ordovician Adaminaby Group. Here we show that the mudstones and sandstones of the Adaminaby Group have chemical compositions that indicate the detritus in them was derived from a felsic, continental source similar in composition to Post Archean Australian Shales (PAAS). Chondrite normalised REE patterns showing LREE enrichment, flat PAAS normalised patterns and elemental ratios La/Sc, Cr/Th, Cr/V, Th/Sc and Th/U, have been used to support this interpretation. The dominance of quartz, and to a lesser degree plagioclase and biotite in the sandstones, suggests that the source was mainly granodioritic to tonalitic in composition. Th/Yb and Ta/Yb ratios indicate that the source was probably calc-alkaline, continental and shoshonitic. In addition, the presence of detrital muscovite, low-grade metamorphic and felsic volcanic clasts, demonstrates that a low-grade metamorphic terrane and volcanic arc contributed to the detritus observed in the samples. The presence of well-rounded zircons and tourmalines, very high Zr contents, high Zr/Sc and higher Cr/V ratios in some samples particularly in the Shoalhaven River area, indicate that some of the detritus was recycled.SiO2 versus (Al2O3 + K2O + Na2O) plots suggest the source areas experienced conditions varying from humid/semi-humid to semi-arid. Textural features and weathering trends of samples from all locations follow a curved pathway on Al2O3 - (CaO* + Na2O) - K2O (ACNK) diagrams, and indicate that the clays formed from weathering had been K-metasomatised prior to penetrative deformation. Chemical indices of alteration (CIA) reveal that even the freshest sandstones are altered and others are moderately to strongly altered. Discrimination diagrams involving major, trace and REE strongly support a collisional/continental volcanic arc setting that was substantially eroded to produce the plutonic detritus observed in the sandstones. The collisional setting accords with that proposed previously by other authors who suggested that it developed during the Delamerian Orogeny, resulting in the uplifted source areas providing detritus that inundated the backarc and forearc sites of the Macquarie Arc. Some of the detritus, however, may have been derived from a continental arc that existed in the late Cambrian along the margin of the Ross Orogen. Based on palaeocurrent analyses in previous studies and shoshonitic signature of the detritus, it is proposed that the Cambrian volcanics along the eastern active margin of Gondwana provided much of the detritus in the Adaminaby Group. Zircons with the Grenvillian signature suggest that some detritus were also derived from the Ross Orogen