High energy ion beam irradiation of Co NiFe Co Cu multilayers Effects on the structural, transport and magnetic properties

The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of 593 MeVAu irradiation using two different projectile charges, namely Au30 and Au46.3 on the structural, transport and magnetization properties of Co NiFe Co Cu multilayers. X Ray diffraction and extended X ray absorption fine structures measurements show no significant structural change for as deposited and irradiated multilayers. On the other hand, the magnetoresistance amplitude decreases with the ion fluence but it is insensitive to the projectile charge state. The correlation between changes in the magnetoresistance and remanent magnetization suggests that the main effect responsible for the decrease of the magnetoresistance is the creation of ferromagnetic pinholes. These results are discussed on basis of the electronic thermal spike model and nuclear cascades theory and show similarities to the effects observed at low energy ion beam irradiatio

Epidermal Pavement Cells of Arabidopsis Have Chloroplasts

Letter to edito

Abscisic Acid Insensitive 4 transcription factor is an important player in the response of Arabidopsis thaliana to two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) feeding.

Plants growing in constantly changeable environmental conditions are compelled to evolve regulatory mechanisms to cope with biotic and abiotic stresses. Effective defence to invaders is largely connected with phytohormone regulation, resulting in the production of numerous defensive proteins and specialized metabolites. In our work, we elucidated the role of the Abscisic Acid Insensitive 4 (ABI4) transcription factor in the plant response to the two-spotted spider mite (TSSM). This polyphagous mite is one of the most destructive herbivores, which sucks mesophyll cells of numerous crop and wild plants. Compared to the wild-type (Col-0) Arabidopsis thaliana plants, the abi4 mutant demonstrated increased susceptibility to TSSM, reflected as enhanced female fecundity and greater frequency of mite leaf damage after trypan blue staining. Because ABI4 is regarded as an important player in the plastid-to-nucleus retrograde signalling process, we investigated the plastid envelope membrane dynamics using stroma-associated fluorescent marker. Our results indicated a clear increase in the number of stroma-filled tubular structures deriving from the plastid membrane (stromules) in the close proximity of the site of mite leaf damage, highlighting the importance of chloroplast-derived signals in the response to TSSM feeding activity

Direct evidence for projectile charge state dependent crater formation due to fast ions

We report on craters formed by individual 3 MeV u Auqini ions of selected incident charge states qini penetrating thin layers of poly methyl methacrylate . Holes and raised regions are formed around the region of the impact, with sizes that depend strongly and differently on qini. Variation of qini, of the film thickness and of the angle of incidence allows us to extract information about the depth of origin contributing to different crater feature

Dynein Motion Switches from Diffusive to Directed upon Cortical Anchoring

Cytoplasmic dynein is a motor protein that exerts force on microtubules. To generate force for the movement of large organelles, dynein needs to be anchored, with the anchoring sites being typically located at the cell cortex. However, the mechanism by which dyneins target sites where they can generate large collective forces is unknown. Here, we directly observe single dyneins during meiotic nuclear oscillations in fission yeast and identify the steps of the dynein binding process: from the cytoplasm to the microtubule and from the microtubule to cortical anchors. We observed that dyneins on the microtubule move either in a diffusive or directed manner, with the switch from diffusion to directed movement occurring upon binding of dynein to cortical anchors. This dual behavior of dynein on the microtubule, together with the two steps of binding, enables dyneins to self-organize into a spatial pattern needed for them to generate large collective forces