Etn@ref: a geodetic reference frame for Mt. Etna GPS networks

In volcanology, one of the most important instruments for scientific community interested in modelling the physical processes related to magma movements in the shallow crust is geodetic data. Since the end of the 1980s, GPS surveys and Continuous GPS stations (CGPS) have greatly improved the possibility to measure such movements with high time and space resolution. However, physical modelling requires that any external influence on the data, not directly related to the investigated quantity, must be filtered. One major tricky factor in determining a deformation field using GPS displacement vectors and velocities is the correct choice of a stable reference frame. In this work, using more than a decade of GPS measurements, we defined a local reference frame in order to refer the Mt. Etna ground deformation pattern to a rigid block. In particular, we estimated the Euler pole for the rigid block by minimizing, with a weighted least squares inversion, the adjustments to two horizontal components of GPS velocity at 13 “fiducial” sites located within 350 km around Mt. Etna. The inversion inferred an Euler pole located at 38.450° N and -107.702° E and a rotation rate of 0.263 deg/Myr

Identification of a New Complement Factor H Mutation in a Patient With Pregnancy-Related Acute Kidney Injury

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High levels of auxin signalling define the stem-cell organizer of the vascular cambium

Wood, a type of xylem tissue, originates from cell proliferation of the vascular cambium. Xylem is produced inside, and phloem outside, of the cambium(1). Morphogenesis in plants is typically coordinated by organizer cells that direct the adjacent stem cells to undergo programmed cell division and differentiation. The location of the vascular cambium stem cells and whether the organizer concept applies to the cambium are currently unknown(2). Here, using lineage-tracing and molecular genetic studies in the roots of Arabidopsis thaliana, we show that cells with a xylem identity direct adjacent vascular cambial cells to divide and function as stem cells. Thus, these xylem-identity cells constitute an organizer. A local maximum of the phytohormone auxin, and consequent expression of CLASS III HOMEODOMAIN-LEUCINE ZIPPER (HD-ZIP III) transcription factors, promotes xylem identity and cellular quiescence of the organizer cells. Additionally, the organizer maintains phloem identity in a non-cell-autonomous fashion. Consistent with this dual function of the organizer cells, xylem and phloem originate from a single, bifacial stem cell in each radial cell file, which confirms the classical theory of a uniseriate vascular cambium(3). Clones that display high levels of ectopically activated auxin signalling differentiate as xylem vessels; these clones induce cell divisions and the expression of cambial and phloem markers in the adjacent cells, which suggests that a local auxin-signalling maximum is sufficient to specify a stem-cell organizer. Although vascular cambium has a unique function among plant meristems, the stem-cell organizer of this tissue shares features with the organizers of root and shoot meristems.Peer reviewe

Parsimonious Model of Vascular Patterning Links Transverse Hormone Fluxes to Lateral Root Initiation : Auxin Leads the Way, while Cytokinin Levels Out

An auxin maximum is positioned along the xylem axis of the Arabidopsis root tip. The pattern depends on mutual feedback between auxin and cytokinins mediated by the PIN class of auxin efflux transporters and AHP6, an inhibitor of cytokinin signalling. This interaction has been proposed to regulate the size and the position of the hormones' respective signalling domains and specify distinct boundaries between them. To understand the dynamics of this regulatory network, we implemented a parsimonious computational model of auxin transport that considers hormonal regulation of the auxin transporters within a spatial context, explicitly taking into account cell shape and polarity and the presence of cell walls. Our analysis reveals that an informative spatial pattern in cytokinin levels generated by diffusion is a theoretically unlikely scenario. Furthermore, our model shows that such a pattern is not required for correct and robust auxin patterning. Instead, auxin-dependent modifications of cytokinin response, rather than variations in cytokinin levels, allow for the necessary feedbacks, which can amplify and stabilise the auxin maximum. Our simulations demonstrate the importance of hormonal regulation of auxin efflux for pattern robustness. While involvement of the PIN proteins in vascular patterning is well established, we predict and experimentally verify a role of AUX1 and LAX1/2 auxin influx transporters in this process. Furthermore, we show that polar localisation of PIN1 generates an auxin flux circuit that not only stabilises the accumulation of auxin within the xylem axis, but also provides a mechanism for auxin to accumulate specifically in the xylem-pole pericycle cells, an important early step in lateral root initiation. The model also revealed that pericycle cells on opposite xylem poles compete for auxin accumulation, consistent with the observation that lateral roots are not initiated opposite to each other.Peer reviewe

Auxin Influx Carriers Control Vascular Patterning and Xylem Differentiation in Arabidopsis thaliana

Auxin is an essential hormone for plant growth and development. Auxin influx carriers AUX1/LAX transport auxin into the cell, while auxin efflux carriers PIN pump it out of the cell. It is well established that efflux carriers play an important role in the shoot vascular patterning, yet the contribution of influx carriers to the shoot vasculature remains unknown. Here, we combined theoretical and experimental approaches to decipher the role of auxin influx carriers in the patterning and differentiation of vascular tissues in the Arabidopsis inflorescence stem. Our theoretical analysis predicts that influx carriers facilitate periodic patterning and modulate the periodicity of auxin maxima. In agreement, we observed fewer and more spaced vascular bundles in quadruple mutants plants of the auxin influx carriers aux1lax1lax2lax3. Furthermore, we show AUX1/LAX carriers promote xylem differentiation in both the shoot and the root tissues. Influx carriers increase cytoplasmic auxin signaling, and thereby differentiation. In addition to this cytoplasmic role of auxin, our computational simulations propose a role for extracellular auxin as an inhibitor of xylem differentiation. Altogether, our study shows that auxin influx carriers AUX1/LAX regulate vascular patterning and differentiation in plants.Peer reviewe

Diffusible repression of cytokinin signalling produces endodermal symmetry and passage cells.

In vascular plants, the root endodermis surrounds the central vasculature as a protective sheath that is analogous to the polarized epithelium in animals, and contains ring-shaped Casparian strips that restrict diffusion. After an initial lag phase, individual endodermal cells suberize in an apparently random fashion to produce 'patchy' suberization that eventually generates a zone of continuous suberin deposition. Casparian strips and suberin lamellae affect paracellular and transcellular transport, respectively. Most angiosperms maintain some isolated cells in an unsuberized state as so-called 'passage cells', which have previously been suggested to enable uptake across an otherwise-impermeable endodermal barrier. Here we demonstrate that these passage cells are late emanations of a meristematic patterning process that reads out the underlying non-radial symmetry of the vasculature. This process is mediated by the non-cell-autonomous repression of cytokinin signalling in the root meristem, and leads to distinct phloem- and xylem-pole-associated endodermal cells. The latter cells can resist abscisic acid-dependent suberization to produce passage cells. Our data further demonstrate that, during meristematic patterning, xylem-pole-associated endodermal cells can dynamically alter passage-cell numbers in response to nutrient status, and that passage cells express transporters and locally affect the expression of transporters in adjacent cortical cells

Mobile PEAR transcription factors integrate positional cues to prime cambial growth.

Apical growth in plants initiates upon seed germination, whereas radial growth is primed only during early ontogenesis in procambium cells and activated later by the vascular cambium1. Although it is not known how radial growth is organized and regulated in plants, this system resembles the developmental competence observed in some animal systems, in which pre-existing patterns of developmental potential are established early on2,3. Here we show that in Arabidopsis the initiation of radial growth occurs around early protophloem-sieve-element cell files of the root procambial tissue. In this domain, cytokinin signalling promotes the expression of a pair of mobile transcription factors-PHLOEM EARLY DOF 1 (PEAR1) and PHLOEM EARLY DOF 2 (PEAR2)-and their four homologues (DOF6, TMO6, OBP2 and HCA2), which we collectively name PEAR proteins. The PEAR proteins form a short-range concentration gradient that peaks at protophloem sieve elements, and activates gene expression that promotes radial growth. The expression and function of PEAR proteins are antagonized by the HD-ZIP III proteins, well-known polarity transcription factors4-the expression of which is concentrated in the more-internal domain of radially non-dividing procambial cells by the function of auxin, and mobile miR165 and miR166 microRNAs. The PEAR proteins locally promote transcription of their inhibitory HD-ZIP III genes, and thereby establish a negative-feedback loop that forms a robust boundary that demarks the zone of cell division. Taken together, our data establish that during root procambial development there exists a network in which a module that links PEAR and HD-ZIP III transcription factors integrates spatial information of the hormonal domains and miRNA gradients to provide adjacent zones of dividing and more-quiescent cells, which forms a foundation for further radial growth.Gatsby Foundation [GAT3395/PR3)] University of Helsinki [award 799992091] ERC Grant SYMDEV [No. 323052] NSF-BBSRC MCSB 1517058 etc

Hormonal regulation of primary and secondary growth in the root of Arabidopsis thaliana

Plants possess the rare capability to shape the own architecture according to biotic and abiotic stimuli received from the environment. Spatially defined groups of cells, called meristems, contribute to the division and differentiation processes continuously occurring inside the organism. Meristems can be classified as primary meristems, if they are specified during embryogenesis, or secondary meristems, if they form from undifferentiated, quiescent cells outside the primary meristems. Primary meristems, like the Root Apical Meristem (RAM) and the Shoot Apical Meristem (SAM), coordinate the apical growth of the plant in opposite directions, while secondary meristems shape the radial architecture, regulating the thickness and branching of the primary root and shoot. Cambium is a secondary meristem which produces the vascular tissues xylem and phloem. Xylem transports water and minerals from the root to the photosynthetic tissues; it comprises lignified dead conducting cells called tracheary elements, living parenchyma cells, and lignified dead cells, called fibres, which confer mechanical support and strength. Phloem distributes glucose, RNA, viruses, and proteins from the photosynthetic sources to the sink cells; it consists of empty living sieve elements, supporting companion cells, and parenchyma cells. In order to investigate the regulation of primary and secondary growth, we developed a new chemically inducible system to control the timing and location of the induction of an effector or gene of interest. This enables us to avoid deleterious effects such as seed lethality or sterility when studying the role of a gene in a particular cell type. For example, the meristem cambium is difficult to access through normal techniques, since mutations affecting cambial cell divisions often inhibit the primary growth, too. We developed the inducible system by combining the Multi-Site Gateway cloning technology with the already extant XVE inducible system. This system was used to perform part of the research presented in the thesis. Phytohormones are involved in virtually every aspect of plant life, from development to stress response. They are small molecules which act cellautonomously or non-cell-autonomously to mediate the majority of developmental and environmental responses and, consequently, the activity of the meristems throughout the plant life cycle. Auxin and cytokinins, which were among the first phytohormones discovered, regulate almost every aspect of plant life, such as the division and differentiation processes occurring continuously in the RAM and SAM. The two phytohormones have long been known to interact, and recent studies have uncovered significant crosstalk on the level of biosynthesis, transport, signalling and degradation. We investigated the dynamic role of auxin in maintaining the balance between division, elongation, differentiation in the RAM of the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Our results confirm that an optimal level of auxin response is required for division and elongation, while differentiation mechanisms require just a minimal concentration of auxin to proceed normally. We discovered that auxin and cytokinin responses interact synergistically to specify the stem cells and to regulate the timing of divisions in the cambium of Arabidopsis thaliana. The auxin and cytokinin signalling pathways both have a positive role in triggering secondary growth, but the hierarchy of the crosstalk between them is still unclear. Finally, auxin transported via the AUX1/LAX auxin influx carriers regulates the differentiation of vessel elements in the later stages of root cambium development. In summary, we confirm that auxin and cytokinins behave as master regulators of meristematic activities throughout the root, as the signalling pathways associated with both phytohormones heavily influence primary and secondary growth

La trasformazione diretta delle mappe catastali al sistema Gauss - Boaga ROMA 40 della provincia Etnea

La cartografia catastale costituisce una base informativa indispensabile per qualunque ente che gestisce il proprio territorio con un Sistema informativo Territoriale (SIT). La trasformazione delle mappe catastali nel sistema di riferimento nazionale è un operazione di fondamentale importanza per assicurare l’interoperabilità tra i DB dei diversi Enti. Grazie a questa è possibile il collegamento tra i diversi livelli informativi (cartografia, piani regolatori, reti tecnologiche, etc.). Il presente lavoro analizza il caso della Provincia di Catania, composta da più sistemi d’asse di piccola estensione e mostra i risultati della trasformazione delle mappe catastali nel sistema GB realizzata con un procedura semplificata. The cadastral mapping is an essential information base for each institution that administers its land trough a Geographics Information Systems (GIS). The transformation of cadastral maps into the national reference frame is a procedure of fundamental importance for ensure the interoperability among topographical DB of different Agencies. Through this it is possible the connection between the different levels of information (maps, plans, technological networks, etc.). This paper analyzes the case of the Province of Catania, composed of multiple axis systems of small extent and shows the results of the transformation of cadastral maps in the GB system realized with a simplified procedure