Sunflower Plants as Bioindicators of Environmental Pollution with Lead (II) Ions

In this study, the influence of lead (II) ions on sunflower growth and biochemistry was investigated from various points of view. Sunflower plants were treated with 0, 10, 50, 100 and/or 500 μM Pb-EDTA for eight days. We observed alterations in growth in all experimental groups compared with non-treated control plants. Further we determined total content of proteins by a Bradford protein assay. By the eighth day of the experiment, total protein contents in all treated plants were much lower compared to control. Particularly noticeable was the loss of approx. 8 μg/mL or 15 μg/mL in shoots or roots of plants treated with 100 mM Pb-EDTA. We also focused our attention on the activity of alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST) and urease. Activity of the enzymes increased with increasing length of the treatment and applied concentration of lead (II) ions. This increase corresponds well with a higher metabolic activity of treated plants. Contents of cysteine, reduced glutathione (GSH), oxidized glutathione (GSSG) and phytochelatin 2 (PC2) were determined by high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Cysteine content declined in roots of plants with the increasing time of treatment of plants with Pb-EDTA and the concentration of toxic substance. Moreover, we observed ten times higher content of cysteine in roots in comparison with shoots. The observed reduction of cysteine content probably relates with its utilization for biosynthesis of GSH and phytochelatins, because the content of GSH and PC2 was similar in roots and shoots and increased with increased treatment time and concentration of Pb-EDTA. Moreover, we observed oxidative stress caused by Pb-EDTA in roots where the GSSG/GSH ratio was about 0.66. In shoots, the oxidative stress was less distinctive, with a GSSG/GSH ratio 0.14. We also estimated the rate of phytochelatin biosynthesis from the slope of linear equations plotted with data measured in the particular experimental group. The highest rate was detected in roots treated with 100 μM of Pb-EDTA. To determine heavy metal ions many analytical instruments can be used, however, most of them are only able to quantify total content of the metals. This problem can be overcome using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy, because it is able to provide a high spatial-distribution of metal ions in different types of materials, including plant tissues. Data obtained were used to assemble 3D maps of Pb and Mg distribution. Distribution of these elements is concentrated around main vascular bundle of leaf, which means around midrib

Abundance of the Quorum-Sensing Factor Ax21 in Four Strains of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Correlates with Mortality Rate in a New Zebrafish Model of Infection

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a Gram-negative pathogen with emerging nosocomial incidence. Little is known about its pathogenesis and the genomic diversity exhibited by clinical isolates complicates the study of pathogenicity and virulence factors. Here, we present a strategy to identify such factors in new clinical isolates of S. maltophilia, incorporating an adult-zebrafish model of S. maltophilia infection to evaluate relative virulence coupled to 2D difference gel electrophoresis to explore underlying differences in protein expression. In this study we report upon three recent clinical isolates and use the collection strain ATCC13637 as a reference. The adult-zebrafish model shows discrimination capacity, i.e. from very low to very high mortality rates, with clinical symptoms very similar to those observed in natural S. maltophilia infections in fish. Strain virulence correlates with resistance to human serum, in agreement with previous studies in mouse and rat and therefore supporting zebrafish as a replacement model. Despite its clinical origin, the collection strain ATCC13637 showed obvious signs of attenuation in zebrafish, with null mortality. Multilocus-sequence-typing analysis revealed that the most virulent strains, UV74 and M30, exhibit the strongest genetic similitude. Differential proteomic analysis led to the identification of 38 proteins with significantly different abundance in the three clinical strains relative to the reference strain. Orthologs of several of these proteins have been already reported to have a role in pathogenesis, virulence or resistance mechanisms thus supporting our strategy. Proof of concept is further provided by protein Ax21, whose abundance is shown here to be directly proportional to mortality in the zebrafish infection model. Indeed, recent studies have demonstrated that this protein is a quorum-sensing-related virulence factor

L'effet de Wien dans systèmes de Coulomb électriques et magnétiques : des électrolytes à la glace de spin

A Coulomb gas or fluid comprises charged particles that interact via the Coulomb interaction. Examples of a Coulombic systems include simple and complex electrolytes together with magnetic monopoles in spin ice. The long-range nature of the Coulomb interaction leads to a rich array of phenomena.This thesis is devoted to the study of the non-equilibrium behaviour of lattice based Coulomb gases and of the quasi-particle excitations in the materials known as spin ice which constitute a Coulomb gas of magnetic charges. At the centre of this study lies the second Wien effect which describes the linear increase in conductivity when an electric field is applied to a weak electrolyte. The conductivity increases due to the generation of additional mobile charges via a field-enhanced dissociation from Coulombically bound pairs.The seminal theory of Onsager gave a detailed analysis of the Wien effect. We use numerical simulations not only to confirm its validity in a lattice Coulomb gas for the first time but mainly to study its extensions due to the role of the ionic atmosphere and field-dependent mobility. The simulations also allow us to observe the microscopic correlations underlying the Wien effect.Finally, we look more closely at the emergent gas of monopoles in spin ice—the magnetolyte. The magnetic behaviour of spin ice reflects the properties of the Coulomb gas contained within. We verify the presence of the Wien effect in model spin ice and in the process predict the non-linear response when exposed to a periodic driving field, or to a field quench using Wien effect theory. We use a straightforward extension of the lattice Coulomb gas simulations to refine our predictions. It is a highly unusual result to find an analytic theory for the non-equilibrium behaviour of a highly frustrated system beyond linear response.Les gaz ou fluides de Coulomb sont composés de particules chargées couplées entre elles par interaction coulombienne à longue portée. De part la nature de ces interactions, la physique du gaz de Coulomb est très riche, comme par exemple dans des électrolytes plus ou moins complexes, mais aussi à travers l'émergence de monopôles magnétiques dans la glace de spin. Dans cette thèse nous nous intéressons au comportement hors d'équilibre des gaz de Coulomb et de la glace de spin. Au centre de cette étude se trouve le deuxième effet de Wien, qui est une croissance linéaire de la conductivité en fonction du champ électrique appliqué à un électrolyte faible. Ce phénomène est une conséquence directe de l'interaction coulombienne qui pousse les charges à se lier par paires ; le champ électrique va alors aider à dissocier ces paires et créer des charges mobiles qui amplifient la conductivité. Le deuxième effet de Wien est un processus hors-équilibre non-linéaire, remarquablement décrit par la théorie de Onsager. Nos simulations sur réseau permettent de découvrir le rôle de l'environnement ionique qui agit contre le deuxième effet de Wien, ainsi que de caractériser la mobilité du système et sa dépendance en fonction du champ externe. Les simulations nous ont aussi donné accès aux corrélations de charges qui décrivent le processus microscopique à la base de l'effet Wien. Enfin, nous regardons plus précisément le gaz émergent de monopôles dans la glace de spin, aussi appelé « magnétolyte », capable de décrire de manière remarquable les propriétés magnétiques de glace de spin. Nous décrivons la dynamique complète hors-équilibre de cette magnétolyte soumise à une forçage périodique ou une trempe dans un champ magnétique en incluant à la fois le deuxième effet de Wien et la réponse du réseau de spins qui est à la base de l'émergence des monopôles magnétiques. Tout au long, nous utilisons une simple extension des simulations de gaz de Coulomb sur réseau pour préciser nos prédictions. Il est très rare de trouver une théorie analytique du comportement hors-équilibre d'un système hautement frustré au-delà de la réponse linéaire

Electrochemical Spectroscopic Methods for the Fine Band Gap Electronic Structure Mapping in Organic Semiconductors

Functionality of organic photonic devices is markedly influenced by the electronic band structure of the used materials. An easy and quick determination of the density of states function (DOS) in the whole energy range from HOMO to LUMO, including the presence of defect states in the band gap, is a prerequisite to a successful design of photonic devices. In this study we present the fine band gap electronic structure mapping in P3HT with two electrochemical spectroscopic methods: the energy-resolved electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (ER-EIS) and the kinetic sensitive voltcoulometry (VCM). We showed that the P3HT exposition to air results in the change of light-induced polaron states in the band gap. The electrochemically measured data are compared with those from the literature, obtained with combined optical spectroscopic methods, electrical methods, or first-principles calculations. The ER-EIS method has been shown as capable of providing valuable information on the DOS in the whole energy range from HOMO to LUMO, and the VCM method opens the possibility to study separately the charge transfer (redox) processes with different kinetics. © 2015 American Chemical Society.Slovak Research and Development Agency [APVV-0096-11]; Scientific Grant Agency VEGA [2/0165/13, 1/0501/15