Differential regulation of genes involved in root morphogenesis and cell wall modification is associated with salinity tolerance in chickpea

Salinity is a major constraint for intrinsically salt sensitive grain legume chickpea. Chickpea exhibits large genetic variation amongst cultivars, which show better yields in saline conditions but still need to be improved further for sustainable crop production. Based on previous multi-location physiological screening, JG 11 (salt tolerant) and ICCV 2 (salt sensitive) were subjected to salt stress to evaluate their physiological and transcriptional responses. A total of ~480 million RNA-Seq reads were sequenced from root tissues which resulted in identification of 3,053 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in response to salt stress. Reproductive stage shows high number of DEGs suggesting major transcriptional reorganization in response to salt to enable tolerance. Importantly, cationic peroxidase, Aspartic ase, NRT1/PTR, phosphatidylinositol phosphate kinase, DREB1E and ERF genes were significantly up-regulated in tolerant genotype. In addition, we identified a suite of important genes involved in cell wall modification and root morphogenesis such as dirigent proteins, expansin and casparian strip membrane proteins that could potentially confer salt tolerance. Further, phytohormonal cross-talk between ERF and PIN-FORMED genes which modulate the root growth was observed. The gene set enrichment analysis and functional annotation of these genes suggests they may be utilised as potential candidates for improving chickpea salt tolerance

Composable security of delegated quantum computation

Delegating difficult computations to remote large computation facilities, with appropriate security guarantees, is a possible solution for the ever-growing needs of personal computing power. For delegated computation protocols to be usable in a larger context---or simply to securely run two protocols in parallel---the security definitions need to be composable. Here, we define composable security for delegated quantum computation. We distinguish between protocols which provide only blindness---the computation is hidden from the server---and those that are also verifiable---the client can check that it has received the correct result. We show that the composable security definition capturing both these notions can be reduced to a combination of several distinct "trace-distance-type" criteria---which are, individually, non-composable security definitions. Additionally, we study the security of some known delegated quantum computation protocols, including Broadbent, Fitzsimons and Kashefi's Universal Blind Quantum Computation protocol. Even though these protocols were originally proposed with insufficient security criteria, they turn out to still be secure given the stronger composable definitions.Comment: 37+9 pages, 13 figures. v3: minor changes, new references. v2: extended the reduction between composable and local security to include entangled inputs, substantially rewritten the introduction to the Abstract Cryptography (AC) framewor

Ferroelectric Solitons Crafted in Epitaxial Bismuth Ferrite Superlattices

In ferroelectrics, complex interactions among various degrees of freedom enable the condensation of topologically protected polarization textures. Known as ferroelectric solitons, these particle-like structures represent a new class of materials with promise for beyond CMOS technologies due to their ultrafine size and sensitivity to external stimuli. Such polarization textures have scarcely been reported in multiferroics. Here, we report a range of soliton topologies in bismuth ferrite strontium titanate superlattices. High-resolution piezoresponse force microscopy and Cs-corrected high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy reveal a zoo of topologies, and polarization displacement mapping of planar specimens reveals center-convergent and divergent topological defects as small as 3 nm. Phase field simulations verify that some of these topologies can be classed as bimerons, with a topological charge of plus and minus one, and first-principles-based effective Hamiltonian computations show that the co-existence of such structures can lead to non-integer topological charges, a first observation in a BiFeO3-based system. Our results open new opportunities in multiferroic topotronics

Security Limitations of Classical-Client Delegated Quantum Computing

Secure delegated quantum computing allows a computationally weak client to outsource an arbitrary quantum computation to an untrusted quantum server in a privacy-preserving manner. One of the promising candidates to achieve classical delegation of quantum computation is classical-client remote state preparation ($RSP_{CC}$), where a client remotely prepares a quantum state using a classical channel. However, the privacy loss incurred by employing $RSP_{CC}$ as a sub-module is unclear. In this work, we investigate this question using the Constructive Cryptography framework by Maurer and Renner (ICS'11). We first identify the goal of $RSP_{CC}$ as the construction of ideal RSP resources from classical channels and then reveal the security limitations of using $RSP_{CC}$. First, we uncover a fundamental relationship between constructing ideal RSP resources (from classical channels) and the task of cloning quantum states. Any classically constructed ideal RSP resource must leak to the server the full classical description (possibly in an encoded form) of the generated quantum state, even if we target computational security only. As a consequence, we find that the realization of common RSP resources, without weakening their guarantees drastically, is impossible due to the no-cloning theorem. Second, the above result does not rule out that a specific $RSP_{CC}$ protocol can replace the quantum channel at least in some contexts, such as the Universal Blind Quantum Computing (UBQC) protocol of Broadbent et al. (FOCS '09). However, we show that the resulting UBQC protocol cannot maintain its proven composable security as soon as $RSP_{CC}$ is used as a subroutine. Third, we show that replacing the quantum channel of the above UBQC protocol by the $RSP_{CC}$ protocol QFactory of Cojocaru et al. (Asiacrypt '19), preserves the weaker, game-based, security of UBQC.Comment: 40 pages, 12 figure

Enhanced group-based wireless ad-hoc sensor network protocol

[EN] Communication is the major energy consumption source in wireless ad-hoc sensor networks. Thus, an efficient tradeoff between the energy cost of the communication and network's performance is a key challenge in conceiving a wireless ad-hoc sensor network. In this article, we propose an improved group-based architecture for wireless ad-hoc sensor networks. An optimized group forming procedure and an efficient communication operation are introduced. In order to validate the proposed approach, we suggest a group-based strategy to monitor pharmaceutical drugs during transportation. Real measurements of temperature and vibration were performed to validate the effectiveness of our approach.Khedher, M.; Lloret, J.; Douik, A. (2016). Enhanced group-based wireless ad-hoc sensor network protocol. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks. 12(7):1-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1550147716659427S118127Dargie, W., & Poellabauer, C. (2010). Fundamentals of Wireless Sensor Networks. doi:10.1002/9780470666388Singh, S. P., & Sharma, S. C. (2015). A Survey on Cluster Based Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks. Procedia Computer Science, 45, 687-695. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2015.03.133Liao, Y., Qi, H., & Li, W. (2013). Load-Balanced Clustering Algorithm With Distributed Self-Organization for Wireless Sensor Networks. IEEE Sensors Journal, 13(5), 1498-1506. doi:10.1109/jsen.2012.2227704Peng, I.-H., & Chen, Y.-W. (2013). Energy consumption bounds analysis and its applications for grid based wireless sensor networks. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 36(1), 444-451. doi:10.1016/j.jnca.2012.04.014Lloret, J., Garcia, M., Tomás, J., & Boronat, F. (2008). GBP-WAHSN: A Group-Based Protocol for Large Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks. Journal of Computer Science and Technology, 23(3), 461-480. doi:10.1007/s11390-008-9147-6Lloret, J., García, M., Boronat, F., & Tomás, J. (s. f.). MANET Protocols Performance in Group-based Networks. IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, 161-172. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-84839-6_13Lloret, J., Garcia, M., & Tomas, J. (s. f.). Improving Mobile and Ad-hoc Networks performance using Group-Based Topologies. Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks II, 209-220. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-09441-0_18Lloret, J., Palau, C., Boronat, F., & Tomas, J. (2008). Improving networks using group-based topologies. Computer Communications, 31(14), 3438-3450. doi:10.1016/j.comcom.2008.05.030Garcia, M., Sendra, S., Lloret, J., & Canovas, A. (2011). Saving energy and improving communications using cooperative group-based Wireless Sensor Networks. Telecommunication Systems, 52(4), 2489-2502. doi:10.1007/s11235-011-9568-3Garcia, M., & Lloret, J. (2009). A Cooperative Group-Based Sensor Network for Environmental Monitoring. Cooperative Design, Visualization, and Engineering, 276-279. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-04265-2_41Shaikh, R. A., Jameel, H., d’ Auriol, B. J., Heejo Lee, Sungyoung Lee, & Young-Jae Song. (2009). Group-Based Trust Management Scheme for Clustered Wireless Sensor Networks. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 20(11), 1698-1712. doi:10.1109/tpds.2008.258Chen, Y.-S., Hsu, C.-S., & Lee, H.-K. (2014). An Enhanced Group Mobility Protocol for 6LoWPAN-Based Wireless Body Area Networks. IEEE Sensors Journal, 14(3), 797-807. doi:10.1109/jsen.2013.2287895Yao-Chung Chang, Zhi-Sheng Lin, & Jiann-Liang Chen. (2006). Cluster based self-organization management protocols for wireless sensor networks. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, 52(1), 75-80. doi:10.1109/tce.2006.1605028Fazio, P., De Rango, F., Sottile, C., & Santamaria, A. F. (2013). Routing Optimization in Vehicular Networks: A New Approach Based on Multiobjective Metrics and Minimum Spanning Tree. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, 9(11), 598675. doi:10.1155/2013/598675Saravanan, M., & Madheswaran, M. (2014). A Hybrid Optimized Weighted Minimum Spanning Tree for the Shortest Intrapath Selection in Wireless Sensor Network. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2014, 1-8. doi:10.1155/2014/71342

Isotopic exchange processes in cold plasmas of H2/D2 mixtures

12 páginas, 3 tablas, 10 figuras.-Isotope exchange in low pressure cold plasmas of H2/D2 mixtures has been investigated by means of mass spectrometric measurements of neutrals and ions, and kinetic model calculations. The measurements, which include also electron temperatures and densities, were performed in a stainless steel hollow cathode reactor for three discharge pressures: 1, 2 and 8 Pa, and for mixture compositions ranging from 100% H2 to 100% D2. The data are analyzed in the light of the model calculations, which are in good global agreement with the experiments. Isotope selective effects are found both in the surface recombination and in the gas-phase ionic chemistry. The dissociation of the fuel gas molecules is followed by wall recycling, which regenerates H2 and D2 and produces HD. Atomic recombination at the wall is found to proceed through an Eley–Rideal mechanism, with a preference for reaction of the adsorbed atoms with gas phase D atoms. The best fit probabilities for Eley–Rideal abstraction with H and D are:gER H = 1.5 x 10-3, gER D = 2.0 x 10-3. Concerning ions, at 1 Pa the diatomic species H2+,D2+ and HD+, formed directly by electron impact, prevail in the distributions, and at 8 Pa, the triatomic ions H3+, H2D+, HD2+ and D3+, produced primarily in reactions of diatomic ions with molecules, dominate the plasma composition. In this higher pressure regime, the formation of the mixed ions H2D+ and HD2 + is favoured in comparison with that of H3 + and D3+, as expected on statistical grounds. The model results predict a very small preference, undetectable within the precision of the measurements, for the generation of triatomic ions with a higher degree of deuteration, which is probably a residual influence at room temperature of the marked zero point energy effects (ZPE), relevant for deuterium fractionation in interstellar space. In contrast,ZPE effects are found to be decisive for the observed distribution of monoatomic ions H+ and D+, even at room temperature. The final H+/D+ ratio is determined to a great extent by proton (and deuteron) exchange, which favours the enhancement of H+ and the concomitant decrease of D+.This work has been funded by the MICINN of Spain under projects FIS 2007-61686, FIS2010-16455 and CSD2009-00038. EC acknowledges also funding from the JdC program of the MICINN.Peer reviewe

The Jumonji-C oxygenase JMJD7 catalyzes (3S)-lysyl hydroxylation of TRAFAC GTPases

Biochemical, structural and cellular studies reveal Jumonji-C (JmjC) domain-containing 7 (JMJD7) to be a 2-oxoglutarate (2OG)-dependent oxygenase that catalyzes (3S)-lysyl hydroxylation. Crystallographic analyses reveal JMJD7 to be more closely related to the JmjC hydroxylases than to the JmjC demethylases. Biophysical and mutation studies show that JMJD7 has a unique dimerization mode, with interactions between monomers involving both N- and C-terminal regions and disulfide bond formation. A proteomic approach identifies two related members of the translation factor (TRAFAC) family of GTPases, developmentally regulated GTP-binding proteins 1 and 2 (DRG1/2), as activity-dependent JMJD7 interactors. Mass spectrometric analyses demonstrate that JMJD7 catalyzes Fe(ii)- and 2OG-dependent hydroxylation of a highly conserved lysine residue in DRG1/2; amino-acid analyses reveal that JMJD7 catalyzes (3S)-lysyl hydroxylation. The functional assignment of JMJD7 will enable future studies to define the role of DRG hydroxylation in cell growth and disease.Fil: Markolovic, Suzana. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Zhuang, Qinqin. University Of Birmingham; Reino UnidoFil: Wilkins, Sarah E.. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Eaton, Charlotte D.. University Of Birmingham; Reino UnidoFil: Abboud, Martine I.. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Katz, Maximiliano Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: McNeil, Helen E.. University Of Birmingham; Reino UnidoFil: Leśniak, Robert K.. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Hall, Charlotte. University Of Birmingham; Reino UnidoFil: Struwe, Weston B.. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Konietzny, Rebecca. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Davis, Simon. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Yang, Ming. The Francis Crick Institute; Reino Unido. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Ge, Wei. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Benesch, Justin L. P.. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Kessler, Benedikt M.. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Ratcliffe, Peter J.. University of Oxford; Reino Unido. The Francis Crick Institute; Reino UnidoFil: Cockman, Matthew E.. The Francis Crick Institute; Reino Unido. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Fischer, Roman. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Wappner, Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Chowdhury, Rasheduzzaman. University of Stanford; Estados Unidos. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Coleman, Mathew L.. University Of Birmingham; Reino UnidoFil: Schofield, Christopher J.. University of Oxford; Reino Unid

Verification of Quantum Computation: An Overview of Existing Approaches

International audienc

A monodisperse transmembrane α-helical peptide barrel

The fabrication of monodisperse transmembrane barrels formed from short synthetic peptides has not been demonstrated previously. This is in part because of the complexity of the interactions between peptides and lipids within the hydrophobic environment of a membrane. Here we report the formation of a transmembrane pore through the self-assembly of 35 amino acid α-helical peptides. The design of the peptides is based on the C-terminal D4 domain of the Escherichia coli polysaccharide transporter Wza. By using single-channel current recording, we define discrete assembly intermediates and show that the pore is most probably a helix barrel that contains eight D4 peptides arranged in parallel. We also show that the peptide pore is functional and capable of conducting ions and binding blockers. Such α-helix barrels engineered from peptides could find applications in nanopore technologies such as single-molecule sensing and nucleic-acid sequencing

Bilayer-spanning DNA nanopores with voltage-switching between open and closed state.

Membrane-spanning nanopores from folded DNA are a recent example of biomimetic man-made nanostructures that can open up applications in biosensing, drug delivery, and nanofluidics. In this report, we generate a DNA nanopore based on the archetypal six-helix-bundle architecture and systematically characterize it via single-channel current recordings to address several fundamental scientific questions in this emerging field. We establish that the DNA pores exhibit two voltage-dependent conductance states. Low transmembrane voltages favor a stable high-conductance level, which corresponds to an unobstructed DNA pore. The expected inner width of the open channel is confirmed by measuring the conductance change as a function of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) size, whereby smaller PEGs are assumed to enter the pore. PEG sizing also clarifies that the main ion-conducting path runs through the membrane-spanning channel lumen as opposed to any proposed gap between the outer pore wall and the lipid bilayer. At higher voltages, the channel shows a main low-conductance state probably caused by electric-field-induced changes of the DNA pore in its conformation or orientation. This voltage-dependent switching between the open and closed states is observed with planar lipid bilayers as well as bilayers mounted on glass nanopipettes. These findings settle a discrepancy between two previously published conductances. By systematically exploring a large space of parameters and answering key questions, our report supports the development of DNA nanopores for nanobiotechnology.The SH lab is supported by the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-170), UCL Chemistry, EPSRC (Institutional Sponsorship Award), the National Physical Laboratory, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies. KG acknowledges funding from the Winton Program of Physics for Sustainability, Gates Cambridge and the Oppenheimer Trust. UFK was supported by an ERC starting grant #261101.This is the final version of the article. It was first published by ACS under the ACS AuthorChoice license at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nn5039433 This permits copying and redistribution of the article or any adaptations for non-commercial purposes