824 research outputs found
Hydrogen bonding and coordination in normal and supercritical water from X-ray inelastic scattering
A direct measure of hydrogen bonding in water under conditions ranging from
the normal state to the supercritical regime is derived from the Compton
scattering of inelastically-scattered X-rays. First, we show that a measure of
the number of electrons involved in hydrogen bonding at varying
thermodynamic conditions can be directly obtained from Compton profile
differences. Then, we use first-principles simulations to provide a connection
between and the number of hydrogen bonds . Our study shows that
over the broad range studied the relationship between and is
linear, allowing for a direct experimental measure of bonding and coordination
in water. In particular, the transition to supercritical state is characterized
by a sharp increase in the number of water monomers, but also displays a
significant number of residual dimers and trimers.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
Phonon dispersion and lifetimes in MgB2
We measure phonon dispersion and linewidth in a single crystal of MgB_2 along
the Gamma-A, Gamma-M and A-L directions using inelastic X-Ray scattering. We
use Density Functional Theory to compute the effect of both electron-phonon
coupling and anharmonicity on the linewidth, obtaining excellent agreement with
experiment. Anomalous broadening of the E_2g phonon mode is found all along
Gamma-A. The dominant contribution to the linewidth is always the
electron-phonon coupling.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Cardiac microtissues from human pluripotent stem cells recapitulate the phenotype of long-QT syndrome
Background: Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and their derivative cardiomyocytes (hiPSCCMs) have been successfully used to study the electrical phenotype of cardiac ion channel diseases. However, strategies to mature CMs and more comprehensive systems recapitulating the heart complexity are required to advance our ability to capture adult phenotypes. Methods: We differentiated wild-type (WT) and long QT syndrome type 1 (LQT1) hiPSCs into CMs, endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts. The three cell types were combined to form three-dimensional (3D) spheroids, termed "cardiac microtissues" (cMTs) and the electrophysiological properties were measured using 96-well multi-electrode arrays. Results: LQT1 cMTs displayed prolonged field potential duration compared to WT controls, thus recapitulating the typical feature of LQTS. Isoprenaline caused a positive chronotropic effect on both LQT1 and WT cMTs. The 96-well multi-electrode array format proved suitable to detect electrical changes directly in the 3D tissues. Conclusions: 3D hiPSC cMTs are a scalable tool that can be used to identify LQT electrical hallmarks and drug responses. We anticipate this tool can be adopted by pharmaceutical companies to screen cardioactive compounds. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Stem cells & developmental biolog
Functional conservation of the grapevine candidate gene INNER NO OUTER for ovule development and seed formation
Seedlessness represents a highly appreciated trait in table grapes. Based on an interesting case of seedless fruit production described in the crop species Annona squamosa, we focused on the Vitis vinifera INNER NO OUTER (INO) gene as a candidate. This gene encodes a transcription factor belonging to the YABBY family involved in the determination of abaxial identity in several organs. In Arabidopsis thaliana, this gene was shown to be essential for the formation and asymmetric growth of the ovule outer integument and its mutation leads to a phenotypic defect of ovules and failure in seed formation. In this study, we identified in silico the V. vinifera orthologue and investigated its phylogenetic relationship to INO genes from other species and its expression in different organs in seeded and seedless varieties. Applying cross-species complementation, we have tested its functionality in the Arabidopsis ino-1 mutant. We show that the V. vinifera INO successfully rescues the ovule outer integument growth and seeds set and also partially complements the outer integument asymmetric growth in the Arabidopsis mutant, differently from orthologues from other species. These data demonstrate that VviINO retains similar activity and protein targets in grapevine as in Arabidopsis. Potential implications for grapevine breeding are discussed
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