The introduction of an invasive weed was not followed by the introduction of ethnobotanical knowledge: a review on the ethnobotany of Centaurea solstitialis L. (Asteraceae)

Invasive plants are known for their impacts to ecosystems and societies, but their potential cultural use tend to be unexplored. One important mechanism of plant invasion is the use of “allelochemicals” or “novel weapons”: chemical defenses which are new to their invaded habitats and that confer them competitive advantages. However, these chemicals are precisely what confers them ethnobotanical and medicinal properties. We reviewed the literature assessing the biogeography of the cultural uses of the model invasive plant yellow-starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis L.; Asteraceae), and assessed the extent to which the introduction of a weed native to Eurasia into several non-native world regions was paralleled by the spread of cultural uses from its native range. We found that the species was rich in pharmaceutically active compounds and that the species had been traditionally used for medicinal purposes, as raw material, and as food. However, ethnobotanical uses were reported almost exclusively in its native range, with no uses described for the non-native range, apart from honey production in California, Argentina, and Australia. Our study exemplifies how, when plant introductions are not paralleled synchronously by significant human migrations, cultural adoption can be extremely slow, even within the native range of the species. Invasive species can provide real-time insights into the cultural processes by which humans learn to use plants. This case study highlights how biological invasions and cultural expansions can be subjected to different constraints

Adaptive-Control Model for Neutrophil Orientation in the Direction of Chemical Gradients

AbstractNeutrophils have a remarkable ability to detect the direction of chemoattractant gradients and move directionally in response to bacterial infections and tissue injuries. For their role in health and disease, neutrophils have been extensively studied, and many of the molecules involved in the signaling mechanisms of gradient detection and chemotaxis have been identified. However, the cellular-scale mechanisms of gradient sensing and directional neutrophil migration have been more elusive, and existent models provide only limited insight into these processes. Here, we propose a what we believe is a novel adaptive-control model for the initiation of cell polarization in response to gradients. In this model, the neutrophils first sample the environment by extending protrusions in random directions and subsequently adapt their sensitivity depending on localized, temporal changes in stimulation levels. Our results suggest that microtubules may play a critical role in integrating all the sensing events from the cellular periphery through their redistribution inside the neutrophils, and may also be involved in modulating local signaling. An unexpected finding was that model neutrophils exhibit significant randomness in timing and directionality of activation, comparable to our experimental observations in microfluidic devices. Moreover, their responses are robust against alterations of the rate and amplitude of the signaling reactions, and for a broad range in chemoattractant concentrations and spatial gradients

Aspects regarding the use of GIS for quantifying climatic factors influencing vineyards suitability

Our study presents some possibilities of quantifying climatic factors influencing vineyards suitability at fine scale. Because of the insufficient meteorological stations data, statistical models generally fail at local scale, being unable to take into account local terrain characteristics. This is especially the case of air temperature, for which we applied a correction based on global radiation, in order to take into account terrain slope and aspect. We further analysed the possibilities to derive spatial distributions for global radiation, sunshine duration, and using SAGA-GIS software, mean annual precipitations, using a regression-kriging approach and more complex temperature parameters, such as the sum of daily temperatures above 10oC

Incidence of major grapevine fungal diseases during 2012 in ampelographic collection of USAMV Iaşi

Downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola Berk. & Curt.), powdery mildew (Uncinula necator Schw.) and gray mould (Botrytis cinerea Pers.) are the most ubiquitously damaging disease of grapevines worldwide, reducing yield, vine growth and fruit quality. The mildew and powdery mildew attack all aerial parts of grapevine plants, while grape gray mould is frequently encountered on the mature berries, close to harvest. Incidence of the most important vineyard diseases was investigated in ampelographic collection belonging to Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine University (USAMV) from Iaşi (SE Romania) in 2012. Biological material was represented by different grapevine varieties, both table and wine grapes varieties. The field observations were correlated with yearly phenological and ecological elements witch lead to prognoses and control of main fungal pathogen. Depending on degree of attack recorded for each cultivar the resistance or sensibility of analyzed cultivars (by OIV 1983) was established. The grape varieties taken in study showed different reactions under the same environmental conditions, materialized by different attack degrees of grapevine mildew, powdery mildew and grape gray mould. The aim of this study was to determine the presence and distribution of the most important vineyard diseases across the ampelographic collection of USAMV Iaşi (SE Romania) in 2012

Synthesis of Cell-Adhesive Anisotropic Multifunctional Particles by Stop Flow Lithography and Streptavidin–Biotin Interactions

Cell-adhesive particles are of significant interest in biotechnology, the bioengineering of complex tissues, and biomedical research. Their applications range from platforms to increase the efficiency of anchorage-dependent cell culture to building blocks to loading cells in heterogeneous structures to clonal-population growth monitoring to cell sorting. Although useful, currently available cell-adhesive particles can accommodate only homogeneous cell culture. Here, we report the design of anisotropic hydrogel microparticles with tunable cell-adhesive regions as first step toward micropatterned cell cultures on particles. We employed stop flow lithography (SFL), the coupling reaction between amine and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) and streptavidin–biotin chemistry to adjust the localization of conjugated collagen and poly-l-lysine on the surface of microscale particles. Using the new particles, we demonstrate the attachment and formation of tight junctions between brain endothelial cells. We also demonstrate the geometric patterning of breast cancer cells on particles with heterogeneous collagen coatings. This new approach avoids the exposure of cells to potentially toxic photoinitiators and ultraviolet light and decouples in time the microparticle synthesis and the cell culture steps to take advantage of the most recent advances in cell patterning available for traditional culture substrates.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (GM092804)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CMMI-1120724 and DMR-1006147)Samsung Scholarship Foundatio

\u27Living cantilever arrays\u27 for characterization of mass of single live cells in fluids

The size of a cell is a fundamental physiological property and is closely regulated by various environmental and genetic factors. Optical or confocal microscopy can be used to measure the dimensions of adherent cells, and Coulter counter or flow cytometry ( forward scattering light intensity) can be used to estimate the volume of single cells in a flow. Although these methods could be used to obtain the mass of single live cells, no method suitable for directly measuring the mass of single adherent cells without detaching them from the surface is currently available. We report the design, fabrication, and testing of \u27living cantilever arrays\u27, an approach to measure the mass of single adherent live cells in fluid using silicon cantilever mass sensor. HeLa cells were injected into microfluidic channels with a linear array of functionalized silicon cantilevers and the cells were subsequently captured on the cantilevers with positive dielectrophoresis. The captured cells were then cultured on the cantilevers in a microfluidic environment and the resonant frequencies of the cantilevers were measured. The mass of a single HeLa cell was extracted from the resonance frequency shift of the cantilever and was found to be close to the mass value calculated from the cell density from the literature and the cell volume obtained from confocal microscopy. This approach can provide a new method for mass measurement of a single adherent cell in its physiological condition in a non-invasive manner, as well as optical observations of the same cell. We believe this technology would be very valuable for single cell time-course studies of adherent live cells

Complex selection on 5' splice sites in intron-rich organisms

In contrast to the typically streamlined genomes of prokaryotes, many eukaryotic genomes are riddled with long intergenic regions, spliceosomal introns, and repetitive elements. What explains the persistence of these and other seemingly suboptimal structures? There are three general hypotheses: (1) the structures in question are not actually suboptimal but optimal, being favored by selection, for unknown reasons; (2) the structures are not suboptimal, but of (essentially) equal fitness to 'optimal' ones; or (3) the structures are truly suboptimal, but selection is too weak to systematically eliminate them. The 5' splice sites of introns offer a rare opportunity to directly test these hypotheses. Intron-poor species show a clear consensus splice site; most introns begin with the same six nucleotide sequence (typically GTAAGT or GTATGT), indicating efficient selection for this consensus sequence. In contrast, intron-rich species have much less pronounced boundary consensus sequences, and only small minorities of introns in intron-rich species share the same boundary sequence. We studied rates of evolutionary change of 5' splice sites in three groups of closely related intron-rich species--three primates, five Drosophila species, and four Cryptococcus fungi. Surprisingly, the results indicate that changes from consensus-to-variant nucleotides are generally disfavored by selection, but that changes from variant to consensus are neither favored nor disfavored. This evolutionary pattern is consistent with selective differences across introns, for instance, due to compensatory changes at other sites within the gene, which compensate for the otherwise suboptimal consensus-to-variant changes in splice boundaries

Investigations on the influence of fertilization and of Onobrychis viciifolia Scop. and Bromus inermis Leiss. Mixture on soil microflora

This paper presents the results of an experiment conducted on two temporary meadows, situated in the Southern area of the Moldavian Plain, set up by sowing a mixture made up of Onobrychis viciifolia Scop. (sainfoin) and Bromus inermis Leiss. (smooth bromegrass) at different rates. We have analysed the soil microbiological activity of the two temporary meadows, as influenced by the fertilization with an unconventional product (Vinasse Rompak - 3% N, 0.5% P, 7% K and pH 7-8) and with different rates of organic and chemical fertilizers. The objective of this investigation was to isolate and quantify the microbial population found in soil (Gram-positive bacteria, Gramnegative bacteria, micromycetes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria), thus establishing their percent, main fungus genera, which activate in soil and their activity level for each variant. The results have shown the influence of the fertilization on the total number of microorganisms, on the relationships between the main groups (bacteria and fungi) and on the various micromycete species, determined in each variant of our experiment