Scaling laws in aeolian sand transport.

We report on wind tunnel measurements on saltating particles in a turbulent boundary layer and provide evidence that over an erodible bed the particle velocity in the saltation layer and the saltation length are almost invariant with the wind strength, whereas over a nonerodible bed these quantities vary significantly with the air friction speed. It results that the particle transport rate over an erodible bed does not exhibit a cubic dependence with the air friction speed, as predicted by Bagnold, but a quadratic one. This contrasts with saltation over a nonerodible bed where the cubic Bagnold scaling holds. Our findings emphasize the crucial role of the boundary conditions at the bed and may have important practical consequences for aeolian sand transport in a natural environment.

Cloning of new members of heat shock protein HSP101 gene family in wheat (Triticum aestivum (L.) Moench) inducible by heat, dehydration, and ABA(1).

We have cloned two cDNAs, TaHSP101B and TaHSP101C, encoding two heat stress-inducible members of HSP101/ClpB family in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum (L.) Moench.). Proteins encoded by these cDNAs are highly similar at the primary sequence level and diverged from the previously reported TaHSP101 (designated TaHSP101A) both in the consensus ATP/GTP-binding region II and in the carboxy terminal region. The HSP101 gene was determined to be a single copy gene or a member of a small gene family in hexaploid wheat. Messages encoding HSP101 proteins were inducible by heat stress treatments in both wheat leaves and roots. Accumulation of the TaHSP101C mRNA was less abundant than that of TaHSP101B mRNA. We are showing for the first time that in addition to heat stress, expression of HSP101 mRNAs in wheat leaves was induced by a 2-h dehydration and a treatment with 5x10(-5)M ABA, but not affected by chilling or wounding, indicating that HSP101 proteins may be involved in both heat and drought responses in wheat.

Particle velocity distribution in saltation transport.

We report on wind-tunnel measurements of particle velocity distribution in aeolian transport. By performing extended statistics, we show that for saltation occurring over an erodible bed the vertical lift-off velocity distributions deviate significantly from a Gaussian law and exhibit a long tail accurately described by a lognormal law. In contrast, saltation over a rigid bed produces Gaussian velocity distributions. These results strongly suggest that the deviation from Gaussian distributions is a consequence of the splash process which is exclusively present in saltation transport over an erodible bed. We further suggest that the non-Gaussian statistics is intimately related to the statistical properties of a single splash event which produces ejection of particles with lift-off velocities distributed according to a lognormal law. This lognormal behavior can be simply inferred from the propagation process of the impact energy through the granular bed which can be viewed as the analog of a fragmentation process. These findings emphasize the crucial role of the splash process in saltation transport.

OmpC is the receptor for Gifsy-1 and Gifsy-2 bacteriophages of Salmonella.

Mutations in the Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ompC gene conferred resistance to Gifsy-1 and Gifsy-2 bacteriophages. Selection for complementing plasmids yielded clones of ompC. Introduction of an ompC clone into Escherichia coli conferred the ability to adsorb Gifsy phage. These data show that OmpC is the receptor for Gifsy-1 and Gifsy-2 phages.

Characterization of grvA, an antivirulence gene on the gifsy-2 phage in Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium.

The lambdoid phage Gifsy-2 contributes significantly to Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium virulence. The phage carries the periplasmic superoxide dismutase gene, sodCI, and other unidentified virulence factors. We have characterized the gene grvA, a single open reading frame inserted in the opposite orientation in the tail operon of the Gifsy-2 phage. Contrary to what is observed with classic virulence genes, grvA null mutants were more virulent than wild type as measured by intraperitoneal competition assays in mice. We have termed this effect antivirulence. Wild-type grvA in single copy complemented this phenotype. However, grvA(+) on a multicopy plasmid also conferred the antivirulence phenotype. Neither a grvA null mutation nor the grvA(+) plasmid conferred a growth advantage or disadvantage in laboratory media. The antivirulence phenotype conferred by the grvA null mutation and the grvA(+) plasmid required wild-type sodCI but was independent of other virulence factors encoded on Gifsy-2. These results suggest that in a wild-type situation, GrvA decreases the pathogenicity of serovar Typhimurium in the host, most likely by affecting resistance to toxic oxygen species. These virulence phenotypes were independent of functional Gifsy-2 phage production. Our data suggest that the contribution of Gifsy-2 is a complicated sum of both positive virulence factors such as sodCI and antivirulence factors such as grvA.

Structure and promoter analysis of an ABA- and stress-regulated barley gene, HVA1.

A single-copy barley gene, HVA1, encoding a class 3 late embryogenesis-abundant protein, can be induced by either treatment with abscisic acid (ABA) or by stress conditions such as drought, cold, heat and salinity. We have isolated an HVA1 genomic clone containing about 400 bp of 5'-upstream sequence, a single 109 bp intron, and the full coding sequence. Linker scan mutagenesis and transient expression studies were used to test the function of four HVA1 promoter elements conserved in ABA-responsive genes. Mutations in two of these elements, the C box and the putative ABRE 1 (ABA-responsive element) containing an ACGT core, resulted in no significant change in transcription level or ABA induction. In contrast, mutations of the other two elements, putative ABRE 2 & 3 cause the level of transcription to drop to 10-20% of that obtained with the wild-type promoter indicating that the high level of expression of HVA1 is dependent on both pABRE 2 & 3. Interestingly, despite their low level of expression, the mutated promoters still gave more than 20-fold induction in response to ABA treatment. We suggest that the ABA induction of barley HVA1 gene is governed by a complex consisting of pABRE 2 & 3 working together to regulate the absolute level of expression, and either of these elements or a possible third element may regulate ABA inducibility. Phylogenetic analysis by parsimony indicates that the barley HVA1 and wheat pMA2005 sequences share a recent common ancester. These two genes are closely related to the carrot Dc3 and cotton D-7 genes with which they share a similar structural gene organization.