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In response to drought stress, the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) induces stomatal closure. Thereby the stress hormone activates guard cell anion channels in a calcium-dependent, as well as -independent, manner. Open stomata 1 protein kinase (OST1) and ABI1 protein phosphatase (ABA insensitive 1) represent key components of calcium-independent ABA signaling. Recently, the guard cell anion channel SLAC1 was identified. When expressed heterologously SLAC1 remained electrically silent. Upon coexpression with Ca²⁺-independent OST1, however, SLAC1 anion channels appear activated in an ABI1-dependent manner. Mutants lacking distinct calcium-dependent protein kinases (CPKs) appeared impaired in ABA stimulation of guard cell ion channels, too. To study SLAC1 activation via the calcium-dependent ABA pathway, we studied the SLAC1 response to CPKs in the Xenopus laevis oocyte system. Split YFP-based protein-protein interaction assays, using SLAC1 as the bait, identified guard cell expressed CPK21 and 23 as major interacting partners. Upon coexpression of SLAC1 with CPK21 and 23, anion currents document SLAC1 stimulation by these guard cell protein kinases. Ca²⁺-sensitive activation of SLAC1, however, could be assigned to the CPK21 pathway only because CPK23 turned out to be rather Ca²⁺-insensitive. In line with activation by OST1, CPK activation of the guard cell anion channel was suppressed by ABI1. Thus the CPK and OST1 branch of ABA signal transduction in guard cells seem to converge on the level of SLAC1 under the control of the ABI1/ABA-receptor complex.

Forecasts for many cities and regions in Europe predict a growing share of 'elderly' people in the overall population. In addition to this general ageing process, the number of very old people is of specific importance for the issue under discussion. This article looks at sheltered independent housing and living. In particular, the article presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative multidisciplinary study of those facilities in the Netherlands. The research provides insight into the effect of physical scale and group mix on the social quality of sheltered independent housing. The results are based on a desk study of 265 projects and a detailed case study of 24 projects. The quantitative desk study provides reviews related to the time and location (and vice versa) and thus develops a picture of the variation in sheltered independent housing complexes for the period 1998-2010. The findings of the qualitative section in general are that ensuring security and belonging is an important function of sheltered independent housing for residents. Regarding the dimension of physical scale, the responses regarding the desired scale are surprising, with equal support for large as well as small scale. Preferences are strongly related to the location in towns or villages, as the scale surrounding the housing. Regarding group mix, the most important finding is a limit of tolerance between groups, particularly tolerance among vital elderly people towards groups of residents with a mental disability or dementia. This limit seems to be reached much sooner than commonly thought, or deployed on the basis of idealistic motives.

The potassium-channel gene, AKT3, has recently been isolated from an Arabidopsis thaliana cDNA library. By using the whole-mount and in situ hybridization techniques, we found AKT3 predominantly expressed in the phloem. To study the physiological role of this channel type, AKT3 was heterologously expressed in Xenopus oocytes, and the electrical properties were examined with voltage-clamp techniques. Unlike the plant inward-rectifying guard cell K+ channels KAT1 and KST1, the AKT3 channels were only weakly regulated by the membrane potential. Furthermore, AKT3 was blocked by physiological concentrations of external Ca2+ and showed an inverted pH regulation. Extracellular acidification decreased the macroscopic AKT3 currents by reducing the single-channel conductance. Because assimilate transport in the vascular tissue coincides with both H+ and K+ fluxes, AKT3 K+ channels may be involved in K+ transport accompanying phloem loading and unloading processes.

Over the past few years, city regions have received a great deal of attention as important policy objects. Documents like Europe 2000 + and the German European Metropolitan Regions are cases in point. Academic debate has provided a number of paradigms which understand city regions as complex structures. The local innovative milieu and urban governance represent two of the more interesting examples of such paradigms. When applied to a region, evidence substantiating both paradigms can be found despite reality not simply following model assumptions. However, both help to get to grips with another layer of interpretation; that of the role of structure and agency in city regions.

The water supply to leaves of 25 to 60 m tall trees (including high-salinity-tolerant ones) was studied. The filling status of the xylem vessels was determined by xylem sap extraction (using jet-discharge, gravity-discharge, and centrifugation) and by ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of wood pieces. Simultaneously, pressure bomb experiments were performed along the entire trunk of the trees up to a height of 57 m. Clear-cut evidence was found that the balancing pressure (Pb) values of leafy twigs were dictated by the ambient relative humidity rather than by height. Refilling of xylem vessels of apical leaves (branches) obviously mainly occurred via moisture uptake from the atmosphere. These findings could be traced back to the hydration and rehydration of mucilage layers on the leaf surfaces and/or of epistomatal mucilage plugs. Xylem vessels also contained mucilage. Mucilage formation was apparently enforced by water stress. The observed mucilage-based foliar water uptake and humidity dependency of the Pb values are at variance with the cohesion-tension theory and with the hypothesis that Pb measurements yield information about the relationships between xylem pressure gradients and height.

Plastids of nongreen tissues can import carbon in the form of glucose 6-phosphate via the glucose 6-phosphate/phosphate translocator (GPT). The Arabidopsis thaliana genome contains two homologous GPT genes, AtGPT1 and AtGPT2. Both proteins show glucose 6-phosphate translocator activity after reconstitution in liposomes, and each of them can rescue the low-starch leaf phenotype of the pgi1 mutant (which lacks plastid phosphoglucoisomerase), indicating that the two proteins are also functional in planta. AtGPT1 transcripts are ubiquitously expressed during plant development, with highest expression in stamens, whereas AtGPT2 expression is restricted to a few tissues, including senescing leaves. Disruption of GPT2 has no obvious effect on growth and development under greenhouse conditions, whereas the mutations gpt1-1 and gpt1-2 are lethal. In both gpt1 lines, distorted segregation ratios, reduced efficiency of transmission in males and females, and inability to complete pollen and ovule development were observed, indicating profound defects in gametogenesis. Embryo sac development is arrested in the gpt1 mutants at a stage before the fusion of the polar nuclei. Mutant pollen development is associated with reduced formation of lipid bodies and small vesicles and the disappearance of dispersed vacuoles, which results in disintegration of the pollen structure. Taken together, our results indicate that GPT1-mediated import of glucose 6-phosphate into nongreen plastids is crucial for gametophyte development. We suggest that loss of GPT1 function results in disruption of the oxidative pentose phosphate cycle, which in turn affects fatty acid biosynthesis.

ObjectivesTo implement and evaluate a protocol of care and rapid perioperativerecovery modified for gynecological surgery in Abdominal Hysterectomy at ateaching hospital, to mitigate the physiologic stress of surgery and optimize therehabilitation of patients.MethodsThe modified ERAS protocol was implemented inthe Hospital Moyses Deutsch - Mboi Mirim, in partnership with Hospital IsraelitaAlbert Einstein. The study was divided into 3 phases: I. Retrospective data collectionof patients that went through Abdominal Hysterectomy with or without Salpingo -oophorectomy for benign disease, from March to December 2017 (N = 99); II.Training of the multiproffessional team for protocol implementation; III.Implementation of protocol in consecutive patients submitted also to AbdominalHysterectomy with or without Salpingo - oophorectomy for benign disease and itstarted in July 2018 (N = 58). Data were extracted from a database using Redcapplatform. Phase I and III data were compared with Student's t, Mann Whitney andchi-square tests.ResultsThe characteristics of the patients before and after ERASimplantation were statistically similar (p> 0.05). There was success in theimplementation of the protocol, reaching statistically significance in reduction inlength of hospital stay (p<0.001), postoperative infection (p = 0.001), intraoperativecomplications (p = 0.027) without increase in postoperative complications orreadmission, and cost reduction (p<0.001).ConclusionsThe implementation ofthe ERAS protocol in a teaching hospital in gynecological surgery reduceshospitalization time without increasing the rate of complications or re-hospitalization,and reduces the cost of the procedure.

Ion channels in roots allow the plant to gain access to nutrients. The composition of the individual ion channels and the functional contribution of different α-subunits is largely unknown. Focusing on K+-selective ion channels, we have characterized AtKC1, a new α-subunit from the Arabidopsis shaker-like ion channel family. Promoter-β-glucuronidase (GUS) studies identified AtKC1 expression predominantly in root hairs and root endodermis. Specific antibodies recognized AtKC1 at the plasma membrane. To analyze further the abundance and the functional contribution of the different K+channels α-subunits in root cells, we performed real-time reverse transcription-PCR and patch-clamp experiments on isolated root hair protoplasts. Studying all shaker-like ion channel α-subunits, we only found the K+inward rectifier AtKC1 and AKT1 and the K+outward rectifier GORK to be expressed in this cell type. Akt1 knockout plants essentially lacked inward rectifying K+currents. In contrast, inward rectifying K+currents were present in AtKC1 knockout plants, but fundamentally altered with respect to gating and cation sensitivity. This indicates that the AtKC1 α-subunit represents an integral component of functional root hair K+uptake channels.

Members of the AKT2/3 family have been identified as photosynthate-induced phloem K+ channels. Here we describe the isolation and characterisation of an AKT2/3 loss-of-function mutant (akt2/3-1) from Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. Microautoradiography following 14CO2 incubation in the light revealed that a major fraction of 14CO2-derived photosynthates leaking out of sieve tubes appears not to be effectively reloaded (retrieval) into the phloem of the mutant. Using the aphid stylectomy technique we showed that the phloem sap of the mutant, lacking the phloem channels of the AKT2/3 type, contained only half the sucrose content of the wild type. Furthermore, the akt2/3-1 mutant exhibited a reduced K+ dependence of the phloem potential. Xenopus oocytes expressing the phloem sucrose/proton symporter depolarise upon sucrose application. When, however, the phloem channel was co-expressed — mimicking the situation in the sieve tube/companion cell complex — depolarisation was prevented. From our studies we thus conclude that AKT2/3 regulates the sucrose/H+ symporters via the phloem potential.

It is generally accepted that K+ uptake into guard cells via inward-rectifying K+ channels is required for stomatal opening. To test whether the guard cell K+ channel KAT1 is essential for stomatal opening, a knockout mutant, KAT1::En-1, was isolated from an En-1 mutagenized Arabidopsis thaliana population. Stomatal action and K+ uptake, however, were not impaired in KAT1-deficient plants. Reverse transcription-PCR experiments with isolated guard cell protoplasts showed that in addition to KAT1, the K+ channels AKT1, AKT2/3, AtKC1, and KAT2 were expressed in this cell type. In impalement measurements, intact guard cells exhibited inward-rectifying K+ currents across the plasma membrane of both wild-type and KAT1::En-1 plants. This study demonstrates that multiple K+ channel transcripts exist in guard cells and that KAT1 is not essential for stomatal action.