Changes in water availability also resulted in significant changes in phloem sugar (sucrose and raffinose), inorganic nutrient (potassium), and amino acid (phenylalanine) concentrations with important implications for the maintenance of phloem function and biomass partitioning. The differences in carbohydrate and amino acid composition as well as the delta C-13 in the phloem, along with a new model system for phloem research, mTOR inhibitor offer an improved understanding of the phloem-mediated signal, nutrient, and photoassimilate transduction in relation to water availability.”
“Defects inside single crystals are an important concern because they directly

affect the physical or chemical properties of the material, especially check details in sapphire used as substrates for semiconductors. We have investigated the thermally activated transformations of nanometer-scale cracks and phase transitions inside sapphire by femtosecond laser irradiation and successive heat treatments. The nanocracks transformed into periodic arrays of pores and dislocations that aligned along the {1 (1) over bar 02) planes

after heat treatments above 1300 degrees C. The amorphous phase at the focal point recovered into the initial single crystalline phase after the heat treatments. Our study provides useful information on the recovery behavior of nanometer-scale defects in a single crystal. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3527899]“
“AGAMOUS clade genes encode MADS box transcription factors that have been shown 3-MA PI3K/Akt/mTOR inhibitor to play critical roles in many aspects of flower and fruit development in angiosperms. Tomato possesses two representatives of this lineage, TOMATO AGAMOUS (TAG1) and TOMATO AGAMOUS-LIKE1 (TAGL1), allowing for an analysis of diversification of function after gene duplication. Using RNAi (RNA interference)

silencing, transgenic tomato lines that specifically down-regulate either TAGL1 or TAG1 transcript accumulation have been produced. TAGL1 RNAi lines show no defects in stamen or carpel identity, but show defects in fruit ripening. In contrast TAG1 RNAi lines show defects in stamen and carpel development. In addition TAG1 RNAi lines produce red ripe fruit, although they are defective in determinacy and produce ectopic internal fruit structures. e2814, an EMS- (ethyl methane sulphonate) induced mutation that is temperature sensitive and produces fruit phenotypes similar to that of TAG1 RNAi lines, was also characterized. Neither TAG1 nor TAGL1 expression is disrupted in the e2814 mutant, suggesting that the gene corresponding to the e2814 mutant represents a distinct locus that is likely to be functionally downstream of TAG1 and TAGL1. Based on these analyses, possible modes by which these gene duplicates have diversified in terms of their functions and regulatory roles are discussed.