The key role of µH2O gradients in deciphering microstructures and mineral assemblages of mylonites: examples from the Calabria polymetamorphic terrane

A careful petrologic analysis of mylonites’ mineral assemblages is crucial for a thorough comprehension of the rheologic behaviour of ductile shear zones active during an orogenesis. In this view, understanding the way new minerals form in rocks sheared in a ductile manner and why relict porphyroblasts are preserved in zones where mineral reactions are generally supposed to be deformation-assisted, is essential. To this goal, the role of chemical potential gradients, particularly that of H2O (µH2O), was examined here through phase equilibrium modelling of syn-kinematic mineral assemblages developed in three distinct mylonites from the Calabria polymetamorphic terrane. Results revealed that gradients in chemical potentials have effects on the mineral assemblages of the studied mylonites, and that new syn-kinematic minerals formed in higher-µH2O conditions than the surroundings. In each case study, the banded fabric of the mylonites is related to the fluid availability in the system, with the fluid that was internally generated by the breakdown of OH-bearing minerals. The gradients in µH2O favoured the origin of bands enriched in hydrated minerals alternated with bands where anhydrous minerals were preserved even during exhumation. Thermodynamic modelling highlights that during the prograde stage of metamorphism, high-µH2O was necessary to form new minerals while relict, anhydrous porphyroblasts remained stable in condition of low-µH2O even during exhumation. Hence, the approach used in this contribution is an in-depth investigation of the fluid-present/-deficient conditions that affected mylonites during their activity, and provides a more robust interpretation of their microstructures, finally helping to explain the rheologic behaviour of ductile shear zones.

Evidence for a multicellular symplasmic water pumping mechanism across vascular plant roots

With global warming, climate zones are projected to shift poleward, and the frequency and intensity of droughts to increase, driving threats to crop production and ecosystems. Plant hydraulic traits play major roles in coping with such droughts, and process-based plant hydraulics (water flowing along decreasing pressure or total water potential gradients) has newly been implemented in land surface models. An enigma reported for the past 35 years is the observation of water flowing along increasing water potential gradients across roots. By combining the most advanced modelling tool from the emerging field of plant micro-hydrology with pioneering cell solute mapping data, we found that the current paradigm of water flow across roots of all vascular plants is incomplete: it lacks the impact of solute concentration (and thus negative osmotic potential) gradients across living cells. This gradient acts as a water pump as it reduces water tension without loading solutes in plant vasculature (xylem). Importantly, water tension adjustments in roots may have large impacts in leaves due to the tension-cavitation feedback along stems. Here, we mathematically demonstrate the water pumping mechanism by solving water flow equations analytically on a triple-cell system. Then we show that the simplistic upscaled equations hold in 2- and 3-D maize, grapevine and Arabidopsis complex hydraulic anatomies, and that water may flow uphill of water potential gradients toward xylem as observed experimentally. Besides its contribution to the fundamental understanding of plant water relations, this study lays new foundations for future multidisciplinary research encompassing plant physiology and ecohydrology, and has the ambition to mathematically capture a keystone process for the accurate forecasting of plant water status in crop models and LSMs.

Function Trumps Form in Two Sugar Symporters, LacY and vSGLT

Active transport of sugars into bacteria occurs through symporters driven by ion gradients. LacY is the most well-studied proton sugar symporter, whereas vSGLT is the most characterized sodium sugar symporter. These are members of the major facilitator (MFS) and the amino acid-Polyamine organocation (APS) transporter superfamilies. While there is no structural homology between these transporters, they operate by a similar mechanism. They are nano-machines driven by their respective ion electrochemical potential gradients across the membrane. LacY has 12 transmembrane helices (TMs) organized in two 6-TM bundles, each containing two 3-helix TM repeats. vSGLT has a core structure of 10 TM helices organized in two inverted repeats (TM 1–5 and TM 6–10). In each case, a single sugar is bound in a central cavity and sugar selectivity is determined by hydrogen- and hydrophobic- bonding with side chains in the binding site. In vSGLT, the sodium-binding site is formed through coordination with carbonyl- and hydroxyl-oxygens from neighboring side chains, whereas in LacY the proton (H3O+) site is thought to be a single glutamate residue (Glu325). The remaining challenge for both transporters is to determine how ion electrochemical potential gradients drive uphill sugar transport.

The Structure of Filter Curve and Methods of Its Approximation. Part 1. Darcy’s Law and the Lower Limit of Its Application. Filtration of Liquids in Microporous Media

The description of the lower limit of the application of Darcy’s law is given, which is due to the influence of a number of anomalous factors that arise during the filtration flow of liquids through low-permeability finely dispersed media. The influence of such factors as the action of the forces of intermolecular interaction is considered; boundary layers and surface wettability; concentration and electric potential gradients; the presence of impurities in the liquid; gas saturation and vaporization; changes in the structure of the porous medium, separately or in the aggregate, leading to a violation of Darcy’s law.

Evidence for root adaptation to a spatially discontinuous water availability in the absence of external water potential gradients

We hereby show that root systems adapt to a spatially discontinuous pattern of water availability even when the gradients of water potential across them are vanishingly small. A paper microfluidic approach allowed us to expose the entire root system ofBrassica rapaplants to a square array of water sources, separated by dry areas. Gradients in the concentration of water vapor across the root system were as small as 10−4⋅mM⋅m−1(∼4 orders of magnitude smaller than in conventional hydrotropism assays). Despite such minuscule gradients (which greatly limit the possible influence of the well-understood gradient-driven hydrotropic response), our results show that 1) individual roots as well as the root system as a whole adapt to the pattern of water availability to maximize access to water, and that 2) this adaptation increases as water sources become more rare. These results suggest that either plant roots are more sensitive to water gradients than humanmade water sensors by 3–5 orders of magnitude, or they might have developed, like other organisms, mechanisms for water foraging that allow them to find water in the absence of an external gradient in water potential.