Identification of type III effectors modulating the symbiotic properties of Bradyrhizobium vignae strain ORS3257 with various Vigna species.

The Bradyrhizobium vignae strain ORS3257 is an elite strain recommended for cowpea inoculation in Senegal. This strain was recently shown to establish symbioses on some Aeschynomene species using a cocktail of Type III effectors (T3Es) secreted by the T3SS machinery. In this study, using a collection of mutants in different T3Es genes, we sought to identify the effectors that modulate the symbiotic properties of ORS3257 in three Vigna species (V. unguiculata, V. radiata and V. mungo). While the T3SS had a positive impact on the symbiotic efficiency of the strain in V. unguiculata and V. mungo, it blocked symbiosis with V. radiata. The combination of effectors promoting nodulation in V. unguiculata and V. mungo differed, in both cases, NopT and NopAB were involved, suggesting they are key determinants for nodulation, and to a lesser extent, NopM1 and NopP1, which are additionally required for optimal symbiosis with V. mungo. In contrast, only one effector, NopP2, was identified as the cause of the incompatibility between ORS3257 and V. radiata. The identification of key effectors which promote symbiotic efficiency or render the interaction incompatible is important for the development of inoculation strategies to improve the growth of Vigna species cultivated in Africa and Asia.

Phase behavior of Ar and Kr films on carbon nanotubes.

Recent experiments (Wang et al., 2010) have found evidence of phase transitions of gases adsorbed on a single carbon nanotube. In order to understand the observations, we have carried out classical grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations of this system, for the cases of Ar and Kr on zigzag and armchair nanotubes with radius R > 0.7 nm. The calculated behavior resembles the experimental results in the case of Ar. However, the prominent, ordered phase found for Kr in both simulations and (classical) energy minimization calculations differs from that deduced from the experimental data. A tentative explanation of the apparent discrepancy is that the experiments involve a nanotube of rather large radius (>1.5 nm).

Anomalous effective dimensionality of quantum gas adsorption near nanopores.

Three problems involving quasi-one-dimensional (1D) ideal gases are discussed. The simplest problem involves quantum particles localized within the 'groove', a quasi-1D region created by two adjacent, identical and parallel nanotubes. At low temperature (T), the transverse motion of the adsorbed gas, in the plane perpendicular to the axes of the tubes, is frozen out. Then, the low T heat capacity C(T) of N particles is that of a 1D classical gas: C(*)(T) = C(T)/(Nk(B)) --> 1/2. The dimensionless heat capacity C(*) increases when T ≥ 0.1T(x, y) (transverse excitation temperatures), asymptoting at C(*) = 2.5. The second problem involves a gas localized between two nearly parallel, co-planar nanotubes, with small divergence half-angle γ. In this case, too, the transverse motion does not contribute to C(T) at low T, leaving a problem of a gas of particles in a 1D harmonic potential (along the z axis, midway between the tubes). Setting ω(z) as the angular frequency of this motion, for T ≥ τ(z) ≡ ω(z)h/k(B), the behavior approaches that of a 2D classical gas, C(*) = 1; one might have expected instead C(*) = 1/2, as in the groove problem, since the limit γ ≡ 0 is 1D. For T << τ(z), the thermal behavior is exponentially activated, C(*) ∼ (τ(z)/T)(2)e(-τ(z)/T). At higher T (T ≈ ε(y)/k(B) ≡ τ(y) >> τ(z)), motion is excited in the y direction, perpendicular to the plane of nanotubes, resulting in thermal behavior (C(*) = 7/4) corresponding to a gas in 7/2 dimensions, while at very high T (T > hω(x)/k(B) ≡ τ(x) >> τ(y)), the behavior becomes that of a D = 11/2 system. The third problem is that of a gas of particles, e.g. (4)He, confined in the interstitial region between four square parallel pores. The low T behavior found in this case is again surprising--that of a 5D gas.