TY - JOUR A1 - Lucia Gomez-Porras, Judith A1 - Mauricio Riano-Pachon, Diego A1 - Benito, Begona A1 - Haro, Rosario A1 - Sklodowski, Kamil A1 - Rodriguez-Navarro, Alonso A1 - Dreyer, Ingo T1 - Phylogenetic analysis of K+ transporters in bryophytes, lycophytes, and flowering plants indicates a specialization of vascular plants JF - Frontiers in plant science N2 - As heritage from early evolution, potassium (K+) is absolutely necessary for all living cells. It plays significant roles as stabilizer in metabolism and is important for enzyme activation, stabilization of protein synthesis, and neutralization of negative charges on cellular molecules as proteins and nucleic acids. Land plants even enlarged this spectrum of K+ utilization after having gone ashore, despite the fact that K+ is far less available in their new oligotrophic habitats than in sea water. Inevitably, plant cells had to improve and to develop unique transport systems for K+ accumulation and distribution. In the past two decades a manifold of K+ transporters from flowering plants has been identified at the molecular level. The recently published genome of the fern ally Selaginella moellendorffii now helps in providing a better understanding on the molecular changes involved in the colonization of land and the development of the vasculature and the seeds. In this article we present an inventory of K+ transporters of this lycophyte and pigeonhole them together with their relatives from the moss Physcomitrella patens, the monocotyledon Oryza sativa, and two dicotyledonous species, the herbaceous plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and the tree Populus trichocarpa. Interestingly, the transition of green plants from an aqueous to a dry environment coincides with a dramatic reduction in the diversity of voltage-gated potassium channels followed by a diversification on the basis of one surviving K+ channel class. The first appearance of K+ release (K-out) channels in S. moellendorffii that were shown in Arabidopsis to be involved in xylem loading and guard cell closure coincides with the specialization of vascular plants and may indicate an important adaptive step. KW - potassium KW - transport KW - channel KW - voltage-dependent KW - voltage-independent KW - high-affinity KW - Selaginella Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2012.00167 SN - 1664-462X VL - 3 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fernandez-Nino, Miguel A1 - Giraldo, Daniel A1 - Lucia Gomez-Porras, Judith A1 - Dreyer, Ingo A1 - Gonzalez Barrios, Andres Fernando A1 - Arevalo-Ferro, Catalina T1 - A synthetic multi-cellular network of coupled self-sustained oscillators JF - PLoS one N2 - Engineering artificial networks from modular components is a major challenge in synthetic biology. In the past years, single units, such as switches and oscillators, were successfully constructed and implemented. The effective integration of these parts into functional artificial self-regulated networks is currently on the verge of breakthrough. Here, we describe the design of a modular higher-order synthetic genetic network assembled from two independent self-sustained synthetic units: repressilators coupled via a modified quorum-sensing circuit. The isolated communication circuit and the network of coupled oscillators were analysed in mathematical modelling and experimental approaches. We monitored clustering of cells in groups of various sizes. Within each cluster of cells, cells oscillate synchronously, whereas the theoretical modelling predicts complete synchronization of the whole cellular population to be obtained approximately after 30 days. Our data suggest that self-regulated synchronization in biological systems can occur through an intermediate, long term clustering phase. The proposed artificial multicellular network provides a system framework for exploring how a given network generates a specific behaviour. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180155 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 12 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER -