@article{9060, abstract = {Molecular motors are essential to the living, generating fluctuations that boost transport and assist assembly. Active colloids, that consume energy to move, hold similar potential for man-made materials controlled by forces generated from within. Yet, their use as a powerhouse in materials science lacks. Here we show a massive acceleration of the annealing of a monolayer of passive beads by moderate addition of self-propelled microparticles. We rationalize our observations with a model of collisions that drive active fluctuations and activate the annealing. The experiment is quantitatively compared with Brownian dynamic simulations that further unveil a dynamical transition in the mechanism of annealing. Active dopants travel uniformly in the system or co-localize at the grain boundaries as a result of the persistence of their motion. Our findings uncover the potential of internal activity to control materials and lay the groundwork for the rise of materials science beyond equilibrium.}, author = {Ramananarivo, Sophie and Ducrot, Etienne and Palacci, Jérémie A}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, keywords = {General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, General Physics and Astronomy, General Chemistry}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Activity-controlled annealing of colloidal monolayers}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-11362-y}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, } @article{9460, abstract = {Epigenetic reprogramming is required for proper regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic organisms. In Arabidopsis, active DNA demethylation is crucial for seed viability, pollen function, and successful reproduction. The DEMETER (DME) DNA glycosylase initiates localized DNA demethylation in vegetative and central cells, so-called companion cells that are adjacent to sperm and egg gametes, respectively. In rice, the central cell genome displays local DNA hypomethylation, suggesting that active DNA demethylation also occurs in rice; however, the enzyme responsible for this process is unknown. One candidate is the rice REPRESSOR OF SILENCING 1a (ROS1a) gene, which is related to DME and is essential for rice seed viability and pollen function. Here, we report genome-wide analyses of DNA methylation in wild-type and ros1a mutant sperm and vegetative cells. We find that the rice vegetative cell genome is locally hypomethylated compared with sperm by a process that requires ROS1a activity. We show that many ROS1a target sequences in the vegetative cell are hypomethylated in the rice central cell, suggesting that ROS1a also demethylates the central cell genome. Similar to Arabidopsis, we show that sperm non-CG methylation is indirectly promoted by DNA demethylation in the vegetative cell. These results reveal that DNA glycosylase-mediated DNA demethylation processes are conserved in Arabidopsis and rice, plant species that diverged 150 million years ago. Finally, although global non-CG methylation levels of sperm and egg differ, the maternal and paternal embryo genomes show similar non-CG methylation levels, suggesting that rice gamete genomes undergo dynamic DNA methylation reprogramming after cell fusion.}, author = {Kim, M. Yvonne and Ono, Akemi and Scholten, Stefan and Kinoshita, Tetsu and Zilberman, Daniel and Okamoto, Takashi and Fischer, Robert L.}, issn = {1091-6490}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, keywords = {Multidisciplinary}, number = {19}, pages = {9652--9657}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{DNA demethylation by ROS1a in rice vegetative cells promotes methylation in sperm}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1821435116}, volume = {116}, year = {2019}, } @article{9689, abstract = {A central goal of computational physics and chemistry is to predict material properties by using first-principles methods based on the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics. However, the high computational costs of these methods typically prevent rigorous predictions of macroscopic quantities at finite temperatures, such as heat capacity, density, and chemical potential. Here, we enable such predictions by marrying advanced free-energy methods with data-driven machine-learning interatomic potentials. We show that, for the ubiquitous and technologically essential system of water, a first-principles thermodynamic description not only leads to excellent agreement with experiments, but also reveals the crucial role of nuclear quantum fluctuations in modulating the thermodynamic stabilities of different phases of water.}, author = {Cheng, Bingqing and Engel, Edgar A. and Behler, Jörg and Dellago, Christoph and Ceriotti, Michele}, issn = {1091-6490}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, number = {4}, pages = {1110--1115}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, title = {{Ab initio thermodynamics of liquid and solid water}}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1815117116}, volume = {116}, year = {2019}, } @article{6819, abstract = {Glyphosate (N-phosphonomethyl glycine) and its commercial herbicide formulations have been shown to exert toxicity via various mechanisms. It has been asserted that glyphosate substitutes for glycine in polypeptide chains leading to protein misfolding and toxicity. However, as no direct evidence exists for glycine to glyphosate substitution in proteins, including in mammalian organisms, we tested this claim by conducting a proteomics analysis of MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells grown in the presence of 100 mg/L glyphosate for 6 days. Protein extracts from three treated and three untreated cell cultures were analysed as one TMT-6plex labelled sample, to highlight a specific pattern (+/+/+/−/−/−) of reporter intensities for peptides bearing true glyphosate treatment induced-post translational modifications as well as allowing an investigation of the total proteome.}, author = {Antoniou, Michael N. and Nicolas, Armel and Mesnage, Robin and Biserni, Martina and Rao, Francesco V. and Martin, Cristina Vazquez}, issn = {1756-0500}, journal = {BMC Research Notes}, publisher = {BioMed Central}, title = {{Glyphosate does not substitute for glycine in proteins of actively dividing mammalian cells}}, doi = {10.1186/s13104-019-4534-3}, volume = {12}, year = {2019}, } @misc{9784, abstract = {Additional file 1: Table S1. Kinetics of MDA-MB-231 cell growth in either the presence or absence of 100Â mg/L glyphosate. Cell counts are given at day-1 of seeding flasks and following 6-days of continuous culture. Note: no differences in cell numbers were observed between negative control and glyphosate treated cultures.}, author = {Antoniou, Michael N. and Nicolas, Armel and Mesnage, Robin and Biserni, Martina and Rao, Francesco V. and Martin, Cristina Vazquez}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{MOESM1 of Glyphosate does not substitute for glycine in proteins of actively dividing mammalian cells}}, doi = {10.6084/m9.figshare.9411761.v1}, year = {2019}, }