Tese de mestr.. Métodos Computacionais em Ciência e Engenharia. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2000

Annotation: Human cells of neuronal origin represent an excellent tool for the investigation of neuropathogenesis of TBE. The maturation, replication process of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and ultrastructural changes induced by infection in the neuroblasts cell line (UKF-NB-4) was studied by electron microscopy. I compared electron microscopical aspects (appearance) of TEM images of neuroblasts cells prepared by (1) conventional chemical fixation, resin-embedding and sectionig; (2) rapid freezing of cell monolayers at high pressure and sectioning of freeze substituted samples. The most interesting fact, however, is that vitrification preserves the cell in close to native state, whereas chemical fixation and dehydration can not take place without extensive intra- and intermolecular cross-linking and aggregation. The appearance of the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm of neu-roblasts cells were different in conditions (1) and (2). The excellent ultrastructure of the cytoplasmic and nuclear membranes and organels of neuroblasts cells processed by (2) confirmed the potentional of the method for preservation of cellular fine structures. The infection of neuroblastoma cells was associated with number of major morphological changes, including proliferation of membranes of the rough endoplasmic reticulum and rearrangement of cytoskeletal structures. The viral particles were located mainly in the cisterna´s of ER but also in the cytoplasm. In the cytoplasm I observed virions in the asso-ciations with microtubules and neurosecretory dense core vesicles. The transport of viral particles inside of the transport vesicles was obsereved from ER to Golgi apparatus. Free nucleocapsids were not confirmed. The observed pattern corresponded to both trans and cis type of maturation. The TBEV-infected neuroblasts cells exhibited either apoptotic or necrotic morphological changes. I observed the apoptotic signs (condensation, margination and fragmentation of chromatin in nucleus) and other alterations, such as disorganisation of cytoplasm, presence of the vacuoles and high density of cytoplasm. This report also de-scribes scanning electron microscope study of the surface features of neuroblasts cells. We observed virus-mediated cytopathic effect. The cells infected with TBEV were rounded with rough and rugged topography.

La difficulté de programmation des architectures parallèles à mémoire distribuée est un obstacle à l'exploitation de leur puissance de calcul potentielle. Parmi les différentes approches proposées pour pallier à cette difficulté, celle de la compilation dirigée par les données semble prometteuse, notamment dans le domaine du calcul scientifique. Le programme source, exprimé par exemple en HPF, est un programme séquentiel impératif dans lequel il est précisé comment sont réparties les données sur les processeurs ; le compilateur dérive un code parallèle en distribuant le contrôle d'après la distribution des données. La mise en oeuvre de cette approche nécessite le développement d'environnements complets. Cette thèse présente le travail réalisé dans le cadre d'un environnement de ce type : l'environnement Pandore. Nous nous sommes intéressés à la conception et la réalisation d'un exécutif portable et efficace qui doit être associé au compilateur ainsi qu'à l'évaluation des performances des programmes générés. Après avoir situé l'approche de la compilation par distribution de données dansle contexte plus large de la programmation des machines parallèles à mémoire distribuée, nous définissons des opérations de haut niveau qui permettent la description des schémas de compilation et la prise en compte des optimisations. Deux types de machines cibles sont considérés, d'une part des machines à messages et d'autre part des machines disposant d'un mécanisme de mémoire virtuelle partagée. Les points clés de la mise en oeuvre des opérations dans le compilateur et l'exécutif sont abordés. Nous insistons plus particulièrement sur la gestion des données distribuées et sur les optimisations des communications à l'exécution. Une mise en oeuvre réalisée dans l'environnement Pandore est ensuite détaillée. L'évaluation des performances des programmes est également étudiée, dans un premier temps par une série d'expérimentations sur plusieurs applications et dans un deuxième temps par la définition d'outils de mesure et de visualisation adaptés à la compilation par distribution de données.

Lignin is a key component of plant secondary cell walls, providing strength to the plant and allowing water transport. Lignin is a polymer of monolignols that are synthesized in the cell and transported into the cellulose rich cell wall. The primary goal of this thesis is to understand the mechanism(s) of monolignol deposition during xylogenesis. The currently accepted theory is that monolignols are exported by Golgi-mediated vesicle delivery to the secondary cell wall. When this theory was re-examined using cryofixed developing pine, quantitative autoradiography showed that monolignols did not accumulate in Golgi but were rapidly translocated from cytosol to cell wall. This suggests alternative mechanisms, such as membrane transporters, work in monolignol export. ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters were chosen because they transport other secondary metabolites and some ABC transporter encoding genes are highly expressed in lignifying cells. Four candidate ABC transporters were selected in Arabidopsis (ABCB11, ABCB14, ABCB15 from the ABCB/MDR subfamily and ABCG33 from the ABCG/PDR subfamily) and shown to have overlapping, high vasculature expression patterns. Mutants with T-DNA insertions in single ABC transporter genes had no change in lignification of inflorescence stems. However, a reduced polar auxin transport phenotype was detected in mutants of ABCB11, ABCB14 and ABCB15. An additional approach was the use of inhibitors of ABC transporters. A new assay, which was developed to quantify lignification in primary xylem of Arabidopsis roots, demonstrated that ABC inhibitors did not change lignin deposition. Monolignols are exported and polymerized in the polysaccharide matrix of the cell wall, which includes hemicelluloses that may organize monolignols during polymerization. Since diverse lignified cell types are enriched in either G- or S-lignin, I hypothesized that this pattern could reflect different hemicellulose distributions, which was examined using antibody labeling of xylans or mannans in hybrid poplar xylem. While xylans were generally distributed in all secondary cell walls, mannans were enriched in fibers but not in the ray and vessel walls. In summary, during secondary cell wall deposition, monolignols are exported by unknown transporter(s) rather than Golgi vesicles. In developing poplar wood, the monolignols are deposited into diverse hemicellulose domains in different cell types.

Lignin is a key component of plant secondary cell walls, providing strength to the plant and allowing water transport. Lignin is a polymer of monolignols that are synthesized in the cell and transported into the cellulose rich cell wall. The primary goal of this thesis is to understand the mechanism(s) of monolignol deposition during xylogenesis. The currently accepted theory is that monolignols are exported by Golgi-mediated vesicle delivery to the secondary cell wall. When this theory was re-examined using cryofixed developing pine, quantitative autoradiography showed that monolignols did not accumulate in Golgi but were rapidly translocated from cytosol to cell wall. This suggests alternative mechanisms, such as membrane transporters, work in monolignol export. ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters were chosen because they transport other secondary metabolites and some ABC transporter encoding genes are highly expressed in lignifying cells. Four candidate ABC transporters were selected in Arabidopsis (ABCB11, ABCB14, ABCB15 from the ABCB/MDR subfamily and ABCG33 from the ABCG/PDR subfamily) and shown to have overlapping, high vasculature expression patterns. Mutants with T-DNA insertions in single ABC transporter genes had no change in lignification of inflorescence stems. However, a reduced polar auxin transport phenotype was detected in mutants of ABCB11, ABCB14 and ABCB15. An additional approach was the use of inhibitors of ABC transporters. A new assay, which was developed to quantify lignification in primary xylem of Arabidopsis roots, demonstrated that ABC inhibitors did not change lignin deposition. Monolignols are exported and polymerized in the polysaccharide matrix of the cell wall, which includes hemicelluloses that may organize monolignols during polymerization. Since diverse lignified cell types are enriched in either G- or S-lignin, I hypothesized that this pattern could reflect different hemicellulose distributions, which was examined using antibody labeling of xylans or mannans in hybrid poplar xylem. While xylans were generally distributed in all secondary cell walls, mannans were enriched in fibers but not in the ray and vessel walls. In summary, during secondary cell wall deposition, monolignols are exported by unknown transporter(s) rather than Golgi vesicles. In developing poplar wood, the monolignols are deposited into diverse hemicellulose domains in different cell types.

Lignin is a key component of plant secondary cell walls, providing strength to the plant and allowing water transport. Lignin is a polymer of monolignols that are synthesized in the cell and transported into the cellulose rich cell wall. The primary goal of this thesis is to understand the mechanism(s) of monolignol deposition during xylogenesis. The currently accepted theory is that monolignols are exported by Golgi-mediated vesicle delivery to the secondary cell wall. When this theory was re-examined using cryofixed developing pine, quantitative autoradiography showed that monolignols did not accumulate in Golgi but were rapidly translocated from cytosol to cell wall. This suggests alternative mechanisms, such as membrane transporters, work in monolignol export. ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters were chosen because they transport other secondary metabolites and some ABC transporter encoding genes are highly expressed in lignifying cells. Four candidate ABC transporters were selected in Arabidopsis (ABCB11, ABCB14, ABCB15 from the ABCB/MDR subfamily and ABCG33 from the ABCG/PDR subfamily) and shown to have overlapping, high vasculature expression patterns. Mutants with T-DNA insertions in single ABC transporter genes had no change in lignification of inflorescence stems. However, a reduced polar auxin transport phenotype was detected in mutants of ABCB11, ABCB14 and ABCB15. An additional approach was the use of inhibitors of ABC transporters. A new assay, which was developed to quantify lignification in primary xylem of Arabidopsis roots, demonstrated that ABC inhibitors did not change lignin deposition. Monolignols are exported and polymerized in the polysaccharide matrix of the cell wall, which includes hemicelluloses that may organize monolignols during polymerization. Since diverse lignified cell types are enriched in either G- or S-lignin, I hypothesized that this pattern could reflect different hemicellulose distributions, which was examined using antibody labeling of xylans or mannans in hybrid poplar xylem. While xylans were generally distributed in all secondary cell walls, mannans were enriched in fibers but not in the ray and vessel walls. In summary, during secondary cell wall deposition, monolignols are exported by unknown transporter(s) rather than Golgi vesicles. In developing poplar wood, the monolignols are deposited into diverse hemicellulose domains in different cell types. / Science, Faculty of / Botany, Department of / Graduate