Organic photovoltaics has emerged as a promising technology for electricity generation. The essential component in an organic solar cell is the bulk heterojunction absorber layer, typically a blend of an electron donor and an electron acceptor. Efforts have been made to design new materials such as donor polymers and novel acceptors to improve the power conversion efficiencies. New fullerene free acceptors providing low cost synthesis routes and tenability of their optoelectronic and electrochemical properties have been designed. Despite the efforts, still not much is known about the photopysical processes in these blends that limit the performance. In this respect, time-resolved spectroscopy such as transient absorption and time-resolved photoluminescence, can provide in-depth insight into the various (photo) physical processes in bulk heterojunction solar cell. In this thesis, PCE10 was used as donor and paired with different non fullerene acceptors. In the first part of this thesis the impact of the core structure (cyclopenta-[2, 1-b:3, 4-b’]dithiophene (CDT) versus indacenodithiophene (IDTT)) of malononitrile (BM)-terminated acceptors, abbreviated as CDTBM and IDTTBM, on the photophysical characteristics of BHJ solar cells is reported. The IDTT-based acceptor achieves power conversion efficiencies of 8.4%, higher than the CDT-based acceptor (5.6%), due to concurrent increase in short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage. Using (ultra)fast transient spectroscopy we demonstrate that reduced geminate recombination in PCE10: IDTTBM blends is the reason for the difference in short-circuit currents. External quantum efficiency measurements indicate that the higher energy of interfacial charge-transfer states observed for the IDTT-based acceptor blends is the origin of the higher open-circuit voltage. In the second part of this thesis, I report the impact of acceptor side chains on the photo-physical processes of BHJ solar cells using three different IDT-based acceptors, namely O-IDTBR, EH-IDTBR and O-IDTBCN blended with PCE10. Power conversion efficiencies as high as 10 % were achieved. The transient absorption spectroscopy experiments provide insight into sub-picosecond exciton dissociation and charge generation which is followed by nanosecond triplet state formation in PCE10:O-DTBR and PCE10:EH-IDTBR blends, while in O-IDTBCN triplets are not observed. Time delayed collection field experiments (TDCF) were performed to address the charge carrier generation and examine its dependence on the electric field.

La recombinaison homologue est un processus conservé chez les eucaryotes. Au cours de la méiose,ce mécanisme est essentiel à la formation des crossing-overs, eux-mêmes essentiels à la bonne ségrégation des chromosomes homologues. La recombinaison méiotique est assurée par l’action combinée de facteurs mitotiques et méiotiques. La protéine MEIOB a récemment été identifiée et caractérisée comme étant essentielle à la réparation des cassures double brin de l’ADN au cours de la méiose. MEIOB est un paralogue de RPA1, la grande sous-unité du complexe RPA qui est un complexe de liaison à l’ADN simple brin ubiquitaire et composé de RPA1, RPA2 et RPA3. MEIOB peut interagir avec SPATA22 et RPA2. Cette observation suggère que MEIOB, SPATA22 et RPA pourraient agir ensemble au cours de la recombinaison méiotique. En se basant sur l’homologie de structure entre MEIOB, SPATA22 et les sous-unités de RPA, nous avons caractérisé les modalités et le rôle de leur interaction. Nous avons montré que MEIOB et SPATA22 interagissent grâce à leur domaines OB-folds C-terminaux à l’image de RPA1 et RPA2 et que MEIOB et SPATA22 coopèrent pour interagir avec le complexe RPA. Par microscopie électronique, nous avons mis en évidence que la présence de MEIOB-SPATA22 induit une forte condensation du filament RPA ADN simple brin. Nous avons également montré par immunofluorescence sur chromosomes méiotiques murins que l’hélicase BLM accumule sur les axes chromosomiques et que cette accumulation est corrélée avec l’élimination de la recombinase DMC1 des cassures méiotiques non-réparées, en absence de MEIOB. Enin, nous avons mis en évidence par microscopie à haute résolution que l’absence de MEIOB favorise une distribution anormale des protéines recombinases. Nos résultats suggèrent que MEIOB, SPATA22 et RPA collaborent pour assurer l’intégrité des intermédiaires de recombinaison méiotiques au cours de l’invasion d’un brin homologue. / Homologous recombination is a conserved process among eukaryotes. During meiosis, thismechanism is essential to the formation of crossovers and thus for the proper segregation of chromosomes. Meiotic recombination is ensured by the combined action of mitotic and meiotic factors. MEIOB has been recently identiied and shown to be essential to the repair of meiotic DNA double-strand breaks. MEIOB is aparalog of RPA1, the large subunit of RPA, which is a ubiquitous ssDNA-binding trimeric composed ofRPA1, RPA2 and RPA3. MEIOB has been shown to interact with SPATA22 and RPA2. This observation suggested that MEIOB, SPATA22 and RPA may work together. Based on the homology existing betweenstructural domains of MEIOB, SPATA22 and the RPA subunits, we deciphered the modality and the role oftheir interactions. We show that MEIOB and SPATA22 interact through their C-terminal OB domains like RPA1 and RPA2 and cooperate to interact with the RPA complex. Using Transmission Electron Microscopy,we evidenced that the presence of MEIOB/SPATA22 induces a strong compaction of the RPA/ssDNAilament. Immunofluorescent microscopy performed on murin meiotic chromosomes revealed that in theabsence of MEIOB, the BLM helicase accumulates on chromosomes axis and correlates with the eviction ofthe DMC1 recombinase from unrepaired meiotic breaks. Finally, we show that the absence of MEIOB favorsabnormal recombinase distribution observed by SIM microscopy. Together, our results evidence thatMEIOB, SPATA22 and RPA act together to insure the integrity of recombination intermediates during strandinvasion.

Meiotic recombination is a fundamental genetic process in all sexually reproducing eukaryotes, ultimately responsible for the generation of new combinations of alleles upon which natural selection can act. It begins with the formation of programmed double stranded breaks along the genome, and ends with their repair as non-crossover or crossover recombination events. The localization of such events along the genome has important evolutionary consequences for genome structure, base composition, patterns of genetic diversity, linkage disequilibrium and introgression, along the genome, as well as in the evolution of post-zygotic hybrid sterility and speciation. Understanding how meiotic recombination events are localized is thus crucial to the proper interpretation of observed genetic variation, and to the field of population genetics as a whole. However, little is known about how most species localize recombination events. While some species localize meiotic recombination events fairly evenly along the genome (e.g., Caenorhabditis elegans or Drosophila), most species studied to date, including all yeasts, plants and vertebrates, localize the vast majority of meiotic recombination events to narrow intervals of the genome known as recombination hotspots. Within such species, there appear to be at least two general mechanisms underlying the localization of hotspots. First, in many species, including baker’s yeast, canids, birds, and plants, the vast majority of hotspots are found in close proximity with promoter-like features of the genome, such as transcriptional start sites and CpG-islands. Recombination landscapes in these species tend to be highly conserved between closely related species. Second, in mice, primates and cattle, the vast majority of hotspots are found away from promoter-like features of the genome, and at sites bound by the PRDM9 protein, which has a rapidly evolving DNA-binding specificity. Concordantly, the recombination landscapes in these species tends to be rapidly evolving. The aim of Chapter 2 of this dissertation is to characterize the distribution of mechanisms across vertebrates indirectly, by leveraging what is known about their genetic and molecular underpinnings. In particular, I consider what is known about the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary consequences of using PRDM9 to localize recombination events, and attempt to infer which vertebrate species are or are not likely to be using PRDM9 in an analogous manner. I find that PRDM9 has been lost repeatedly within vertebrates, and, moreover, that many species carry partial PRDM9 orthologs lacking one or more feature believed to be important for its role in recombination. In Chapter 3, I demonstrate that swordtail fish, which have such a partial PRDM9 ortholog, do not use PRDM9 to localize recombination events. Instead, they use promoter-like features of the genome, similar to species lacking PRDM9 altogether. This work suggests that only species carrying complete PRDM9 orthologs are likely to use them to localize recombination events, and that upon the partial or complete loss of PRDM9, species typically default to the use of promoter-like features. Beyond more immediately practical insight, understanding the phylogenetic distribution of mechanisms by which meiotic recombination events are localized along the genome will shed light on why different species employ different mechanisms. The repeated losses of PRDM9-directed recombination across vertebrates suggests that selective pressures are not always strong enough to justify the evolutionary maintenance of PRDM9. Notably, theory suggests that PRDM9’s DNA-binding specificity has to be continually evolving in order for it to localize recombination events to hotspots. This is a consequence of gene conversion acting to remove PRDM9 binding sites from the population over time. Models have been proposed in which selection favors younger PRDM9 alleles because their binding sites have experienced less erosion due to gene conversion. Nonetheless, it has remained unclear how the loss of PRDM9 binding sites might cause a reduction in fitness, principally because it has remained unclear what the evolutionary benefit of having hotspots is more generally. Recently, however, a number of studies investigating the role of PRDM9 in mediating hybrid sterility in certain crosses of musculus subspecies have implicated the erosion of its binding sites in this process. In particular, the lineage specific erosion of PRDM9 binding sites causes, in the F1 generation, the PRDM9 alleles from each parental lineage to bind primarily to the non-parental genetic background, where its binding sites have not yet been eroded. These studies suggest that there is a benefit to the symmetric binding of PRDM9 across homologous chromosomes, and that fitness is reduced as a consequence of asymmetry in PRDM9 binding. In Chapter 4 of this dissertation I develop a population genetics based model of the co-evolution of PRDM9 and its binding sites taking into consideration these recent findings. In particular, I model competition between PRDM9 binding sites and define fitness as a function of PRDM9 binding symmetry. This model demonstrates that PRDM9 binding symmetry will decrease over time in randomly mating populations, and that selection for symmetric binding is sufficient to drive the rapid turnover of PRDM9 alleles. Importantly, the requirement for symmetry in this model shapes the recombination landscape by favoring highly skewed binding distributions. This model thus provides theoretical support for the hypothesis that a requirement for symmetry might underlie the evolutionary advantage of recombination hotspots.

The presented work focuses on study of electron - positive ion recombination in low temperature plasma. The principal method used were Flowing afterglow with Langmuir probe and Stationary afterglow with Cavity Ring-Down Spectrometer. For the first time electron and neutral assisted collisional radiative recombination of Ar+ ions was studied in temperature range of 50 - 200 K. Resulting ternary recombination rate coefficients are in good agreement with theoretical predictions. Recombination of H3 + and D3 + ions with electrons was studied in the temperature range of 50 - 300 K and binary and ternary recombination rate coefficients were obtained. The effect of nuclear spin on recombination of H3 + ions with electrons was studied in the temperature range of 80 - 200 K and state selective recombination rate coefficients were obtained for ortho- and para-H3 + . Results show that at 80 K para-H3 + recombines with electrons substantially faster than ortho-H3 + .

The aim of this work is the experimental study of recombination of molecular ions with electrons at low temperatures (< 300 K). The work gives an overview of the diagnostic methods, modelling of chemical kinetics, and experimental ap- paratuses Cryo-FALP II and SA-CRDS used in the undertaken measurements. Two processes were studied in the course of this work: state-selective binary disso- ciative recombination of H+ 3 ions in para-H+ 3 and ortho-H+ 3 states, and H2-assisted ternary recombination of H+ 3 . The main result of the state-selective dissociative recombination study is that the rate of recombination in the para-H+ 3 state is at least three times higher than in the ortho-H+ 3 state at 60 K. The study of H2- assisted recombination gave a better understanding of ternary processes of H+ 3 ions and removed further discrepancies between results of afterglow experiments.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第18179号 / 医博第3899号 / 新制||医||1004(附属図書館) / 31037 / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 清水 章, 教授 岩井 一宏, 教授 生田 宏一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第20668号 / 医博第4278号 / 新制||医||1024(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 武田 俊一, 教授 岩井 一宏, 教授 清水 章 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

No description available.

Sex chromosomes and autosomes often differ in their relative rates of evolution, with sex chromosomes generally accumulating changes more rapidly (faster-X evolution). Transposable elements (TEs) make up a significant portion of eukaryotic genomes and are some of the most rapidly evolving genetic elements. We compared relative rates of insertion on the X and autosomes for 78 families found in Drosophila melanogaster. The average X/A ratio for these TE families was 1.11, similar to the mean dS X/A ratio, indicating no male-bias in mutation rate or TE insertion. The major mode of the distribution was ~0.8, indicating stronger purifying selection on the X chromosome for most TEs. We found no effect on X/A from sex-specific TE expression, but TEs with male-specific piRNA had an average X/A ratio of 0.62. We also found that TEs with very high X/A ratios (top 5%) had X chromosome insertions in areas of relative low recombination.

No description available.