National University of La Plata

About: National University of La Plata is a education organization based out in La Plata, Argentina. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 12993 authors who have published 30013 publications receiving 495118 citations. The organization is also known as: UNLP & Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

Nano/microscale order affects the early stages of biofilm formation on metal surfaces.

Abstract: The adhesion of Pseudomonas fluorescens was studied on nano/microengineered surfaces. Results show that these bacteria formed well-defined aggregates on randomly oriented nanosized granular gold substrates. These aggregates consist of aligned ensembles of bacteria, with some of them strongly elongated. This kind of biological structure was not found on ordered engineered surfaces because bacterial alignment and cell-to-cell sticking were hindered. Importantly, differences in cell morphology, length, orientation, and flagellation were observed between bacteria attached on the ordered nano/microstructures and the randomly ordered surfaces. The implications of the results are related to the design of engineered surfaces to enhance (nanostructured filters) or inhibit (medical implants and industrial biofouling) bacterial colonization on the surfaces and to the biocontrol of soil ecosystems.

Improved tolerance of wheat plants (Triticum aestivum L.) to drought stress and rewatering by the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus claroideum: Effect on growth and cell membrane stability

Abstract: The aim of this paper was to investigate the contribution of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus claroideum to drought stress tolerance in wheat plants grown under controlled conditions in a growth chamber, and subjected to moderate or severe water stress and rewatering. Water stress tolerance was determined through total dry weight, leaf relative water content, leakage of solutes and leaf chlorophyll and protein concentrations in mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal wheat plants. Total dry weight and leaf chlorophyll concentrations were significantly higher in mycorrhizal plants after moderate or severe water stress treatments compared with non-mycorrhizal ones. Electrolyte leakage was significantly lower in water-stressed inoculated plants. Compared to non-inoculated plants, leaf relative water content and total protein concentration of inoculated individuals increased only under severe water stress. When irrigation was re-established, mycorrhizal plants increased their total dry weight and leaf chlorophyll concentration, and recovered cell membrane permeability in leaves compared with non-mycorrhizal plants. In conclusion, root colonization by G. claroideum could be an adequate strategy to alleviate the deleterious effects of drought stress and retard the senescence syndrome in wheat.

First discovery of monotremes in South America

Abstract: UNTIL now, the egg-laying monotremes were only known from the Australian continent, where they have lived since the early Cretaceous period to the present1. Here we report the first monotreme from outside the Australian continent, an ornithorhyn-chid, from sediments of late early Palaeocene age in Patagonia, southern Argentina. This discovery demonstrates the Gondwanan nature of monotremes and supports the hypothesis that the Patagonian Terrane of southern South America had a biotic history distinct from that of the rest of the continent.