University of Rouen

About: University of Rouen is a education organization based out in Rouen, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Receptor. The organization has 7299 authors who have published 13209 publications receiving 313477 citations.

Tracking origins of invasive herbivores through herbaria and archival DNA: the case of the horse‐chestnut leaf miner

Abstract: Determining the native geographic range or origin of alien invasive species is crucial to developing invasive species management strategies. However, the necessary historical dimension is often lacking. The origin of the highly invasive horse-chestnut leaf-mining moth Cameraria ohridella has been controversial since the insect was first described in 1986 in Europe. Here, we reveal that herbarium collections across Europe indicate a Balkan origin for C ohridella. We successfully amplified nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA barcode fragments from larvae pressed within leaves of herbarium samples collected as early as 1879. These archival sequences confirm an identity of C ohridella and set back its history in Europe by more than a century. The herbarium samples uncovered previously unknown mitochondrial haplotypes and locally undocumented alleles, showing local outbreaks of C ohridella back to at least 1961 and dynamic frequency changes that may be associated with road development. This case history demonstr...

Opposite regulation of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway by C2-ceramide and PACAP through a MAP-kinase-dependent mechanism in cerebellar granule cells.

Abstract: The sphingomyelin-derived messenger ceramides provoke neuronal apoptosis through caspase-3 activation, while the neuropeptide pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) promotes neuronal survival and inhibits caspase-3 activity. However, the mechanisms leading to the opposite regulation of caspase-3 by C2-ceramide and PACAP are currently unknown. Here, we show that PACAP prevents C2-ceramide-induced inhibition of mitochondrial potential and C2-ceramide-evoked cytochrome c release. C2-ceramide stimulated Bax expression, but had no effect on Bcl-2, while PACAP abrogated the action of C2-ceramide on Bax and stimulated Bcl-2 expression. The effects of C2-ceramide and PACAP on Bax and Bcl-2 were blocked, respectively, by the JNK inhibitor L-JNKI1 and the MEK inhibitor U0126. L-JNKI1 prevented the alteration of mitochondria induced by C2-ceramide while U0126 suppressed the protective effect of PACAP against the deleterious action of C2-ceramide on mitochondrial potential. Moreover, L-JNKI1 inhibited the stimulatory effect of C2-ceramide on caspase-9 and -3 and prevented C2-ceramide-induced cell death. U0126 blocked PACAP-induced Bcl-2 expression, abrogated the inhibitory effect of PACAP on ceramide-induced caspase-9 activity, and promoted granule cell death. The present study reveals that C2-ceramide and PACAP exert opposite effects on Bax and Bcl-2 through, respectively, JNK- and ERK-dependent mechanisms. These data indicate that the mitochondrial pathway plays a pivotal role in the pro- and anti-apoptotic effects of C2-ceramide and PACAP.

Tunneling and Metastability of Continuous Time Markov Chains

Abstract: We propose a definition of tunneling and of metastability for a continuous time Markov process on countable state spaces. We obtain sufficient conditions for a irreducible positive recurrent Markov process to exhibit a tunneling behaviour. In the reversible case these conditions can be expressed in terms of the capacities and of the stationary measure of the Markov process.