The mineral record contains chemical signatures that reflect the evolving redox conditions of Earth's crust, and reveal trends in the bioavailability of life's critical elements. In particular, shifting redox states of transition metal elements that are used as co-factors by enzymes across all domains of life can be tracked in preserved mineral chemistry. The transition metal iron (Fe) is one of the most abundant elements in Earth's core, mantle, and crust, and is commonly a major constituent of rock-forming minerals. Additionally, Fe is the most widely used metal in biology, and Earth's redox history has profoundly impacted the chemical speciation and availability of Fe in aqueous systems. The diverse mineral chemistry of Fe can therefore reveal new insights into the redox evolution of Earth's crust and subsequent biological impacts. Here, we apply a new mineral chemistry network analysis platform, dragon, to investigate the mineral chemistry of iron (Fe) over geologic-time. We present bipartite network graphs of iron minerals linked to their constituent elements or ions for several geological time intervals. These graphs illustrate the increasing importance of oxygen (O) abundance in the atmosphere from the Paleoarchean to the Mesoproterozoic in regard to the the emergence of new Fe minerals, as well as the influence of free O on trends in element electronegativity in mineral formation and electron transfer processes. The proportion of oxygen containing Fe minerals had the sharpest increase during the time periods of the Kenorland and Columbia supercontinent assembly events. Indeed, the rise of O is associated with O becoming more centralized in the network as well as with an increase through time in the number of Fe minerals containing combinations of high and low electronegativity elements. The importance of oxygen in the expansion of Fe mineral chemical diversity, and its influence on the bioavailability of Fe in the environment, is illustrated clearly in the Fe mineral chemistry network.

The heat extracted from the core by the overlying mantle across the core-mantle boundary controls the thermal evolution of the core. This in turn leads to the solidification of the inner core in association with the exsolution of light alloying elements into the liquid outer core. Although the temperature (T) at the inner core boundary (ICB) would be adjusted to account for the effects of the light elements, the melting T of Fe places an upper bound at the ICB and it is a vital point in the thermal profile of the core. Here, we determine the melting T of Fe in the multi-anvil press by characterizing the interface of Fe-W interaction. Our data place a tighter constraint on the melting curve of Fe between 8 and 21 GPa, that is directly applicable to small planetary bodies and serves as an anchor for melting curve of Fe at higher pressure.

New Raman and NMR spectroscopy data on hydrous Ca aluminosilicate melts and glasses, with eutectic quartz-anorthite-wollastonite composition, are presented here. The glasses were obtained by rapid quench of melts equilibrated at high P and high T in a piston-cylinder apparatus. In situ Raman observations of the structure of the melts were also performed during hydrothermal diamond cell experiments. Using the intensities of the similar to 860 cm(-1) and similar to 1630 cm(-1) Raman signals, respectively assigned to vibrations of T-OH and H2Omol species, we determined the speciation of water in the glasses. T-OH and H2Omol values compare well with those determined from infrared (IR) spectra, except above similar to 5 wt% total water where IR determinations actually underestimate the proportion of hydroxyl groups. The analysis of the polarized Raman spectra and of the Si-29 MAS NMR spectra of the hydrous glasses suggests limited changes in glass polymerization with variations in dissolved water content. However, at high temperatures, in situ Raman spectroscopy observations indicate that the hydrous melt structure differs very strongly from that of a glass containing a comparable concentration of dissolved water. Because of this, this study reinforces the fact that using glass data to try understanding high temperature processes in hydrous melts, like viscous flow or water diffusion toward bubbles during volcanic degassing, may not be very appropriate.

Hydrogen stable isotope values of hydrated volcanic glass as a proxy for the isotopic composition of past meteoric waters provide an opportunity for reconstructing past climates. Here we present new hydrogen stable isotope values from 63 individual tuffs from the Afar region in the lower Awash Valley of eastern Ethiopia. The hydrogen isotopic results from volcanic glass spanning the last 6.4 Ma show a wide distribution with values ranging be-tween-89 and -32 parts per thousand (VSMOW). The variability is consistent with the observed paleo-depositional setting (i.e., lower values for fluvial settings while higher values are recorded in lacustrine settings). The reconstructed hydrogen isotopic values of parent waters are considerably lower than those of modern meteoric waters, sug-gesting a bias toward lower values during the hydration of volcanic glass. Reconstructed hydrogen stable isotope values of water derived from volcanic glass differ from other proxies of regional climate in northeast Africa, pointing to the controls of local meteoric waters on the hydrogen isotopic composition of volcanic glass. There is agreement between the reconstructed isotopic composition of parent waters and the lowest hydrogen isotopic values of modern precipitation in the Awash catchment that correspond to periods of large rainfall. This correspondence probably indicates that volcanic glass is preferentially hydrated during the wettest seasons. To test this idea, we compared the isotopic results from volcanic glass with the reconstructed isotopic composition of surface waters from soil carbonates deposited during the Pliocene and Pleistocene in the lower Awash Valley. The comparison reveals a considerable difference between proxies, with volcanic glass recording lower isotopic values than soil carbonates. Evaporative isotopic enrichment of water in shallow (<1 m) soil profiles probably accounts for the elevated values in soil carbonates. In contrast, the presence of smectite-rich vertisols above volcanic deposits appears to retard infiltration of meteoric waters deep into the subsurface. During rainfall events, vertisols swell and prevent all but the largest rainfall events from penetrating deep (>1 m) into the profiles and promoting the hydration of volcanic glass that display systematically lower isotopic values of meteoric waters than the mean annual rainfall.

The maize female gametophyte is comprised of four cell types: two synergids, an egg cell, a central cell, and a variable number of antipodal cells. In maize, these cells are produced after three rounds of free-nuclear divisions followed by cellularization, differentiation, and proliferation of the antipodal cells. Cellularization of the eight-nucleate syncytium produces seven cells with two polar nuclei in the central cell. Nuclear localization is tightly controlled in the embryo sac. This leads to precise allocation of the nuclei into the cells upon cellularization. Nuclear positioning within the syncytium is highly correlated with their identity after cellularization. Two mutants are described with extra polar nuclei, abnormal antipodal cell morphology, and reduced antipodal cell number, as well as frequent loss of antipodal cell marker expression. Mutations in one of these genes, indeterminate gametophyte2 encoding a MICROTUBULE ASSOCIATED PROTEIN65-3 homolog, shows a requirement for MAP65-3 in cellularization of the syncytial embryo sac as well as for normal seed development. The timing of the effects of ig2 suggests that the identity of the nuclei in the syncytial female gametophyte can be changed very late before cellularization.

Astrophysics and cosmology in the coming decades urgently need a large field-of-view (FOV), highly multiplexed spectroscopic survey telescope satisfying challenging image quality and stability requirements. The 6.5 m MUltiplexed Survey Telescope (MUST) proposed by Tsinghua University will be constructed on the Saishiteng Mountain of Northwest China to improve the spectroscopic survey capability of ground-based optical telescopes. In this paper, we demonstrate the conceptual design of the optical system of MUST. MUST will adopt a 6.5 m primary mirror, a 2.45 m secondary mirror, and a multiple-element widefield corrector (WFC) to ensure excellent image quality with an 80% encircled energy size of image spots less than similar to 0.6 arcsec in diameter for the entire 3 degrees FOV and the whole 50 degrees zenith angle range. Thanks to its compact 6.5 m Ritchey-Chretien system and 20,000 optical fibers on its Cassegrain focus, MUST will carry out state-of-the-art wide-field spectroscopic surveys with efficiency similar to 19 times higher than the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) using a measure proposed by Ellis et al. Upon completion around 2029, MUST will be one of the world's most advanced wide-field spectroscopic survey telescopes and a new essential reference for the future development of wide-field survey telescopes. It will enable significant advances in many fields in astrophysics and cosmology.

JWST observations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission provide some of the deepest and highest resolution views of the cold interstellar medium (ISM) in nearby galaxies. If PAHs are well mixed with the atomic and molecular gas and illuminated by the average diffuse interstellar radiation field, PAH emission may provide an approximately linear, high-resolution, high-sensitivity tracer of diffuse gas surface density. We present a pilot study that explores using PAH emission in this way based on Mid-Infrared Instrument observations of IC 5332, NGC 628, NGC 1365, and NGC 7496 from the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS-JWST Treasury. Using scaling relationships calibrated in Leroy et al., scaled F1130W provides 10-40 pc resolution and 3 sigma sensitivity of sigma(gas) similar to 2 M (circle dot) pc(-2). We characterize the surface densities of structures seen at M (circle dot) pc(-2) in our targets, where we expect the gas to be H i-dominated. We highlight the existence of filaments, interarm emission, and holes in the diffuse ISM at these low surface densities. Below similar to 10 M (circle dot) pc(-2) for NGC 628, NGC 1365, and NGC 7496 the gas distribution shows a "Swiss cheese"-like topology due to holes and bubbles pervading the relatively smooth distribution of the diffuse ISM. Comparing to recent galaxy simulations, we observe similar topology for the low-surface-density gas, though with notable variations between simulations with different setups and resolution. Such a comparison of high-resolution, low-surface-density gas with simulations is not possible with existing atomic and molecular gas maps, highlighting the unique power of JWST maps of PAH emission.

Corals form an endosymbiotic relationship with the dinoflagellate algae Symbiodiniaceae, but ocean warming can trigger algal loss, coral bleaching and death, and the degradation of ecosystems. Mitigation of coral death requires a mechanistic understanding of coral-algal endosymbiosis. Here we report an RNA interference (RNAi) method and its application to study genes involved in early steps of endosymbiosis in the soft coral Xenia sp. We show that a host endosymbiotic cell marker called LePin (lectin and kazal protease inhibitor domains) is a secreted Xenia lectin that binds to algae to initiate phagocytosis of the algae and coral immune response modulation. The evolutionary conservation of domains in LePin among marine anthozoans performing endosymbiosis suggests a general role in coral-algal recognition. Our work sheds light on the phagocytic machinery and posits a mechanism for symbiosome formation, helping in efforts to understand and preserve coral-algal relationships in the face of climate change.

The intestines of animals are colonized by commensal microbes, which impact host development, health, and behavior. Precise quantification of colonization is essential for studying the complex interactions between host and microbe both to validate the microbial composition and study its effects. Drosophila melanogaster, which has a low native microbial diversity and is economical to rear with defined microbial composition, has emerged as a model organism for studying the gut microbiome. Analyzing the microbiome of an individual organism requires identification of which microbial species are present and quantification of their absolute abundance. This article presents a method for the analysis of a large number of individual fly microbiomes. The flies are prepared in 96-well plates, enabling the handling of a large number of samples at once. Microbial abundance is quantified by plating up to 96 whole fly homogenates on a single agar plate in an array of spots and then counting the colony forming units (CFUs) that grow in each spot. This plating system is paired with an automated CFU quantification platform, which incorporates photography of the plates, differentiation of fluorescent colonies, and automated counting of the colonies using an ImageJ plugin. Advantages are that (i) this method is sensitive enough to detect differences between treatments, (ii) the spot plating method is as accurate as traditional plating methods, and (iii) the automated counting process is accurate and faster than manual counting. The workflow presented here enables high-throughput quantification of CFUs in a large number of replicates and can be applied to other microbiology study systems including in vitro and other small animal models.