Electron spin resonance in a model S=1/2 chain antiferromagnet with a uniform Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya interaction

The electron spin resonance spectrum of a quasi 1D S=1/2 antiferromagnet K2CuSO4Br2 was found to demonstrate an energy gap and a doublet of resonance lines in a wide temperature range between the Curie--Weiss and Ne`{e}l temperatures. This type of magnetic resonance absorption corresponds well to the two-spinon continuum of excitations in S=1/2 antiferromagnetic spin chain with a uniform Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya interaction between the magnetic ions. A resonance mode of paramagnetic defects demonstrating strongly anisotropic behavior due to interaction with spinon excitations in the main matrix is also observed.

Use of high throughput sequencing to observe genome dynamics at a single cell level

With the development of high throughput sequencing technology, it becomes possible to directly analyze mutation distribution in a genome-wide fashion, dissociating mutation rate measurements from the traditional underlying assumptions. Here, we sequenced several genomes of Escherichia coli from colonies obtained after chemical mutagenesis and observed a strikingly nonrandom distribution of the induced mutations. These include long stretches of exclusively G to A or C to T transitions along the genome and orders of magnitude intra- and inter-genomic differences in mutation density. Whereas most of these observations can be explained by the known features of enzymatic processes, the others could reflect stochasticity in the molecular processes at the single-cell level. Our results demonstrate how analysis of the molecular records left in the genomes of the descendants of an individual mutagenized cell allows for genome-scale observations of fixation and segregation of mutations, as well as recombination events, in the single genome of their progenitor.