Flavonoids and Melanins: A Common Strategy across Two Kingdoms

Flavonoids and Melanins: A Common Strategy across Two Kingdoms

Ultraviolet (UV) radiations alter a number of metabolic functions in vivant. They produce damages to lipids, nucleic acids and proteins, generating reactive oxygen species such as singlet oxygen (O2), hydroxyl radical (HO) and superoxide anion (O2 (-)). Plants and animals, after their water emersion, have developed biochemical mechanisms to protect themselves from that environmental threat thro...

Dynamic DNA Packaging Across Kingdoms: Chromatin & Beyond

Stem cells: A tale of two kingdoms

Homologous genes have recently been shown to regulate stem cell maintenance in animals and plants. This discovery should facilitate elucidation of the poorly understood factors that control stem cell maintenance and differentiation.

Adult neurogenesis: a common strategy across diverse species.

Adult neurogenesis, the generation of new neurons from adult precursor cells, occurs in the brains of a phylogenetically diverse array of animals. In the higher (amniotic) vertebrates, these precursor cells are glial cells that reside within specialized regions, known as neurogenic niches, the elements of which both support and regulate neurogenesis. The in vivo identity and location of the pre...

Gas vesicles across kingdoms: a comparative solid state NMR study

The buoyancy organelles of aquatic microorganisms have to meet stringent specifications: allowing gases to equilibrate freely across the proteinaceous shell, preventing the condensation of water vapor inside the hollow cavity, and resisting collapse under hydrostatic pressures that vary with column depth. These properties are provided by the 7–8 kDa gas vesicle protein A (GvpA), repeats of whic...