Symbiosis and Organismal Boundaries

Mitochondria and Organismal Longevity

Mitochondria are essential for various biological processes including cellular energy production. The oxidative stress theory of aging proposes that mitochondria play key roles in aging by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS), which indiscriminately damage macromolecules and lead to an age-dependent decline in biological function. However, recent studies show that increased levels of ROS or...

Organismal Differentials and Organ Differentials.

Genome mosaicism and organismal lineages.

Some recently published genome-wide analyses of orthologous genes have found plurality consensus support for fully or partially resolved tree topologies. These findings were interpreted to discount the prevalence of horizontal gene transfer and the observed consensus was suggested to reflect organismal history. In this article, we explore the claim that methodological differences might have giv...

Symbiosis

What is in store for the guppy? Variation is essential to understanding the genetics underlying biological processes. The guppy provides a huge amount of natural variation that can be studied genetically. This variation has not been produced by mutagenesis screens, but instead has been shaped by natural selection. Thus, combined with emerging genomic resources, the guppy is an ideal organism fo...

Stress, cell senescence and organismal ageing

Cellular senescence was first described by Hayflick and Moorhead in the 1960s as the irreversible arrest of cells following prolonged cultivation. Telomere shortening is the key mechanism driving replicative senescence in human fibroblasts. Later, pioneering work by Olivier Toussaint and others showed that stress plays a major role in the induction of senescence in vitro, a phenomenon known as ...