Trehalose, an alpha,alpha-diglucoside, induced a rapid blackening and death of shoot tips of Cuscuta reflexa (dodder) cultured in vitro. The onset of toxic symptom was delayed if any of the several sugars which support the in vitro growth of Cuscuta was supplied with trehalose. The rate of trehalose uptake or its accumulation in the tissue was not affected by sugar cofeeding. The levels of tota...

Topical administration of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is generally considered safer than oral administration, although the former can occasionally induce cutaneous irritation. We hypothesized that the cutaneous irritation by topical NSAIDs might be suppressed by trehalose, which has protective effects on biological membranes. Using the three-dimensional cultured human skin mo...

A monoester of trehalose linked at the 6-position with mycolic acids (trehalose-6-monomycolate) was isolated from the wax D fraction of virulent human Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and its biochemical action on host-cell mitochondria was studied. Trehalose-6-monomycolate showed a delayed toxicity for mice. The 50% lethal dose at 2 weeks was 452 mug. It induced in vitro a swelling of mouse liver m...

In a previous study of the synthesis of cellular carbohydrate during fermentation by D.C.L. baker's yeast (Trevelyan, Gammon, Wiggins & Harrison, 1952) little variation was found in the trichloroacetic acid-soluble carbohydrate, of which the main constituent is trehalose (Trevelyan & Harrison, 1952). The low concentration of glucose in the medium used, about 5 mm, was thought to have restricted...

Diverse organisms capable of surviving desiccation, termed anhydrobiotes, include species from bacteria, yeast, plants, and invertebrates. However, most organisms are sensitive to desiccation, likely due to an assortment of different stresses such as protein misfolding and aggregation, hyperosmotic stress, membrane fracturing, and changes in cell volume and shape leading to an overcrowded cytop...

Trehalose, a disaccharide of glucose, has been reported to accumulate in many organisms that can withstand extended periods of inanimation. Since this discovery, the properties of trehalose have been examined extensively to understand its role and abundance in nature. The unique features of this sugar became clearer with each new finding which demonstrated its ability to sustain and preserve a ...

Trehalose is a non-reducing disaccharide that is found in many organisms but not in mammals. This sugar plays important roles in cryptobiosis of selaginella mosses, tardigrades (water bears), and other animals which revive with water from a state of suspended animation induced by desiccation. The interesting properties of trehalose are due to its unique symmetrical low-energy structure, wherein...

The disaccharide sugar trehalose is essential for desiccation resistance in most metazoans that survive dryness; however, neither trehalose nor the enzymes involved in its metabolism have ever been detected in bdelloid rotifers despite their extreme resistance to desiccation. Here we screened the genome of the bdelloid rotifer Adineta vaga for genes involved in trehalose metabolism. We discover...

Trehalose is commonly used as an indicator of a good yeast fermentation capacity and viability. An attempt of estimating trehalose concentration in yeast cells through two different mathematical approaches is presented. It combines a biomass and trehalose concentrations estimator developed with a differential neural network technique, and a structured model applied for explaining the main metab...

Since the demonstration of trehalose as the major blood sugar of insects (I), considerable attention has been given to the metabolism and functions of this disaccharide, and some outline of its physiological role is beginning to emerge. In some species, trehalose has been shown to serve as a mobile energy source for flight, and its levels in the blood have been implicated in the control of the ...