Euglena gracilis, a unicellular freshwater protist exhibits different photomovement responses, such as phototaxis (oriented movement toward or away from the light source) and photophobic (abrupt turn in response to a rapid increase [step-up] or decrease [step-down] in the light fluence rate) responses. Photoactivated adenylyl cyclase (PAC) has been isolated from whole-cell preparations and iden...

OBJECTIVE In gracilis functioning free muscle transplantation, the limited caliber of the dominant vascular pedicle increases the complexity of the anastomosis and the risk of vascular compromise. The purpose of this study was to characterize the results of using a T-shaped vascular pedicle for flow-through anastomosis in gracilis functioning free muscle transplantation for brachial plexus inju...

Euglena gracilis is able to synthesize adenosine triphosphate under anaerobic conditions through a malonyl-independent fatty acid synthesis leading to wax ester fermentation. Mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis uses acetyl-CoA and propionyl-CoA as C2- and C3-donors for de novo synthesis of even- and odd-numbered fatty acids, respectively. Euglena's wax ester fermentation has only been described ...

BACKGROUND Transition from a lizard-like to a snake-like body form is one of the most important transformations in reptilian evolution. The increasing number of sequenced reptilian genomes is enabling a deeper understanding of vertebrate evolution, although the genetic basis of the loss of limbs in reptiles remains enigmatic. Here we report genome sequencing, assembly, and annotation for the As...

Euglena gracilis has a chimeric gene collection in which some genes were inherited from its heterotrophic host and others were acquired from a photoautotrophic endosymbiont during secondary endosymbiosis. The evolutionary reconstruction of such a hybrid genome poses a challenge for standard phylogenetic tools that produce bifurcating trees because genome evolution by endosymbiotic gene transfer...

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE Anal incontinence is one of the most psychologically and socially debilitating conditions in an otherwise healthy individual. It can lead to social isolation, loss of self-esteem, self-confidence and depression. This study is devoted to the problem of anal incontinence in the adult patients. The aim of our study is to analyse the results of gracilis muscle transposition for a...

In the normal aging process, apoptosis has been implicated as a mechanism responsible for the loss of muscle cells and plays an important role in age-related muscle loss. Several signaling pathways involved in skeletal muscle apoptosis are currently under intense investigation, particularly the caspase-independent pathway. This study investigated the age-related apoptotic changes occurring in t...

Wild and cultivated species of soybeans have coexisted for 5000 years in China. Despite this long history, there is very little information on the genetic relationship of Glycine soja and G. max. To gain insight into the major events in the history of the subgenus Soja, we examined 20 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers of a large number of accessions (910). The results showed no significant d...