 Keen observers of living things have long noted that organisms are well suited to their environments, that there is a rich diversity of life on Earth, and that life shows a striking unity.  Charles Darwin’s fascination with ―endless forms most beautiful‖ led him to propose a scientific explanation for these broad observations.  On November 24, 1859, Darwin published his hypothesis in On the...

After modification with monomethoxyl-poly(ethylene glycol)-5000, a recombinant intracellular uricase from Bacillus fastidiosus ATCC 29604 showed residual activity of about 65%, a thermo-inactivation half-life >85 h, a circulating half-life about 20 h in rats in vivo, consistent effects of common cations, and consistent optima for reaction temperature and pH. Thus, this uricase can be formulated...

A restriction (R) endonuclease recognizes a specific DNA sequence and introduces a double-strand break (Fig. 1A). A cognate modification (M) enzyme methylates the same sequence and thereby protects it from cleavage. Together, these two enzymes form a restriction-modification system. The genes encoding the restriction endonuclease and the cognate modification enzyme are often tightly linked and ...

In eukaryotes, mRNA polyadenylation is a well-known modification that is essential for many aspects of the protein-coding RNAs life cycle. However, modification of the 3' terminal nucleotide within various RNA molecules is a general and conserved process that broadly modulates RNA function in all kingdoms of life. Numerous types of modifications have been characterized, which are generally spec...

Knowing how hosts respond to parasite infection is paramount in understanding the effects of parasites on host populations and hence host-parasite co-evolution. Modification of life-history traits in response to parasitism has received less attention than other defence strategies. Life-history theory predicts that parasitised hosts will increase reproductive effort and accelerate reproduction. ...