Ergothioneine is a histidine-derived sulfur metabolite that biosynthesized by bacteria and fungi. Plants animals absorb ergothioneine as micronutrient from their environment or nutrition. Several different mechanisms of microbial production have been described in the past ten years. Much less known about genetic structural basis for catabolism. In this report, we describe vitro reconstitution f...

Most insects produce two or more storage hexamers whose constituents and developmental profiles are sufficiently different to suggest specialization in the ways that they support metamorphosis and reproduction. Hexamerin specializations are compared here in the Cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia), which produces eggs during the pupal-adult molt, and the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), whi...