One hundred and thirty-five years ago, Henry Walter Bates noticed striking similarities between unrelated pierid, ithomiine and heliconiine butterflies collected from the same area [1]. Bates termed this phenomenon ‘mimicry’, and showed that rare or unprotected butterflies would gain by imitating the warning patterns of commoner, unpalatable forms. Later, Müller [2] showed that unpalatable spec...

Reconstruction of mitochondrial ancestor has great impact on our understanding of the origin of mitochondria. Previous studies have largely focused on reconstructing the last common ancestor of all contemporary mitochondria (proto-mitochondria), but not on the more informative pre-mitochondria (the last common ancestor of mitochondria and their alphaproteobacterial sister clade). Using a phylog...

BACKGROUND Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome mutations can lead to energy and respiratory-related disorders like myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fiber disease (MERRF), mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke (MELAS) syndrome, and Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON). It is not well understood what effect the distribution of mutated mtDNA throughout the mitocho...

We previously reported that hair follicle dermal papilla cells (HFDPCs) show two types of mitochondria, which are filamentous (untangled) and rounded (tangled) mitochondria. Plateletderived growth factor-AA (PDGF-AA) shifts the population balance toward the filamentous type that produces more adenosine triphosphate (ATP) than the other. In addition, the cells show filamentous mitochondria durin...

In the presence of oxygen, Euglena gracilis mitochondria function much like mammalian mitochondria. Under anaerobiosis, E. gracilis mitochondria perform a malonyl-CoA independent synthesis of fatty acids leading to accumulation of wax esters, which serve as the sink for electrons stemming from glycolytic ATP synthesis and pyruvate oxidation. Some components (enzymes and cofactors) of Euglena's ...

Mitochondria distribution in cells controls cellular physiology in health and disease. Here we describe the mitochondrial morphology and positioning found in the different stages of the lytic cycle of the eukaryotic single-cell parasite Toxoplasma gondii. The lytic cycle, driven by the tachyzoite life stage, is responsible for acute toxoplasmosis. It is known that whilst inside a host cell the ...

BACKGROUND The evolution of the Alphaproteobacteria and origin of the mitochondria are topics of considerable debate. Most studies have placed the mitochondria ancestor within the Rickettsiales order. Ten years ago, the bacterium Odyssella thessalonicensis was isolated from Acanthamoeba spp., and the 16S rDNA phylogeny placed it within the Rickettsiales. Recently, the whole genome of O. thessal...

Background Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is deemed a microangiopathy and neurodegenerative disorder, which primary reason of visual impairment in the world. Ferritinophagy critical regulator ferroptosis has vital part etiopathogenesis DR. Nevertheless, its molecular mechanism DR remains to be expounded. Methods The GSE146615 dataset was adopted identify ferritinophagy-related differentially express...