Topic Review
Phthalic Acid Esters
Phthalic acid esters (PAEs) are a class of lipophilic chemicals widely used as plasticizers and additives to improve various products’ mechanical extensibility and flexibility. At present, synthesized PAEs, which are considered to cause potential hazards to ecosystem functioning and public health, have been easily detected in the atmosphere, water, soil, and sediments; PAEs are also frequently discovered in plant and microorganism sources, suggesting the possibility that they might be biosynthesized in nature.
  • 1.4K
  • 29 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Mycorrhizal Symbiosis of Ericaceous Plants
Ericaceae are a group of plants with biotechnological and commercial importance. These plants establish symbiotic associations with a wide group of mycorrhizal fungi. National and global studies have focused on two of them: arbuscular endomycorrhizae and ectomycorrhizae. The classification of mycorrhizae by type of infection described so far in Ericaceae includes ectomycorrhizae, ectendomycorrhizae, and endomycorrhizae. Ectendomycorrhizas can be of arbutoid, monotropoid, and cavendishioid types; endomycorrhizas are of ericoid and arbuscular types. Of these clades, ectomycorrhizas and ectendomycorrhizas (arbutoid, monotropoid, and cavendishioid) form a multilayer mantle of hyphae around the root; while ericoid, unlike the previous ones, develop their intra- and intercellular structures.
  • 1.4K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Hemorheology
Hemorheology, the study of cell deformation and blood flow, has been more focused on red blood cells (RBCs) rheology, relating the deformation and aggregation of RBCs, since erythrocytes comprise the major components in blood. Blood rheology can be used as an important clinical assay, correlating various aspects of blood rheology and associated changes in cell behavior and morphology to a wide range of diseases and health conditions.
  • 1.4K
  • 05 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Bile Acids
Bile acids (BAs) are facial amphiphiles synthesized in the body of all vertebrates.
  • 1.4K
  • 18 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Nail Mini-Organ Stem Cells
Nails are highly keratinized skin appendages that exhibit continuous growth under physiological conditions and full regeneration upon removal. These mini-organs are maintained by two autonomous populations of skin stem cells. The fast-cycling, highly proliferative stem cells of the nail matrix (nail stem cells (NSCs)) predominantly replenish the nail plate. Furthermore, the slow-cycling population of the nail proximal fold (nail proximal fold stem cells (NPFSCs)) displays bifunctional properties by contributing to the peri-nail epidermis under the normal homeostasis and the nail structure upon injury. Here, we discuss nail mini-organ stem cells’ location and their role in skin and nail homeostasis and regeneration, emphasizing their importance to orchestrate the whole digit tip regeneration. Such endogenous regeneration capabilities are observed in rodents and primates. However, they are limited to the region adjacent to the nail’s proximal area, indicating the crucial role of nail mini-organ stem cells in digit restoration.
  • 1.4K
  • 04 May 2021
Topic Review
Fungi in the Cocoa Production
The role of fungi in cocoa crops is mainly associated with plant diseases and contamination of harvest with unwanted metabolites such as mycotoxins that can reach the final consumer. However, they can be play a positive role as endophytic promoting plant protection and growth; in addition they could play an important role in the fermentation step providing extracellular enzymes important to the pulp bean degradation. 
  • 1.4K
  • 10 May 2021
Topic Review
Sonic Hedgehog
Sonic hedgehog is a protein encoded for by the SHH gene. The protein is named after the character Sonic the Hedgehog. This signaling molecule is key in regulating embryonic morphogenesis in all different types of animals. SHH controls organogenesis and the organization of the central nervous system, limbs, digits and many other parts of the body. Sonic hedgehog is a morphogen that patterns the developing embryo using a concentration gradient characterized by the French Flag model. This model has a non-uniform distribution of SHH molecules which governs different cell fates according to concentration. Mutations in this gene can cause holoprosencephaly, a failure of splitting in the cerebral hemispheres, as demonstrated in an experiment using SHH knock-out mice in which the forebrain midline failed to develop and instead only a single fused telencephalic vesicle resulted. Sonic hedgehog still plays a role in differentiation, proliferation, and maintenance of adult tissues. Abnormal activation of SHH signaling in adult tissues has been implicated in various types of cancers including breast, skin, brain, liver, gallbladder and many more.
  • 1.4K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Structure and Function of Microbial Lipases
Lipases or triacylglycerol acyl hydrolases (EC 3.1.1.3) are ubiquitous in all realms of life. In nature, they are mainly characterized by catalyzing the hydrolysis of triglycerides and long-chain partial glycerides, releasing fatty acids, monoglycerides and glycerol. These enzymes constitute a key link in the cellular processes related to the absorption, release and metabolism of fats, since its substrates and derivatives are the most abundant lipids in cells. On the other hand, some lipases have also been attributed functions as defense enzymes or as virulence factors.  The main aspects of the structure–function of microbial lipases, reviewed more extensively in other articles, will be summarized in a general way, but, here, emphasis will be placed on aspects to be discussed in later sections such as their immobilization and applications in reactions of interest in the production of compounds related to APIs.
  • 1.4K
  • 21 Sep 2022
Topic Review
The Seed and the Metabolism Regulation
Seeds are the reproductive units of higher plants. They have a significant place in agriculture and plant diversity maintenance. Because they are dehydrated, they can remain viable in the environment for centuries. The dry seed is a metabolically inactive organism, but well organized to protect its components and enter intensive repair to restore metabolic activities upon imbibition for the completion of germination. 
  • 1.4K
  • 28 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Regulationary Factors of the Peroxisomal β-Oxidation
Beta-oxidation(β-oxidation) is an important metabolic process involving multiple steps by which fatty acid molecules are broken down to produce energy. The very long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs), a type of fatty acid (FA), are usually highly toxic when free in vivo, and their oxidative metabolism depends on the peroxisomal β-oxidation. Although peroxisomal β-Oxidation attracts less research than mitochondria, the importance of the peroxisomal β-oxidation molecular mechanism can still be spotted from some mechanisms involved in upstream regulation.
  • 1.4K
  • 07 Jul 2022
  • Page
  • of
  • 1746
Video Production Service