Search results for " Organism"

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in the landscape of pigments.

2004

▪ Abstract  This review focuses on the biosynthesis of pigments in the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and their physiological and regulatory functions in the context of information gathered from studies of other photosynthetic organisms. C. reinhardtii is serving as an important model organism for studies of photosynthesis and the pigments associated with the photosynthetic apparatus. Despite extensive information pertaining to the biosynthetic pathways critical for making chlorophylls and carotenoids, we are just beginning to understand the control of these pathways, the coordination between pigment and apoprotein synthesis, and the interactions between the activities of these…

Aerobic Metabolism: Benefits from an Oxygenated World

2010

In the preceding chapter, we have emphasized the dangers that the advent of dioxygen presented to the existing anaerobic organisms, and the ways they evolved to deal with the problems. However, this is only part of the story and were it to have ended here, we and the world we know would not exist. What happened instead was quite remarkable; for life seized upon an opportunity presented by the presence of free dioxygen to become many-fold more efficient in extracting energy from foodstuffs. As we shall see, this aerobic, oxidative metabolism opened in turn a multitude of new opportunities for growth and diversification.

Old Weapons for New Wars: Bioactive Molecules From Cnidarian Internal Defense Systems

2016

The renewed interest in the study of genes of immunity in Cnidaria has led to additional information to the scenario of the first stages of immunity evolution revealing the cellular processes involved in symbiosis, in the regulation of homeostasis and in the fight against infections. The recent study with new molecular and functional approach on these organisms have therefore contributed with unexpected information on the knowledge of the stages of capturing activities and defense mechanisms strongly associated with toxin production. Cnidarians are diblastic aquatic animals with radial symmetry; they represent the ancestral state of Metazoa, they are the simplest multicellular organisms tha…

Artificial organisms as tools for the development of psychological theory: Tolman's lesson

2007

In the 1930s and 1940s, Edward Tolman developed a psychological theory of spatial orientation in rats and humans. He expressed his theory as an automaton (the ‘‘schematic sowbug’’) or what today we would call an ‘‘artificial organism.’’ With the technology of the day, he could not implement his model. Nonetheless, he used it to develop empirical predictions which tested with animals in the laboratory. This way of proceeding was in line with scientific practice dating back to Galileo. The way psychologists use artificial organisms in their work today breaks with this tradition. Modern ‘‘artificial organisms’’ are constructed a posteriori, working from experimental or ethological observations…

1993

One of the first difficulties encountered when trying to understand evolution is the concept of geological time, for which we have no comparison in everyday life.

Tolerance towards resident intestinal flora in mice is abrogated in experimental colitis and restored by treatment with interleukin-10 or antibodies …

1996

There is now increasing evidence that hyperresponsiveness towards intestinal flora is a crucial event in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In support of this hypothesis, we recently described in humans that tolerance exists towards indigenous intestinal flora but is broken in active IBD lesions. In the present study, we have attempted to transfer this model into mice from different genetic backgrounds (BALB/c, SJL/J, C3H/HeJ). We found that mononuclear cells from spleen, small bowel and large bowel of mice do not proliferate, i.e. are tolerant when exposed to bacterial sonicates derived from autologous intestine (BsA) but do proliferate, i.e. are immune when exposed to b…

Statistical geometric affinity in human brain electric activity

2007

10 pages, 9 figures.-- PACS nrs.: 87.19.La; 05.45.Tp.-- ISI Article Identifier: 000246890100105

Design of composite measure schemes for comparative severity assessment in animal-based neuroscience research: A case study focussed on rat epilepsy …

2020

PLOS ONE 15(5), e0230141 (2020). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0230141

MIPPIE: the mouse integrated protein–protein interaction reference

2020

Abstract Cells operate and react to environmental signals thanks to a complex network of protein–protein interactions (PPIs), the malfunction of which can severely disrupt cellular homeostasis. As a result, mapping and analyzing protein networks are key to advancing our understanding of biological processes and diseases. An invaluable part of these endeavors has been the house mouse (Mus musculus), the mammalian model organism par excellence, which has provided insights into human biology and disorders. The importance of investigating PPI networks in the context of mouse prompted us to develop the Mouse Integrated Protein–Protein Interaction rEference (MIPPIE). MIPPIE inherits a robust infr…

EU Experts’ Attitude Towards Use of GMO in Food and Feed and Other Industries

2014

Abstract This article examines European Union (EU) experts’ attitude towards use of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in food, feed and other industries with an eye to developing a general model of EU experts’ opinion formation in this area. The gene engineering has seen rapid advances in recent years with a host of new applications in medicine, agriculture, and related fields. Taking into account the history of consumption, social, economic, cultural and other aspects and the risk perception in general regarding these products the consumers’ willingness to buy genetically modified (GM) products varies from country to country as well as attitude of the experts involved in the decision ma…