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Pestalotiopsis Microspora
''Pestalotiopsis microspora'' is a species of endophytic fungus capable of breaking down and digesting polyurethane. Originally identified in 1880 in fallen foliage of common ivy (''Hedera helix'') in Buenos Aires, it also causes leaf spot in Hypericum 'Hidcote' ('' Hypericum patulum'') shrubs in Japan. However, its polyurethane degradation activity was discovered only in the 2010s in two distinct ''P. microspora'' strains isolated from plant stems in the Yasuni National Forest within the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest by a group of student researchers led by molecular biochemistry professor Scott Strobel as part of Yale's annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory. It is the first fungus species found to be able to subsist on polyurethane in anaerobic conditions. This makes the fungus a potential candidate for bioremediation projects involving large quantities of plastic. ''Pestalotiopsis microspora'' was originally described from Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1880 by mycolo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conidia
A conidium ( ; : conidia), sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium (: chlamydoconidia), is an asexual, non- motile spore of a fungus. The word ''conidium'' comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, ('). They are also called mitospores due to the way they are generated through the cellular process of mitosis. They are produced exogenously. The two new haploid cells are genetically identical to the haploid parent, and can develop into new organisms if conditions are favorable, and serve in biological dispersal. Asexual reproduction in ascomycetes (the phylum Ascomycota) is by the formation of conidia, which are borne on specialized stalks called conidiophores. The morphology of these specialized conidiophores is often distinctive between species and, before the development of molecular techniques at the end of the 20th century, was widely used for identification of (''e.g.'' '' Metarhizium'') species. The terms microconidia and macroconidia are some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scott Strobel
Scott Allen Strobel is the provost of Yale University as well as a professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry. He was the vice provost for Science Initiatives and vice president for West Campus Planning & Program Development. An educator and researcher, he has led a number of Yale initiatives over the past two decades. Strobel was appointed as Yale's provost in 2020. Career Strobel earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in biology from the California Institute of Technology, under the guidance of Peter Dervan, before doing postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado, Boulder, under the mentorship of Thomas Cech. He has been a professor with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) since 2006. He joined the Yale faculty in 1995 in the Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry and served as department chair from 2006 to 2009. Since 2011, he has served as vice president for West Campus Planning & Program Dev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plastivore
file:mealworms in plastic container of bran.jpg, Mealworms, an example of a plastivore A plastivore is an organism capable of degrading and metabolising plastic. While plastic is normally thought of as non-Biodegradation, biodegradable, a variety of bacteria, fungi, and insects have been found to degrade it. Definition Plastivores are "organisms that use plastic as their primary carbon and energy source". This does not necessarily mean being able to fulfill all biological needs from plastic alone. For example, Mealworm, mealworms fed only on plastic show very little weight gain, unlike mealworms fed on a normal diet of bran. This is due to plastic lacking water and nutrients needed to grow. Plastic-fed mealworms can still derive energy from their diet, so they do not lose weight like starved mealworms do. Mechanisms For both bacterial and fungal plastivores, the first step is adhesion of spores to the plastic surface via Hydrophobe, hydrophobic interactions. Bacterial plas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taxus Brevifolia
''Taxus brevifolia'', the Pacific yew or western yew, is a species of tree in the yew family Taxaceae native to the Pacific Northwest of North America. It is a small evergreen conifer, thriving in moisture and otherwise tending to take the form of a shrub. Description A small evergreen conifer (sometimes appearing as a shrub), the Pacific yew grows to tall and with a trunk up to in diameter, rarely more. In some instances, trees with heights in excess of occur in parks and other protected areas, quite often in gullies. The tree is extremely slow growing, and has a habit of rotting from the inside, creating hollow forms. This makes it difficult and sometimes impossible to make accurate ring counts to determine a specimen's true age. Often damaged by succession of the forest, it usually ends up in a squat, multiple-leader form, able to grow new sprouts from decapitated stumps. In its shrub form, sometimes called "yew brush", it can reproduce vegetatively via layering. It has th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paclitaxel
Paclitaxel, sold under the brand name Taxol among others, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat ovarian cancer, esophageal cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, cervical cancer, and pancreatic cancer. It is administered by intravenous injection. There is also an albumin-bound formulation. Common side effects include hair loss, bone marrow suppression, numbness, allergic reactions, muscle pains, and diarrhea. Other side effects include heart problems, increased risk of infection, and lung inflammation. There are concerns that use during pregnancy may cause birth defects. Paclitaxel is in the taxane family of medications. It works by interference with the normal function of microtubules during cell division. Paclitaxel was isolated in 1971 from the Pacific yew and approved for medical use in 1993. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It has been made from precursors, and through cell culture. Medical use Paclitaxel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torreya Taxifolia
''Torreya taxifolia'', commonly known as Florida torreya or stinking-cedar, but also sometimes as Florida nutmeg or gopher wood, is an endangered canopy (biology), subcanopy tree of the yew Family (biology), family, Taxaceae. It is native to only a small glacial refugium in the southeastern United States, at the state border region of northern Florida and southwestern Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Species discovery In 1821, colonial control of Spanish Florida shifted from Spain to the United States through the Adams–Onís Treaty, Adams-Onis Treaty. American settlers, including plantation owners and their slaves, began to move into the Florida Territory, exacerbating the Seminole Wars, on-going conflict with the refugee Red Sticks, Red Stick Creek and their allies from the Creek War and the emigrant population of Seminole, Seminoles and Maroons. One such plantation owner was the patriarch of the Croom family, who in 1826 purchased land around the town of Tallahassee. When he d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quinone
The quinones are a class of organic compounds that are formally "derived from aromatic compounds benzene.html" ;"title="uch as benzene">uch as benzene or naphthalene] by conversion of an even number of –CH= groups into –C(=O)– groups with any necessary rearrangement of double bonds", resulting in "a fully Conjugated system, conjugated cyclic diketone, dione structure". The archetypical member of the class is 1,4-benzoquinone or cyclohexadienedione, often called simply "quinone" (thus the name of the class). Other important examples are 1,2-benzoquinone (''ortho''-quinone), 1,4-naphthoquinone and 9,10-anthraquinone. The name is derived from that of quinic acid (with the suffix "-one" indicating a ketone), since it is one of the compounds obtained upon oxidation of quinic acid. Quinic acid, like quinine is obtained from cinchona bark, called quinaquina in the indigenous languages of Peruvian tribes. Properties Quinones are oxidized derivatives of aromatic compounds an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torreyanic Acid
Torreyanic acid is a dimeric quinone first isolated and by Lee ''et al.'' in 1996 from an endophyte, ''Pestalotiopsis microspora''. This endophyte is likely the cause of the decline of Florida torreya (''Torreya taxifolia''), an endangered species that is related to the taxol-producing ''Taxus brevifolia''. The natural product was found to be cytotoxic against 25 different human cancer cell lines with an average IC50 value of 9.4 μg/mL, ranging from 3.5 (NEC) to 45 (A549) μg/mL. Torreyanic acid was found to be 5-10 times more potent in cell lines sensitive to protein kinase C (PKC) agonists, 12-o-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate (TPA), and was shown to cause cell death via apoptosis. Torreyanic acid also promoted G1 arrest of G0 synchronized cells at 1-5 μg/mL levels, depending on the cell line. It has been proposed that the eukaryotic translation initiation factor EIF-4a is a potential biochemical target for the natural compound. Biosynthesis There are over 150 nat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julie C
Julie may refer to: * Julie (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the name Film and television * ''Julie'' (1956 film), an American film noir starring Doris Day * ''Julie'' (1975 film), a Hindi film by K. S. Sethumadhavan featuring Lakshmi * ''Julie'' (1998 film), a British public information film about seatbelt use * ''Julie'' (2004 film), a Hindi film starring Neha Dhupia ** '' Julie 2'', its 2016 sequel starring Raai Laxmi * ''Julie'' (2006 film), a Kannada film starring Ramya * ''Julie'' (TV series), a 1992 American sitcom starring Julie Andrews Literature * '' Julie; or, The New Heloise'', a 1761 novel by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Julie'' (George novel), a 1994 novel, the second book of a trilogy, by Jean Craighead George * ''Julie'', a 1985 novel by Cora Taylor Music * ''Julie'' (opera), a 2005 opera by Philippe Boesmans * Julie (band), an American shoegaze band Albums * ''Julie'' (album), by Julie London, 1957 * ''Julie'' (EP) or the ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Species Description
A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have been previously described or related species. For a species to be considered valid, a species description must follow established guidelines and naming conventions dictated by relevant nomenclature codes. These include the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) for animals, the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) for plants, and the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) for viruses. A species description often includes photographs or other illustrations of type material and information regarding where this material is deposited. The publication in which the species is described gives the new species a formal scientific name. Some 1.9 million ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev Pragad, the president and chief executive officer (CEO), and Johnathan Davis, who sits on the board; each owns 50% of the company. In August 2010, revenue decline prompted Graham Holdings, the Washington Post Company to sell ''Newsweek'' to the audio pioneer Sidney Harman for one US dollar and an assumption of the magazine's liabilities. Later that year, ''Newsweek'' merged with the news and opinion website ''The Daily Beast'', forming The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, later called ''NewsBeast''. ''Newsweek'' was jointly owned by the estate of Harman and the company IAC (company), IAC. ''Newsweek'' continued to experience financial difficulties, leading to the suspension of print publication at the end of 2012. In 2013, IBT Media acquired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plastic
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding, molded, Extrusion, extruded, or Compression molding, pressed into a diverse range of solid forms. This adaptability, combined with a wide range of other properties such as low weight, durability, flexibility, chemical resistance, low toxicity, and low-cost production, has led to their widespread use around the world. While most plastics are produced from natural gas and petroleum, a growing minority are produced from renewable resources like polylactic acid. Between 1950 and 2017, 9.2 billion metric tons of plastic are estimated to have been made, with more than half of this amount being produced since 2004. In 2023 alone, preliminary figures indicate that over 400 million metric tons of plastic were produced worldwide. If global trends ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
