Detrimental deletions: Mitochondria, aging and Parkinson's disease

Article Abstract:

Clear evidence for a high burden of mitochondrial DNA deletions within substantia nigra neuros in aged individuals and individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) is presented pointing towards a common pathway inevitably leading to neuronal dysfunction and death. It is suggested that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions expand clonally within individual substantia nigra neurons over time where they can exceed the phenotypic threshold of 60% of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).

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How and when did Arabidopsis thaliana become highly self-fertilising

Article Abstract:

The adoption of Arabidopsis thaliana as a plant model species has led to interest in how self-compatibility was lost so that this species became highly inbreeding. A new work studying polymorphism at two loci found strikingly low diversity at one of them, suggesting that the spread of a mutation in this gene was the cause of self-compatibility in an ancestor of Arabidopsis thaliana.

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Coevolution theory of the genetic code at age thirty

Article Abstract:

The coevolution theory of the genetic code has four fundamental tenets comprising the essentiality of amino acid biosynthesis, role of pretran synthesis, biosynthetic imprint on codon allocations and mutability of the encoded amino acids. The utility of the co evolution is demonstrated by its experimental expansions of the code and providing a basis for locating the root of life.

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