Publication Date:
1984-04-06
Description:
Entamoeba histolytica was found to grow normally without producing glutathione and the main enzymes of glutathione metabolism, indicating that glutathione is not essential for many eukaryotic processes. This parasitic amoeba is an unusual eukaryote whose special features may help define the crucial functions of glutathione in those eukaryotes that do use it. Since Entamoeba histolytica lacks mitochondria and the usual aerobic respiratory pathways, the finding that it grows without glutathione and other evidence support the hypothesis that a primary function of glutathione in eukaryotes involves protection against oxygen toxicity associated with mitochondria and suggest that eukaryotes may have acquired glutathione metabolism at the time that they acquired mitochondria.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fahey, R C -- Newton, G L -- Arrick, B -- Overdank-Bogart, T -- Aley, S B -- AI-07012/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- CA-22090/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1984 Apr 6;224(4644):70-2.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6322306" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
;
Culture Media
;
Cysteine/analysis/metabolism
;
Entamoeba histolytica/analysis/*metabolism
;
Glutathione/analysis/*metabolism
;
Liver/cytology
;
Mitochondria/metabolism
;
Rats
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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