According to the chromalveolate hypothesis (Cavalier-Smith T. 1999. Principles of protein and lipid targeting in secondary symbiogenesis: euglenoid, dinoflagellate, and sporozoan plastid origins and the eukaryote family tree. J Eukaryot Microbiol 46:347-366), the four eukaryotic groups with chlorophyll c-containing plastids originate from a single photosynthetic ancestor, which acquired its plastids by secondary endosymbiosis with a red alga. So far, molecular phylogenies have failed to either support or disprove this view. Here, we devise a phylogenomic falsification of the chromalveolate hypothesis that estimates signal strength across the three genomic compartments: If the four chlorophyll c-containing lineages indeed derive from a single photosynthetic ancestor, then similar amounts of plastid, mitochondrial, and nuclear sequences should allow to recover their monophyly. Our results refute this prediction, with statistical support levels too different to be explained by evolutionary rate variation, phylogenetic artifacts, or endosymbiotic gene transfer. Therefore, we reject the chromalveolate hypothesis as falsified in favor of more complex evolutionary scenarios involving multiple higher order eukaryote-eukaryote endosymbioses.

The association of AM with specific environmental conditions and individual animals suggests that young horses should not be pastured on bare premises subject to humidity when the weather has been very wet and cold for several days. Management of AM outbreaks should include control of Co-G horses who are apparently healthy.

As in all organisms, metal cations are crucial for nutrition in plants. Several metals, such as copper, iron, zinc, and manganese, act as important cofactors for many enzymes and are essential for both mitochondrial and chloroplast functions. However, when supplied in excess, these essential cations can become toxic, like heavy metals with no generally established function, such as cadmium, lead, or mercury. To maintain micronutrient metal homeostasis and to cope with the deleterious effects of nonessential heavy metals, plants have developed a complex network of metal uptake, chelation, trafficking, and storage processes. Metal transporters are required to maintain metal homeostasis and thus constitute important components of this network (Clemens, 2001;Hall and Williams, 2003).In recent years, a number of membrane transport protein families have been implicated in metal homeostasis in plants. These include the cation diffusion facilitators (CDF), the Zrt-, Irt-like proteins (ZIP), the cation exchangers (CAX), the copper transporters (COPT), the heavy-metal P-type ATPases (HMA), the natural resistance-associated macrophage proteins (NRAMP), and the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters (Williams et al., 2000;Maser et al., 2001;Cobbett et al., 2003;Hall and Williams, 2003). These transporters are encoded by multigene families. For example, 15 ZIP genes, 12 metal tolerance protein (MTP) genes, and 8 HMA genes are present in the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) genome (Cobbett et al., 2003;Delhaize et al., 2003). However, the transport specificities, patterns of expression, or subcellular localizations of metal transport proteins are still largely unknown. To further understand plant metal homeostasis, it will be necessary to elucidate the contribution of each of these transporters to the uptake, trafficking, and storage of essential metals, as well as to the detoxification of toxic heavy metals.In this article, we present an overview of our current knowledge of the metal transport function in metal homeostasis and tolerance in eukaryotes, with a special emphasis on plants. We also provide a timely inventory of putative metal transporters in two unicellular algal models, the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the red alga Cyanidioschizon merolae. These new data should facilitate functional genomics and molecular analysis of metal homeostasis and tolerance in photosynthetic organisms. Moreover, the comparison of metal transporters from species belonging to the red and green algae with those of the land plant Arabidopsis, as well as with their human and yeast homologs, allows some light to be shed on the molecular evolution of metal homeostasis and tolerance systems. TWO UNICELLULAR ALGAL MODEL SYSTEMS

The association of AM with specific environmental conditions and individual animals suggests that young horses should not be pastured on bare premises subject to humidity when the weather has been very wet and cold for several days. Management of AM outbreaks should include control of Co-G horses who are apparently healthy.

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Two new macrolide derivatives, madangolide (2) and laingolide A (3), have been isolated from the cyanobacterium Lyngbya bouillonii, collected in Papua New Guinea. Their structures (without stereochemistry) have been established by detailed high-field 1D and 2D NMR studies and, in the case of 3, by comparison with the spectroscopic data of laingolide (1), previously isolated from the same organism.

A novel 16-membered macrolide linked to a 2,3,4-tri-O-methyl-6-deoxy-α-mannopyranoside, lyngbyaloside (1), has been isolated from the blue-green alga Lyngbya bouillonii, collected on Laing Island (Papua New Guinea). Its structure has been established by a detailed high-field 2D NMR study. The relative configuration of 8 out of the 13 stereogenic carbon atoms is proposed from the analysis of NOE difference experiments.

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