Avant Garde Fatty Acid Synthesis by Trypanosomes

Avant Garde Fatty Acid Synthesis by Trypanosomes

In this issue of Cell, Lee et al. (2006) report that the parasite Trypanosoma brucei synthesizes fatty acids in an unconventional way. T. brucei and two other trypanosomes use enzymes called elongases to synthesize myristate, a fourteen carbon (C14) fatty acid essential for pathogenesis. This is an unexpected finding as these enzymes were thought only to elongate already long (C16 or C18) acyl ...

Science Avant-Garde

o think that the neoimpressionists are painters who cover canvases with little multicolored spots is a rather widespread mistake, " wrote Paul Signac in his manifesto of their movement. " This mediocre dot method has nothing to do with the aesthetic of the painters we are defending here, nor with the technique of divisionism they use. " Signac was referring to, among others, Georges Seurat, who...

Fatty Acid Synthesis by Elongases in Trypanosomes

All eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms are thought to synthesize fatty acids using a type I or type II synthase. In addition, eukaryotes extend pre-existing long chain fatty acids using microsomal elongases (ELOs). We have found that Trypanosoma brucei, a eukaryotic human parasite that causes sleeping sickness, uses three elongases instead of type I or type II synthases for the synthesis of n...

reADing the LAte AvAnt- gArDe

Avant-garde Security in AODV

MANETs are networks formed by moving nodes. They use wireless communication to speak among them and they do it in an ad hoc manner. MANET is considered as an ideal network model for group communications because of its forte of instant establishment. Since, existence of central servers cannot be expected; nodes need to guarantee their data to reach the destination securely without loss, tamper o...