The Additional sex combs (Asx) gene of Drosophila is a member of the Polycomb group of genes, which are required for maintenance of stable repression of homeotic and other loci. Asx is unusual among the Polycomb group because: (1) one Asx allele exhibits both anterior and posterior transformations; (2) Asx mutations enhance anterior transformations of trx mutations; (3) Asx mutations exhibit se...

Astaxanthin (Asx) is known to be a potent quencher of singlet oxygen and an efficient scavenger of superoxide anion. Therefore, Asx would be expected to be a useful antioxidant for the prevention of oxidative stress, a causative factor in severe diseases such as ischemic reperfusion injury. However, it is still unclear whether Asx has scavenging capability against the most potent reactive oxyge...

Hepatic lipid accumulation and oxidative stress are crucial pathophysiological mechanisms for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Thus, we examined the effect of a combination of flaxseed oil (FO) and astaxanthin (ASX) on hepatic lipid accumulation and oxidative stress in rats fed a high-fat diet. ASX was dissolved in flaxseed oil (1 g/kg; FO + ASX). Animals were fed diets containing 20%...

The increase in proportion of the non-biological (D-) isomer of aspartic acid (Asp) relative to the L-isomer has been widely used in archaeology and geochemistry as a tool for dating. the method has proved controversial, particularly when used for bones. The non-linear kinetics of Asp racemization have prompted a number of suggestions as to the underlying mechanism(s) and have led to the use of...

The ADAPTIVE Service eXecutive (ASX) is an objectoriented framework that enhance the development of distributed applications across a range of operating system platforms. The components in ASX were developed using object-oriented design techniques and C++ language features in order to simplify the use of OS mechanisms that provide interprocess communication, communication port demultiplexing, e...

Analyses of databases derived from the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank have identified a set of related turn structures formed by the sequence Asx-Pro-Xxx(n). In a variety of flanking structural contexts, more than 60% of Asx-Pro sequences adopt a turn conformation stabilized by a set of alternative hydrogen bonds among the side chain O delta and backbone C = O carbonyl oxygens of Asx (residue i) ...

Astaxanthin (ASX) is a xanthophyll pigment isolated from crustaceans and salmonids. Owing to its powerful antioxidant activity, ASX has been reported to have the potential to protect against gastric ulcers and a variety of other illnesses. Histamine (His) is a dietary factor that causes gastric erosion and ulceration in young chicks. In this study, we examined whether ASX had protective effects...