During the chronological ageing process epidermal skin stem cells become less effective, meaning that the renewing and repairing activity of the epidermis is reduced. Moreover, fewer elastic fibres are synthesised, thereby inducing a progressive loss of skin elasticity. The standardised, COSMOS certified Cyanidium caldarium red algae extract, unique in its capability to produce gamma aminobutyr...

The identification of marine algae in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province were performed from December 1998 to November 1999 at the coastal area of Gwatr (25 10´ N; 61 30´ E) and Mydani (25 24´ N; 59 5´ E). Data on vegetation were gathered in subtidal and intertidal zones by seasonal and monthly sampling, respectively. Samples were transferred to the laboratory and fixed...

Red algae represent an evolutionarily important group that gave rise to the whole red clade of photosynthetic organisms. They contain a unique combination of light-harvesting systems represented by a membrane-bound antenna and by phycobilisomes situated on thylakoid membrane surfaces. So far, very little has been revealed about the mobility of their phycobilisomes and the regulation of their li...

The power of eukaryote genomics relies strongly on taxon sampling. This point was underlined in a recent analysis of red algal genome evolution in which we tested the Plantae hypothesis that posits the monophyly of red, green (including plants) and glaucophyte algae. The inclusion of novel genome data from two mesophilic red algae enabled us to robustly demonstrate the sisterhood of red and gre...

The appearance of photosynthetic eukaryotes (algae and plants) dramatically altered the Earth's ecosystem, making possible all vertebrate life on land, including humans. Dating algal origin is, however, frustrated by a meager fossil record. We generated a plastid multi-gene phylogeny with Bayesian inference and then used maximum likelihood molecular clock methods to estimate algal divergence ti...

Reconstructing pH from biogenic carbonates using boron isotopic compositions relies on the assumption that only borate, and no boric acid, is present. Red coralline algae are frequently used in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction due to their widespread distribution and regular banding frequency. Prior to undertaking pH reconstructions using red coralline algae we tested the boron composition of...

Marine red algae (Rhodophyta) are a rich source of bioactive halogenated natural products. The biogenesis of the cyclic halogenated terpene marine natural products, in particular, has attracted sustained interest in part because terpenes are the biogenic precursors of many bioactive metabolites. The first enzymatic asymmetric bromination and cyclization of a terpene, producing marine natural pr...

Falkowski et al. (1) reviewed the evidence that three disparate groups of algae— dinoflagellates, diatoms, and coccolitho-phores, each with plastids derived from red algae by secondary endosymbiosis—have come to dominate the oceans_ flora over the past 250 million years and speculated about the forces responsible for this domination. Central to this speculation is the Bportable plastid hypothes...

Membrane transporters (MTs) facilitate the movement of molecules between cellular compartments. The evolutionary history of these key components of eukaryote genomes remains unclear. Many photosynthetic microbial eukaryotes (e.g., diatoms, haptophytes, and dinoflagellates) appear to have undergone serial endosymbiosis and thereby recruited foreign genes through endosymbiotic/horizontal gene tra...