Proliferation and differentiation were assessed in a series of human colon carcinoma cell lines in response to a mineral-rich extract derived from the red marine algae, Lithothamnion calcareum. The extract contains 12% Ca2+, 1% Mg2+, and detectable amounts of 72 trace elements, but essentially no organic material. The red algae extract was as effective as inorganic Ca2+ alone in suppressing gro...

Two freshwater blue-green algae, Tolypothrix tenuis and Fremyella diplosiphon, and an oscillatorialike marine alga, were found to possess structures on the photosynthetic lamellae which appear to correspond to the phycobilisomes of red algae. These homologous structures are important because they contain the phycobilins which are accessory pigments involved in photosynthesis. As in the red alga...

Lignified cell walls are widely considered to be key innovations in the evolution of terrestrial plants from aquatic ancestors some 475 million years ago. Lignins, complex aromatic heteropolymers, stiffen and fortify secondary cell walls within xylem tissues, creating a dense matrix that binds cellulose microfibrils and crosslinks other wall components, thereby preventing the collapse of conduc...

The phylogenetic position of the glaucophyte algae within the eukaryotic supergroup Plantae remains to be unambiguously established. Here, we assembled a multigene data set of conserved nuclear-encoded plastid-targeted proteins of cyanobacterial origin (i.e., through primary endosymbiotic gene transfer) from glaucophyte, red, and green (including land plants) algae to infer the branching order ...

BACKGROUND Asparagopsis taxiformis (Rhodophyta) is a species of red algae belonging to the family Bonnemaisoniaceae. The objective of the present study was to evaluate antioxidant and antiproliferative activity of four fractions (petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol) of A. taxiformis. MATERIALS AND METHODS The red seaweed, A. taxiformis was collected from Mandapam Coastal ...

Background and objectives: Marine macro algae are one of the most economically important resources of the oceans which contain important biologically active secondary metabolites. So they can be widely used in various applications. Due to the limited research work on the bioactive metabolites from Iranian algae, the red seaweed, Hypnea charoides, collected from interti...