|
Ustilagic Acid
Ustilagic acid is an organic compound with the formula C36H64O18. The acid is a cellobiose lipid produced by the corn smut fungus ''Ustilago maydis'' under conditions of nitrogen starvation. The acid was discovered in 1950 and was proved to be an amphipathic glycolipid with surface active properties. The name comes from Latin ''ustus'' which means ''burnt'' and refers to the scorched appearance of the smut fungi. Uses Cellobiose lipids are known as biosurfactants and natural detergents. They can be used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food applications and are known for their strong fungicidal activity on many species. The yeast Pseudozyma fusiformata and Pseudozyma graminicola secrete ustilagic acids, 2-O-3-hydroxyhexanoyl-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-6-O-acetyl-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→16)-2,15,16- trihydroxyhexadecanoic acid. Similar compounds are the extracellular cellobiose lipids of the yeasts Cryptococcus humicola and Trichosporon porosum : 2,3,4-O-triacetyl-beta-D-gl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemical Formula
In chemistry, a chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, such as parentheses, dashes, brackets, commas and ''plus'' (+) and ''minus'' (−) signs. These are limited to a single typographic line of symbols, which may include Subscript and superscript, subscripts and superscripts. A chemical formula is not a chemical nomenclature, chemical name, and it contains no words. Although a chemical formula may imply certain simple chemical structures, it is not the same as a full chemical structural formula. Chemical formulae can fully specify the structure of only the simplest of molecules and chemical substances, and are generally more limited in power than chemical names and structural formulae. The simplest types of chemical formulae are called ''empirical formulae'', which use letters and numbers ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lipid
Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include storing energy, signaling, and acting as structural components of cell membranes. Lipids have applications in the cosmetic and food industries, and in nanotechnology. Lipids may be broadly defined as hydrophobic or amphiphilic small molecules; the amphiphilic nature of some lipids allows them to form structures such as vesicles, multilamellar/unilamellar liposomes, or membranes in an aqueous environment. Biological lipids originate entirely or in part from two distinct types of biochemical subunits or "building-blocks": ketoacyl and isoprene groups. Using this approach, lipids may be divided into eight categories: fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, saccharolipids, and polyketides (derived from condensati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ustilago Maydis
Corn smut is a plant disease caused by the pathogenic fungus ''Ustilago maydis'' that causes smut on maize and teosinte. The fungus forms galls on all above-ground parts of corn species. It is edible, and is known in Mexico as the delicacy ''huitlacoche''; which is eaten, usually as a filling, in quesadillas and other tortilla-based foods, and in soups. Etymology In Mexico, corn smut is known as ''huitlacoche'' (, sometimes spelled ''cuitlacoche''). This word entered Spanish in Mexico from Classical Nahuatl, though the Nahuatl words from which huitlacoche is derived are debated. In modern Nahuatl, the word for ''huitlacoche'' is ''cuitlacochin'' (), and some sources deem ''cuitlacochi'' to be the classical form.Guido Gómez de Silva, "Diccionario breve de mexicanismos", Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico 2001. Entries for "huitlacoche" and "cuicacoche o cuiltacoche". Some sources wrongly give the etymology as coming from the Nahuatl words ''cuitlatl'' ("excrement" or "rear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glycolipid
Glycolipids are lipids with a carbohydrate attached by a glycosidic (covalent) bond. Their role is to maintain the stability of the cell membrane and to facilitate cellular recognition, which is crucial to the immune response and in the connections that allow cells to connect to one another to form tissues. Glycolipids are found on the surface of all eukaryotic cell membranes, where they extend from the phospholipid bilayer into the extracellular environment. Structure The essential feature of a glycolipid is the presence of a monosaccharide or oligosaccharide bound to a lipid moiety. The most common lipids in cellular membranes are glycerolipids and sphingolipids, which have glycerol or a sphingosine backbones, respectively. Fatty acids are connected to this backbone, so that the lipid as a whole has a polar head and a non-polar tail. The lipid bilayer of the cell membrane consists of two layers of lipids, with the inner and outer surfaces of the membrane made up of the pol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cellobiose
Cellobiose is a disaccharide with the formula (C6H7(OH)4O)2O. It is classified as a reducing sugar. In terms of its chemical structure, it is derived from the condensation of a pair of β-glucose molecules forming a β(1→4) bond. It can be hydrolyzed to glucose enzymatically or with acid. Cellobiose has eight free alcohol (OH) groups, one acetal linkage and one hemiacetal linkage, which give rise to strong inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonds. It is a white solid. It can be obtained by enzymatic or acidic hydrolysis of cellulose and cellulose-rich materials such as cotton, jute, or paper. Cellobiose can be used as an indicator carbohydrate for Crohn's disease and malabsorption syndrome. Treatment of cellulose with acetic anhydride and sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biosurfactant
Biosurfactant usually refers to surfactants of microbial origin. Most of the biosurfactants produced by microbes are synthesized extracellularly and many microbes are known to produce biosurfactants in large relative quantities. Some are of commercial interest. Classification Biosurfactants are usually categorized by their molecular structure. Like synthetic surfactants, they are composed of a hydrophilic moiety made up of amino acids, peptides, (poly)saccharides, or sugar alcohols and a hydrophobic moiety consisting of fatty acids. Correspondingly, the significant classes of biosurfactants include glycolipids, lipopeptides and lipoproteins, and polymeric surfactants as well as particulate surfactants. Examples Common biosurfactants include: * Bile salts are mixtures of micelle-forming compounds that encapsulate food, enabling absorption through the small intestine. * Lecithin, which can be obtained either from soybean or from egg yolk, is a common food ingredient. * Rhamnolip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Candida Albicans
''Candida albicans'' is an opportunistic pathogenic yeast that is a common member of the human gut flora. It can also survive outside the human body. It is detected in the gastrointestinal tract and mouth in 40–60% of healthy adults. It is usually a commensal organism, but it can become pathogenic in immunocompromised individuals under a variety of conditions. It is one of the few species of the genus '' Candida'' that causes the human infection candidiasis, which results from an overgrowth of the fungus. Candidiasis is, for example, often observed in HIV-infected patients. ''C. albicans'' is the most common fungal species isolated from biofilms either formed on (permanent) implanted medical devices or on human tissue. ''C. albicans'', ''C. tropicalis'', ''C. parapsilosis'', and ''C. glabrata'' are together responsible for 50–90% of all cases of candidiasis in humans. A mortality rate of 40% has been reported for patients with systemic candidiasis due to ''C. albicans''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryptococcus
''Cryptococcus'' is a genus of fungi in the family Cryptococcaceae that includes both yeasts and filamentous species. The filamentous, sexual forms or teleomorphs were formerly classified in the genus ''Filobasidiella'', while ''Cryptococcus'' was reserved for the yeasts. Most yeast species formerly referred to ''Cryptococcus'' have now been placed in different genera. The name ''Cryptococcus'' comes from the Greek for "hidden sphere" (literally "hidden berry"). Some ''Cryptococcus'' species cause a disease called cryptococcosis. Taxonomy The genus was described by French mycologist Jean Paul Vuillemin in 1901, when he failed to find ascospores characteristic of the genus ''Saccharomyces'' in the yeast previously known as ''Saccharomyces neoformans''. Over 300 additional names were subsequently added to the genus, almost all of which were later removed following molecular research based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences. As a result, some ten species are currently recogniz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
