Amphidinolides and its related macrolides from marine dinoflagellates

Alveolates are a group of organisms recognized by the presence of alveoli, which are cytoplasmic sacs located beneath the cell membrane. While their function remains uncertain, alveoli may help regulate water balance by controlling how much water enters and leaves the cell. In dinoflagellates, these structures may serve as armor plates. There are three major types of alveolates: ciliates, which move using cilia; dinoflagellates, which use flagella for movement; and apicomplexans, which are...

Aminoglycosides constitute a highly potent class of bactericidal antibiotics that exert their antimicrobial effects by targeting the bacterial ribosome, specifically disrupting protein synthesis. These polycationic molecules consist of amino-modified sugars linked via glycosidic bonds to an aminocyclitol core such as 2-deoxystreptamine or streptamine. Their strong positive charges facilitate tight binding to the negatively charged phosphate backbone of ribosomal RNA (rRNA), primarily at the 16S...

Antimicrobial proteins are important components of the immune system. They aid the body in combating pathogens by either killing them directly or hindering their replication processes. Four main types of antimicrobial substances are interferons, the complement system, iron-binding proteins, and antimicrobial proteins.
Interferons
Interferons (IFNs) are proteins produced by lymphocytes, macrophages, and fibroblasts infected with viruses. While IFNs cannot prevent viruses from entering and...

Amphotericin B is a broad-spectrum antifungal agent that exploits structural differences between fungal and mammalian cell membranes. Its amphipathic structure—featuring a hydrophobic polyene-lactone ring and a hydrophilic region containing mycosamine and carboxylic acid groups—enables selective binding to ergosterol, a sterol predominantly found in fungal plasma membranes. This selective interaction underlies the drug’s antifungal activity, although weak binding to cholesterol contributes to...

The group Stramenopiles include some phototrophic microorganisms. Members of this group possess flagella covered in numerous short, hairlike extensions, a feature that inspired the group's name, derived from the Latin words for "straw" and "hair." Some of the main categories of Stramenopiles include diatoms, golden algae, and brown algae.Diatoms are unicellular, photosynthetic eukaryotes, with over 200 known genera. They play a key role in the planktonic communities of both marine and...

Bacterial cells were initially considered simple, randomly organized structures lacking a cytoskeleton. However, the discovery of cytoskeleton homologs in bacteria led to the change of this opinion. Bacterial cytoskeletal filaments regulate the cell shape, cell polarity, cell division, and partitioning of plasmids during cell division. It was later discovered that bacterial cytoskeletal proteins, mainly actin and tubulin homologs, are diverse compared to their eukaryotic counterparts. On the...