Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Paiva-Silva GO
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1472424 | biostudies-literature | 2006 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Paiva-Silva Gabriela O GO Cruz-Oliveira Christine C Nakayasu Ernesto S ES Maya-Monteiro Clarissa M CM Dunkov Boris C BC Masuda Hatisaburo H Almeida Igor C IC Oliveira Pedro L PL
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20060512 21
Hematophagous insects are vectors of diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide. A common physiological event in the life of these insects is the hydrolysis of host hemoglobin in the digestive tract, leading to a massive release of heme, a known prooxidant molecule. Diverse organisms, from bacteria to plants, express the enzyme heme oxygenase, which catalyzes the oxidative degradation of heme to biliverdin (BV) IX, CO, and iron. Here, we show that the kissing bug Rhodnius prol ...[more]