Fungal Mitogenomes: Relevant Features to Planning Plant Disease Management.

Mitochondrial genomes (mt-genomes) are characterized by a distinct codon usage and their autonomous replication. Mt-genomes encode highly conserved genes (mt-genes), like proteins involved in electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation but they also carry highly variable regions that are in part responsible for their high plasticity. The degree of conservation of their genes is such that they allow the establishment of phylogenetic relationships even across distantly related species.

Metabolization of nifurtimox and benznidazole in cellular fractions of rat mammary tissue.

Two nitroheterocyclic drugs, nifurtimox (NFX) and benznidazole (BZ), used in the treatment of Chagas' disease have serious side effects attributed to their nitroreduction to reactive metabolites. Here, we report that these drugs reach the mammary tissue and there they could undergo in situ bioactivation. Both were detected in mammary tissue from female Sprague-Dawley rats after their intragastric administration.