Thursday, July 15, 2010

Chapter 4

13. Explain the role of G6PO.

G6PD protein production is an important element that is typically found in every red blood cell. The purpose of G6PD is to maintain cellular integrity by dismantling any free radicals or chemical agents that have the potential to destroy a red blood cell.


14. Briefly describe the connection between the two concepts:

a. Many plants have natural defenses to protect ithemselves against grazing predators that seek at the wrong time. The English clover contains a phytoestrogen known as formonenetin, which mimics animal sex hormones. Too much of the phytoestrogen can diminish the reproductive abilities of the animals that intake the English clover. During the 1940s, Australian sheep were eating imported English clover plants that had higher levels of formononetin due to its trouble adapting to the dry climate in Australia. So the ingested levels of formononetin from the English clover was the cause of the Australian sheep breeding crisis of the 1940s.

b. Capsaisin is the sticky fluid among seeds that give hot peppers their heat. It has evolved in a way to ensure that the pepper can be regrown by the spreading of its seeds. Birds are not able to take the heat of capsaisin, and disperse the seeds all over the ground when airborne. Mammals destroy the seeds in the digestion process, and are unable to deal with the extreme heat that is given off by the peppers. This means that evolution has shaped which forms of life are able to intake the capsaisin, so that reproduction can take place.

c. Air conditioning allows individuals who live in areas with high rates of malaria to stay indoors and avoid mosquitoes that carry the potentially deadly disease.

d. Favism and fava beans are evolutionized in a way that make malaria inhospitable in red blood cells. Malaria likes to cling to healthy red blood cells without the presence of any other competitors, such as free radical agents. Favism means that there is a deficiency in the G6PD enxyme, and fava beans release numerous free radicals that cause a deadly environment for malaria.

15. Explain the following statement found on page 87: “Life: it’s such a compromise.”

The author is trying to explain that there a along with good things, comes the unwanted. The example that is used to demonstrate this point is the vegetable celery. While growing stalks of celery, organic farmers don’t use pesticides. But as insects infiltrate a stalk of celery, the natural defense of the vegetable, psoralen, increases due to the invasion of insects and puts the consumer at risk. Ordinary farmers on the other hand use pesticides that are potentially hazardous to human health. Organic farmers protect the outside, while ordinary farmers protect the inside of celery. Compromising means that one must deal with one or the other.

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