July 13, 2019 Saturday
Bedtime Story
The Chemical Inside Claviceps
“Is this the largest organism in the world?
This 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) site
in eastern Oregon had a continuous growth of mycelium before logging roads cut
through it.
Estimated at 1,665 football fields in size
and 2,200 years old, this one fungus has killed the forest above it several
times over, and in so doing has built deeper soil layers that allow the growth
of eve-large strands of trees.
Mushroom-forming forest fungi are unique in
that their mycelial mats can achieve such massive proportions.”
So now you understand how massively
extensive these mycelium can get when they have an entire forest to feast upon
and how during the times of scarcity they can shrink themselves into tight,
hard, compact, dried and shriveled up balls known as sclerotium which is also
known as the ergot kernel in a more common language.
This will also make it clear the reason for
any substance that would be produced by any fungus would find it highest
concentration to be most likely to be found in its kernel or the sclerotium.
The species of Ergot fungus purpurea is
interesting for two reasons; one is that it parasites on grasses such as rye
and wheat which forms a stable diet for wide variety of human apes and who have
actively strived to model it to their likings and nutrition.
The other and more crucial reason why this
species of fungus is of interest to us is because it happens to biologically
produce an alkaloid known as ergotamine.
Ergotamine is a rather complex molecule
with cylcol-lactam ring that is connected via amide linkage to ergoline moiety.
Ergoline is derived from a more popular
chemical known as lysergic acid which is a precursor of a large number of
ergoline alkaloids that are produced by ergot fungus.
Ergotamine shares great structural
similarity with naturally occurring neurotransmitters in our body such as
serotonin, dopamine and epinephrine and thereby also possessing the ability to
bind with their receptors at the cellular level.
Ergotamine possessing the ability to simulate
the receptors of these neurotransmitters therefore mimics their actions and
thereby acts as an agonist – an important pharmacological term in medicine.
One of the chief affects (in fact the
primary one) of these neurotransmitters is vascular constriction.
Now we all know that the vessels that run
through our body specially the micro vessels got to have a right tone or the
right bore inside them through which the blood plasma along with its cellular
contents run 24 by 7.
Even though the wall of any blood vessel
consists of three layers, namely outer adventia, middle media and the inner
intima, a large thickness of the wall is occupied by vascular smooth muscles.
It is these smooth muscle cells which line
the blood vessels that are responsible for its tone which in turn determines
the internal caliber of the blood vessels.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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