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  1. Melatonin Origin And Function

    Dov Henis, retired

    3 February 2009

    Beyond Darwin 200<br>Melatonin Switches On Mostly Intercell Maintenance<br>Wake up. <br>Re-think-plan-do-assess Epigenetics, Sleep And Melatonin works. <br><br><br>A. "Epigenetics reveals unexpected, and some identical, results"<br>http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40060/title/Epigenetics_reveals_unexpected%2C_and_some_identical%2C_results<br>One study finds tissue-specific methylation signatures in the genome; another a similarity between identical twins in DNA’s chemical tagging.<br><br>I humbly suggest : Re-think-plan-do-assess Epigenetics Works, founded on scientific conception that genes and genomes are organisms. <br><br><br>B. "Sleep, Melatonin, Cancers And Beyond Darwin 200"<br>http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/100/122.page#1412<br><br>I humbly suggest: Re-think-plan-do-assess works, founded on scientific conception that genes and genomes are organisms. <br><br><br>C. Apparent functional aspects of melatonin<br>http://cogweb.ucla.edu/ep/Neurology.html#Melatonin<br><br>Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the human pineal gland during night-time darkness, and it is now being marketed in the US as a nutritional supplement. The hormone is an indoleamine compound derived from the amino acid *tryptophan, with *serotonin as an intermediate precursor. <br><br>1) The most important role of melatonin in all species is to provide a hormonal signal of night-time darkness. The secretion of the hormone is tightly controlled by the *circadian pacemaker. 2) Melatonin is a phylogenetically ancient hormone, found even in some single-cell organisms and in some plants. 3) At the cellular level, melatonin receptors are members of the superfamily of *G protein-coupled receptors...Activation of these receptors inhibits *cyclic AMP production by the enzyme adenylyl cyclase.<br><br>cAMP (cyclic AMP) acts as an intracellular hormone (i.e., a chemical messenger). Cyclic AMP is derived from ATP in a reaction catalyzed by the enzyme adenylyl cyclase (also called adenyl cyclase and adenylate cyclase). <br><br>I humbly suggest: Melatonin, the phylogenetically ancient hormone, was evolved by the genome during the early single-cells eons when they evolved community life cultures and graduated from sunlight-only to metabolism-too energy production. Melatonin's role was to signal that the genes are asleep, their functional activities are shut off, and it is time for the security and maintenance crews to do their tasks, especially to clean up the intercell environment, for keeping the community of cells in proper state. <br><br><br>D. It all adds up to:<br> <br>Gene: a primal Earth's organism. (1st stratum organism) <br>Genome: a multigenes organism consisting of a cooperative commune of its member genes. (2nd stratum organism) <br><br>"Life's Manifest"<br>http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/112.page#578<br><br><br>Dov Henis<br><br>(Comments From The 22nd Century)<br> http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-P81pQcU1dLBbHgtjQjxG_Q--?cq=1

    Competing interests

    None declared

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