Arturo Solís Herrera

By Arturo Solís Herrera

Seeds are very important part of the world’s diet, contributing to half of the global per capita energy intake. Thereby, their study has a substantive relevance, reflected by numerous yearly publications. However, mysteries remain about the main molecular mechanisms involved in germination and dormancy. Seed is a completely independent living thing, and in suitable conditions, hatches and generates a new adult plant completely, identical to which they gave rise. And to do so requires only light and water in certain proportions. Theoretically, the seed has reserves of nutrients that allow it to grow, until their so‐called autotrophic features allow them to establish itself as a self‐sufficient organism. So far, the above cannot be explained adequately, we only have abundant theories that come and go. However, our finding of the intrinsic property of melanin is that it transforms the visible and invisible light to chemical energy through the water molecule dissociation and marks a before and an after process in the study of the germination of the seeds. Nutrients that can be found in a seed not only provide energy but also elements to be biomass, that is, mainly carbon chains of different lengths and combinations, which eventually constitute the backbone of more than 95% of biomolecules. The chemical energy that the seed requires to carry out the highly complex chemical reactions necessary for hatching is taken from water, dissociating it through melanin.

Part of the book: Plant Growth

By Arturo Solis Herrera

Chromosomal instability is poorly defined and used inconsistently and imprecisely. It is the increased propensity to chromosome aberrations due to chromosome replication, repair, or segregation. Therefore, acquired genetic changes are central to leukemia development. Fast-growing cells require substantive amount of energy; however, tumor cells take up more glucose, processing it through aerobic glycolysis producing large lactate amounts with lower use of oxidative phosphorylation to generate ATP. The Warburg effect is characterized by reduced use of tricarboxylic acid cycle, so pyruvate made in glycolysis is converted into lactate and expelled, but this metabolic pathway is energetically inefficient. When genes are malfunctioning, both oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes influence negatively the switch between aerobic glycolysis and extensive use of TCA cycle to generate ATP, as the normal gene replication and expression require adequate energy levels. Chromosomal instability is increasingly entangled and unnecessarily complex. So far, researchers focused solely on studying the mass and have forgotten the energy. The intrinsic property of melanin to transform light into chemical energy, through water dissociation, as chlorophyll in plants, opens a new landscape in chromosome biology, highlighting the role of the environment toxics in leukemia pathogenesis, inhalation being the dominant pathway of exposure.

Part of the book: Germ Line Mutations Associated Leukemia

By Arturo Solis Herrera

In the study of chromosomal abnormalities, in genetics, and in medicine in general, attention is rarely paid to the role of energy in the healthy subject and in the sick patient. The research on the chromosomal anomalies that are constantly published, does not mention the energy necessary for the biochemical processes involved in the function, replication and formation of genes, to be carried out in an adequate way. It seems that it is assumed that energy levels are always fine or at least did not have a significant role in the conditions associated with what we call chromosomal anomalies. A characteristic of the cell nucleus that has gone unnoticed is that it contains neither mitochondria nor ATP, much less glucose. Perhaps because of this, some researchers and clinicians come to think that the nucleus of cells does not require energy. The purpose of this work is to draw attention to the importance of energy levels in all the metabolic processes of the cell; and to make known that glucose is not an energy source, as it is only a source of carbon chains; and finally remark that our body, through melanin, can take energy directly from light.

Part of the book: Chromosomal Abnormalities

By Arturo Solís Herrera, Ruth I. Solís Arias and Luis F. Torres Solís

Melanin is one of the most stable substances known. The study of the ink bags of fossilized squid that died 160 million years ago has found it in good condition. Its extraordinary stability is what had prevented, to date; assign a relevant role in biology. Sir Everard Holmes’ proposal in London; in the eighteenth century, about the role of melanin as a simple sunscreen, it has permeated to this day, especially among dermatologists. Despite the unique physical–chemical qualities of melanin, its biological role as a simple sunscreen that protects us from the dangerous UV rays remained immutable. Our circumstantial discovery during an observational study that lasted 12 years (1990–2002) and which included the ophthalmologic studies of 6000 patients, about the relationship between the vessels of the optic nerve and the three main causes of blindness (Macular degeneration, diabetes, and glaucoma) allowed us to discern the unexpected and surprising true role of melanin in Biology as an energy transducer. The unsuspected intrinsic property of melanin to transform light into chemical energy through water dissociation, like chlorophyll in plants; opens a new era in Biology and therefore in Medicine. And Acute Leukemias are no exception.

Part of the book: Acute Leukemias

By Arturo Solís Herrera, María del Carmen Arias Esparza and Martha Patricia Solís Arias

Phosphorous paradox means that this element is abundant on Earth, it is present inside of every cell of living things. However, is so scarce in the Universe. Phosphate, the most exploited form of phosphorous, is a vital constituent of fertilizer. Phosphate rock has emerged as a globally traded commodity linked to a diverse set of politically charged debates, ranging from environmental degradation and threats to human health to food security and agricultural sovereignty. Supposedly, life can multiply until all the phosphorus is gone, and then there is an inexorable halt, which nothing can prevent (Asimov, Isaac). Phosphorus seems like a Life’s Bottleneck. It is so believed that Phosphorous (P) has been placed as a critical resource for the bioeconomy and for food security at the global scale. The biogeochemical P flow has been described as a “planetary boundary,” which, in parts of the world, has already been exceeded. However, our discovery about the unexpected intrinsic capacity of living beings to dissociate the water molecule breaks the ground. Thereby, the formation of Phosphorous requires the presence of Life.

Part of the book: Functional Phosphate Materials and Their Applications

By Arturo Solís Herrera

Despite the advance in biochemistry, there are two substantial errors that have remained for at least two centuries. One is that oxygen from the atmosphere passes through the lungs and reaches the bloodstream, which distributes it throughout the body. Another major mistake is the belief that such oxygen is used by the cell to obtain energy, by combining it with glucose. Since the late nineteenth century, it began to be published that the gas exchange in the lungs cannot be explained by diffusion. Even Christian Bohr suggested that it looked like a cellular secretion. But despite experimental evidence to the contrary and based only on theoretical models, the dogma that our body takes the oxygen it contains inside from the air around it has been perpetuated to this day. The oxygen levels contained in the human body are high, close to 99%, and the atmosphere only contains between 19 and 21%. The hypothesis that there is a supposed oxygen concentrating mechanism has not been experimentally proven to date, after almost two centuries. The mistaken belief, even among neurologists, that our body takes oxygen from the atmosphere is widespread, even though there is no experimental basis to support it, just theoretical models. Our finding that the human body can take oxygen from the water it contains, not from the air around it, like plants, comes to mark a before and after in biology in general, and the CNS is no exception. Therefore, establishing the true origin of the oxygen present within our body and brain will allow us to better understand the physio pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases.

Part of the book: Parkinson’s Disease

By María del Carmen Arias Esparza and Arturo Solis Herrera

In the XVII century, researchers throughout Europe began to study the composition of the atmosphere, discerning its physicochemical properties and composition. Since then, it has been observed that the concentration of oxygen in the air around us is relatively low. Lavoisier and Priestley, in the middle of XVII century, observed that plants leaves could replenish oxygen in an impoverished atmosphere. They concluded that chlorophyll possessed the intrinsic property of dissociating the molecule from water. At the XVIII century, the systematic study of human physiology began to deepen, and it was found that the oxygen levels inside the human body were five times higher than those of the atmosphere. The explanation given was that the lung, by means of some unknown mechanism like those of the swim bladder of some fish, was able to concentrate oxygen from the atmosphere and introduce it into the bloodstream. But such a theoretical mechanism has not been found after 200 years of searching. However, there is no way to explain how the concentration of oxygen rises substantially in the tiny distance between the alveolar space and the blood capillaries of the lung. Circumstantially, we found the mechanism during an observational study about the blood vessels entering and leaving the human optic nerve: Our body has several molecules capable of dissociating the molecule from water, such as plants.

Part of the book: Plant Physiology Annual Volume 2023