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Life and health

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Psychotria

Psychotria L. (synonyms Cephaelis, Mapouria) is a pantropical genus of understory Rubiaceae shrubs with about 1,600-1,800 species, heterostylous flowers, red drupes, and bacterial leaf nodules; once broader, now split among Palicourea, Eumachia and others.

Psychotria viridis

Psychotria viridis (chacruna), a Rubiaceae shrub from Mexico to tropical South America, is the DMT-containing leaf ingredient of ayahuasca, containing 1–1.6 mg DMT per gram of dry leaf; often confused with the alkaloid-free P. carthagenensis.

Psychro-piezophilic archaea

Psychro-piezophilic archaea are archaea adapted to low temperature and high pressure in the deep cold ocean, though no cold-adapted archaeal piezophile has yet been cultured.

Psychrobacter

Psychrobacter, genus of cold-adapted Gram-negative Moraxellaceae bacteria (type species P. immobilis, Juni and Heym 1986) found in sea ice, permafrost, and chilled foods; low spoilage potential, grows as low as −10°C.

Psychrophile

Psychrophiles (cryophiles) are cold-loving extremophilic bacteria and archaea with optimal growth at about 15°C or lower, maximum about 20°C, and growth at 0°C or below, distinguished from psychrotrophs, which grow in the cold but prefer warmer optima.

Psychrophilic archaeal habitats

Psychrophilic archaeal habitats are the permanently or seasonally cold environments, generally below 5 °C, where archaea live and sometimes dominate, including polar seas, sea ice, permafrost, and hypersaline Antarctic lakes.

Psyllidae

Psyllidae, jumping plantlice, a family of Psylloidea (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha): 2–8 mm sap-sucking insects on woody dicots, five nymphal instars, backward-jumping adults, some vectoring plant pathogens.

Psyllium

Psyllium, also known as isabgol or ispaghula, is the gel-forming husk fiber of the plant Plantago ovata, used as a bulk laxative and to lower cholesterol.

PTBP1

PTBP1 (PTB, hnRNP I) is a ubiquitous human RNA-binding protein on chromosome 19p13.3 with four quasi-RRM domains that binds polypyrimidine tracts, regulating alternative splicing, neural development, metabolism, and cancer, and is central to the disputed glia-to-neuron conversion field.

PTCH1

PTCH1 (patched 1), also known as PTC1 or BCNS, is a tumor suppressor gene on chromosome 9q22.32 encoding the Hedgehog receptor patched-1; its loss-of-function mutations cause Gorlin syndrome and occur in basal cell carcinoma and medulloblastoma.

PTEN (gene)

PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog, MMAC1) is a tumor suppressor gene on chromosome 10q23 encoding a PIP3 phosphatase that antagonizes PI3K–AKT–mTOR signaling; lost in many cancers and mutated in Cowden syndrome and PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome.

PTEN hamartoma of soft tissue

PTEN hamartoma of soft tissue (PHOST), also called PTEN-related hamartoma, is a rare benign intramuscular overgrowth of fat, fibrous tissue, and abnormal vessels in PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome, often mistaken for arteriovenous malformation.

PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome

PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome (PHTS), also called Cowden syndrome spectrum, is an autosomal dominant PTEN-gene disorder causing hamartomas, macrocephaly, autism risk, and high lifetime breast, thyroid, endometrial, renal, and colorectal cancer risk.

Pteranodon

Pteranodon, a toothless Late Cretaceous pterosaur from the Western Interior Seaway, Kansas state flying fossil since 2014; wingspan about 7 m, fish-eating, sexually dimorphic, named by Marsh in 1876.

Pteraspis

Pteraspis, extinct Early Devonian jawless fish genus of armored heterostracans (Pteraspididae, named by Kner 1847), lived 419-409 Ma in shallow marine waters of Europe and North America; bottom-feeder with bony head plates.

Pteria (bivalve)

Pteria (winged oysters) is a genus of byssate marine bivalves in the family Pteriidae, type species Pteria hirundo, Triassic origin, wing-shaped shells with a large posterior auricle, and Pteria penguin cultured for mabe pearls.

Pteria penguin

Pteria penguin (Röding, 1798), the winged pearl oyster or blackwing pearl-oyster (マベ), is an Indo-West Pacific pteriid bivalve attached by a single fused byssus and widely cultured for mabé half-pearls, notably in Tonga.

Pteridaceae

Pteridaceae, the maidenhair fern family (syn. Adiantaceae, Vittariaceae, Parkeriaceae), is a monophyletic fern family of over 1000 species in five subfamilies (PPG I 2016), defined by pseudoindusia, trilete spores, and x = 29 or 30 chromosomes.

Pteridium

Pteridium (bracken, bracken fern), genus of Dennstaedtiaceae ferns; cosmopolitan, 20 accepted species, two diploid species P. aquilinum and P. esculentum; toxic, ptaquiloside carcinogen, IARC Group 2B, invasive weed.

Pteridium aquilinum

Pteridium aquilinum (bracken fern), Dennstaedtiaceae, is a rhizomatous fern native from Macaronesia and Africa to Siberia and Iran. It contains the carcinogen ptaquiloside, poisons livestock, and contaminates milk and water.

Pteridomania

Pteridomania, or fern fever, was the Victorian passion for collecting and growing ferns that swept Britain between 1837 and 1914, coined by Charles Kingsley in 1855.

Pteridophyte

Pteridophyte, informal term for free-sporing vascular plants, comprising lycophytes and ferns; spore reproduction, independent gametophyte and sporophyte; PPG I 2016 recognizes 11,916 species, 337 genera, 51 families, 14 orders, two classes.

Pteriidae

Pteriidae, the pearl oyster family (Pinctada, Pteria), marine bivalves of the superfamily Pterioidea; Triassic origin about 230 Ma, byssally attached tropical shelf shells, main source of cultured pearls and mother-of-pearl.

Pterinochilus murinus

Pterinochilus murinus, the orange baboon tarantula, or OBT for "orange bitey thing," is a defensive African tarantula, described in 1897, whose bite causes severe pain and muscle spasms.

Pterioidea

Pterioidea (Gray, 1847) is a superfamily of epifaunal marine bivalves including pearl oysters (Pinctada) and winged oysters (Pteria), with four traditional families, a 470-million-year fossil record, and molecular evidence that all families except Pulvinitidae are non-monophyletic.

Pteriomorphia

Pteriomorphia, also called pteriomorph bivalves, is an infraclass of marine Bivalvia (named by Beurlen, 1944) holding mussels, scallops, oysters, and ark shells; five WoRMS orders, Ordovician fossil record, mostly monomyarian and byssate.

Pteris

Pteris is a genus of brake ferns comprising 200 to 349 species across all continents except Antarctica. It is scientifically significant for its arsenic-hyperaccumulating species, Pteris vittata.

Pteris vittata

Pteris vittata, Chinese brake or ladder brake fern (Pteridaceae), first discovered natural arsenic hyperaccumulator, native to the Old World tropics, used for phytoremediation of arsenic-contaminated soils and groundwater.

Pterobranchia

Pterobranchia, pterobranch hemichordates including graptolites (Graptolithina), are tiny colonial marine deuterostomes secreting collagenous tubaria; only 27 extant species (Rhabdopleura, Cephalodiscus) exist, but their fossil record anchors Ordovician biostratigraphy.

Pterocarpus

Pterocarpus (padouk, narra, red sanders) is a pantropical legume tree genus in Fabaceae, tribe Dalbergieae, with winged indehiscent pods and red resin; prized timbers include P. indicus, P. soyauxii, and endangered P. santalinus.