Life and health

Combined oxidative phosphorylation defect type 14

Combined oxidative phosphorylation defect type 14 (COXPD14, OMIM 614946) is a rare autosomal recessive mitochondrial disease from FARS2 mutations on 6p25.1, causing infantile refractory seizures, lactic acidosis, or spastic paraplegia.

Combined oxidative phosphorylation defect type 21

COXPD21 (OMIM 615918) is an ultra-rare autosomal recessive mitochondrial encephalomyopathy caused by TARS2 variants, with complexes I, III, IV, V deficiency sparing II, neonatal onset, hypotonia, epilepsy, and hyperlactatemia.

Combined oxidative phosphorylation defect type 23

COXPD23, also called combined oxidative phosphorylation deficiency 23, is an ultrarare autosomal recessive mitochondrial disease caused by biallelic GTPBP3 variants, presenting with lactic acidosis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and encephalopathy in infancy or childhood.

Combined oxidative phosphorylation defect type 24

COXPD24 (OMIM 616239) is a rare autosomal recessive mitochondrial disorder caused by NARS2 variants, causing infancy-onset seizures, hypotonia, hearing loss, Leigh or Alpers-like disease, myopathy, and neonatal diabetes.

Oct 20, 2026

Combined oxidative phosphorylation defect type 4

Combined oxidative phosphorylation defect type 4 (COXPD4, mitochondrial elongation factor Tu deficiency) is an ultra-rare autosomal recessive TUFM-related mitochondrial translation disorder with neonatal lactic acidosis, encephalopathy, and combined complex I, III, and IV deficiency.

Combined oxidative phosphorylation defect type 8

Combined oxidative phosphorylation defect type 8 (COXPD8, OMIM 614096) is a rare autosomal recessive mitochondrial disease caused by AARS2 mutations, causing complexes I, III, and IV deficiency and fatal infantile hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Combined pituitary hormone deficiencies, genetic forms

Combined pituitary hormone deficiencies, genetic forms (CPHD, panhypopituitarism): congenital deficiency of two or more pituitary hormones caused by gene variants. About 30 genes implicated; PROP1 most common; autosomal dominant, recessive, or X-linked inheritance.

Combining ability analysis

Combining ability analysis is a quantitative genetics method estimating, from designed crosses, how much of a hybrid's performance comes from each parent's average value versus particular parent combinations.

Combretaceae

Combretaceae R.Br., the combretum or terminalia family, is a pantropical Myrtales plant family of 10 genera and about 568 species, sister to the rest of the order, with Combretum and Terminalia its largest genera and mangrove members Lumnitzera, Conocarpus, and Laguncularia.

Combretum

Combretum (bushwillows) is a genus of about 290 accepted Combretaceae species, trees, shrubs, and woody climbers native to the tropics and subtropics with African diversity center; formerly separate genera such as Quisqualis are now included, and many species are used in African traditional medicine.

Combtooth blenny

Combtooth blennies (Blenniidae) are about 400 species of small scaleless marine fishes with a single comblike row of incisiform teeth, living in shallow tropical and subtropical habitats; molecular phylogeny recognizes 13 unranked clades and four intertidal invasions.

ComE operon protein 1

ComE operon protein 1, or ComEA, is the Bacillus subtilis competence DNA receptor that binds extracellular double-stranded DNA during natural transformation; homologs occur in Neisseria, Staphylococcus, and many other bacteria.

Comedo

Comedo (plural comedones): a plugged follicular orifice, the basic acne lesion. Open comedones are blackheads (darkened by oxidation, not dirt); closed comedones are whiteheads. Treated with topical retinoids, benzoyl peroxide, or extraction.

Oct 20, 2026

Comedonal acne

Comedonal acne, also called comedo acne, is a noninflammatory acne pattern of open and closed comedones (blackheads and whiteheads) on the forehead and chin, treated first with topical retinoids rather than antibiotics.

Comekibart

Comekibart (development code MG-K10) is a humanized monoclonal antibody against IL-4Rα developed by Mabgeek Biotechnology in China for atopic dermatitis and other type 2 inflammatory diseases.

Comet assay

The comet assay, also called single-cell gel electrophoresis, measures DNA strand breaks and alkali-labile sites in individual eukaryotic cells; its alkaline form is an OECD-standard in vivo genotoxicity test.

Cometabolism

Cometabolism is the microbial transformation of a compound that cannot support growth, by enzymes induced for a growth-supporting cosubstrate; it is used to biodegrade chlorinated solvents in groundwater.

COMFORTABLE trial

COMFORTABLE AMI (NCT00962416) was a randomized trial comparing biolimus A9-eluting stents with biodegradable polymer against bare-metal stents in 1,161 STEMI patients, halving 1-year MACE (4.3% vs 8.7%), a benefit sustained at 5 years.

Comfrey steeping

Comfrey steeping, EU substance ID 1449, is a fermented extract of Symphytum officinale leaves proposed as a basic substance insect repellent and plant elicitor; the European Commission refused approval in Regulation (EU) 2021/809 (May 2021) over genotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids and incomplete risk data.

COMM domain-containing protein 1

COMMD1 (MURR1, C2orf5) is a human 2p15 protein-coding gene encoding a 21-kDa COMM-domain scaffold protein of the Commander complex, involved in copper homeostasis, endosomal trafficking, and NF-κB inhibition; exon 2 deletion causes Bedlington terrier copper toxicosis.

Commelina

Commelina (dayflowers), largest genus of Commelinaceae with roughly 170–230 species, pantropical herbs with blue, unequal petals and spathaceous bracts; includes weedy C. benghalensis and dye plant C. communis.

Commelinaceae

Commelinaceae, the dayflower or spiderwort family, is a family of monocot flowering plants, about 650 species in 41 genera, including dayflowers (Commelina) and spiderworts (Tradescantia).

Commelinales

Commelinales: monocot order of five families (Commelinaceae, Haemodoraceae, Hanguanaceae, Philydraceae, Pontederiaceae), about 1,000 pantropical species, sister to Zingiberales within commelinids.

Commensalism

Commensalism is a +/0 species interaction in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected; coined by van Beneden (1875), placed under symbiosis by de Bary (1879), now viewed as a point on a mutualism-parasitism continuum.

Commercial animal cloning

Commercial animal cloning, or SCNT-based livestock and pet cloning, copies elite cattle, horses, pigs, and pets; firms like ViaGen (founded 2002) sell it despite under 5% complete-pregnancy efficiency, with FDA deeming clone food safe in 2008.

Commercial bumblebee rearing

Commercial bumblebee rearing, mass production of Bombus terrestris and Bombus impatiens colonies for crop pollination, began in the Netherlands in 1987; about one million colonies were sold worldwide in 2004, with pathogen spillover the main risk.

Commercial fishery

Commercial fishery: the business of catching and marketing fish and shellfish for profit, using gear such as trawls, gillnets, purse seines, and longlines; defined against recreational and subsistence fishing and managed through stock assessments and bycatch controls.