Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

The Glycine And Proline Reductase Systems: An Evolutionary Perspective And Presence In Enterobacteriaceae, Joshua Witt Dec 2013

The Glycine And Proline Reductase Systems: An Evolutionary Perspective And Presence In Enterobacteriaceae, Joshua Witt

HIM 1990-2015

The Glycine and Proline Reduction systems are two of the best characterized selenoenzymes in bacteria and have been found to occur in a wide variety of clostridia [1-5]. These enzymes are utilized to reduce glycine or D-proline to obtain energy via substrate level phosporylation or membrane gradients, respectively [6, 7]. This includes the pathogens C. difficile and C. botulinum [5, 8]. Strains of C. difficile are activate toxigenic pathways whenever either of these pathways is active within the cell [5, 8]. Though evolutionary studies have been conducted on ammonia producing bacteria [9] none has been done to directly characterize these …


The Effects Of Growth Hormone And Thyroxine Treatment On The Insulin Signaling Of Female Ames Dwarf Mouse Skeletal Muscle Tissue, Andrew Do Aug 2013

The Effects Of Growth Hormone And Thyroxine Treatment On The Insulin Signaling Of Female Ames Dwarf Mouse Skeletal Muscle Tissue, Andrew Do

HIM 1990-2015

Ames dwarf (df/df) mice are deficient in anterior pituitary hormones: growth hormone (GH), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), and prolactin (PRL) due to a spontaneous, homozygous mutation of prop1[superscript df] gene. These dwarf mice exhibit characteristics such as delayed growth and development coupled with delayed aging, increased lifespan, overall increased insulin sensitivity, as well as resistance to certain diseases and cancers. The mutant mice possess low blood glucose, low serum insulin, and lower body temperature. Their enhanced longevity (about 40-60% longer lifespan than normal mice) is associated with their GH deficiency and disruption in the somatotropic axis (GH/IGF-1 hormonal pathway) as …


Manipulating Aktivated Metabolism Via Mtorc1, Ivan Von Hack Prestinary May 2013

Manipulating Aktivated Metabolism Via Mtorc1, Ivan Von Hack Prestinary

HIM 1990-2015

Although poorly understood, normal cells and cancerous cells of the same type exhibit different patterns of nutrient consumption, processing and utility of metabolic substrates. Differences in substrate uptake, preference, and alternately emphasized metabolic pathways offer opportunities for selective targeting of cancer versus stroma. This may be accomplished by using a sequential approach of nutrient deprivation and pharmaceutical perturbation of metabolic pathways to inhibit cellular proliferation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of restricting glucose and glutamine concentrations, in vitro, to levels that resemble a potential human fasting state. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), a mediator …


Identification Of Potential Lead Antimalarial Compounds From Marine Microbial Extracts, Abigail Carbonell Jan 2013

Identification Of Potential Lead Antimalarial Compounds From Marine Microbial Extracts, Abigail Carbonell

HIM 1990-2015

Malaria, caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, has a long history as a global health threat. The vector-borne disease causes millions of deaths yearly, especially in developing countries with tropical climates that facilitate transmission. Compounding the problem is the emergence of drug-resistant strains due to overuse of outdated treatments. New compounds with antiplasmodial activity are needed to be developed as effective drugs against malaria. The hypothesis for this project is that marine microorganisms have a high likelihood of yielding novel antiplasmodial chemotypes because of their high diversity, which has not yet been explored for antimalarial development. In this project, microbes …


Development Of An Alkaline Phosphatase Reporter System For Use In The Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia Burgdorferi, Selina Sutchu Jan 2013

Development Of An Alkaline Phosphatase Reporter System For Use In The Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia Burgdorferi, Selina Sutchu

HIM 1990-2015

The use of the periplasmic alkaline phosphatase (PhoA) reporter protein from E. coli has been critical for definition of the topology of transmembrane proteins of multiple bacterial species. This report demonstrates development of a PhoA reporter system in B. burgdorferi. Codon usage of the E. coli phoA in B. burgdorferi was analyzed and an optimized version of the gene was obtained. In order to assess the differential activity of the reporter system, two optimized PhoA-fusion construct using B. burgdorferi proteins were engineered: one using the periplasmic protein OppAIV and one using the cytoplasmic protein PncA. The activity of PhoA requires …


Expression Of An Epitope Tagged Tarp Effector In Chlamydia Trachomatis, Brenda Nguyen Jan 2013

Expression Of An Epitope Tagged Tarp Effector In Chlamydia Trachomatis, Brenda Nguyen

HIM 1990-2015

Previous studies performed on Chlamydia trachomatis have demonstrated how these obligate intracellular microbes invade host cells through the utilization of secreted effector proteins. One secreted effector called Tarp (translocated actin recruiting protein) is implicated in cytoskeleton rearrangements that promote bacterial entry into the host cell. The focus of our study is to create a plasmid that carries the tarP gene that when transcribed and translated from within Chlamydia trachomatis will generate a c-Myc epitope tagged Tarp. The tag will be used in future studies to track the progression of the protein through the infectious process and will allow us to …


Understanding The Role Of Plasmodium Falciparum Vamp8 Snare Homologue, Katherine Ferreira Jan 2013

Understanding The Role Of Plasmodium Falciparum Vamp8 Snare Homologue, Katherine Ferreira

HIM 1990-2015

Malaria is one of the worlds most deadly infectious diseases and results in almost a million deaths each year, largely in children under the age of five in Sub-Saharan Africa. Outside Africa, malaria is responsible for a large number of cases in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, Middle East, and in some areas of Asia [37]. According to the World Health Organization, there was an estimated 655, 000 deaths from malaria in 2012. Malaria is caused by a eukaryotic Apicomplexan parasite, Plasmodium, which has three distinct life cycles occurring in the midgut of the female Anopheles mosquito, the liver of …