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Cyclic Gmp: A Satiety Signal In C. Elegans, Ji S. Park

Theses and Dissertations

Appetite control and satiety mechanisms help animals maintain energy homeostasis; however, these mechanisms can be misregulated, leading to overweight and obesity. Caenorhabditis elegans is an excellent model system to study appetite and satiety because of its conserved behavioral aspects of satiety and conserved molecular mechanisms. ASI senses nutrition and its activity is required for the behavioral state of satiety quiescence. The purpose of this thesis project was to elucidate the function of cGMP signaling in ASI by looking at behavioral effects from the pharmacological use of sildenafil (Viagra), a PDE inhibitor, and the effects on ASI activation from mutating guanylyl …

Phenotypic Characterization Of Pnpase Knockdown In C. Elegans, Laura A. Lambert

Theses and Dissertations

The multifunctional exoribonuclease protein PNPase is implicated as a potential target for cancer therapy as well as causing mitochondrial disorders in humans, but there has yet to be a whole animal knockdown model created. In this study, C. elegans was used to investigate the effect of knocking down pnpt-1, the gene that encodes PNPase. It was discovered that pnpt-1 knockdown significantly extends lifespan via an increase in superoxide production similar to other known mitochondrial lifespan extension pathways. Additionally, mitochondrial networks, size and respiration are affected indication of other mitochondrial dysfunction..

PNPase is also known to transport small RNAs into the …