Life Sciences Commons^™

The Impact Of Repeated Rounds Of Mass Drug Administration With Diethylcarbamazine Plus Albendazole On Bancroftian Filariasis In Papua New Guinea, Gary J. Weil, Will Kastens, Melinda Susapu, Sandra J. Laney, Steven A. Williams, Christopher L. King, James W. Kazura, Moses J. Bockarie

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: This study employed various monitoring methods to assess the impact of repeated rounds of mass drug administration (MDA) on bancroftian filariasis in Papua New Guinea, which has the largest filariasis problem in the Pacific region.

Methodology/Principal Findings: Residents of rural villages near Madang were studied prior to and one year after each of three rounds of MDA with diethylcarbamazine plus albendazole administered per World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The mean MDA compliance rate was 72.9%. Three rounds of MDA decreased microfilaremia rates (Mf, 1 ml night blood by filter) from 18.6% pre-MDA to 1.3% after the third MDA (a …

Living Where The Flow Is Right: How Flow Affects Feeding In Bryozoans, Marney C. Pratt

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Bryozoans are suspension feeding colonial animals that remain attached to the substratum or other surfaces. How well a bryozoan can feed in a particular flow regime could help determine the distribution and abundance of that bryozoan. I tested how velocity of flow affects feeding rate in four species of bryozoans in the laboratory and how these species perform in different flow regimes in the field. I found that one species, Membranipora membranacea, had a higher ingestion rate than did the other three species at all velocities of flow tested. Membranipora also had a higher rate of ingestion at intermediate velocities, …

Determinants Of Success In National Programs To Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis: A Perspective Identifying Essential Elements And Research Needs, Dominique Kyelem, Gautam Biswas, Moses J. Bockarie, Mark Bradley, Maged El-Setouhy, Peter U. Fischer, Ralph H. Henderson, James W. Kazura, Patrick J. Lammie, Sammy M. Njenga, Eric A. Ottesen, Kapa Ramaiah, Frank O. Richardson, Gary J. Weil, Steven A. Williams

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF) was launched in 2000. To understand why some national programs have been more successful than others, a panel of individuals with expertise in LF elimination efforts met to assess available data from programs in 8 countries. The goal was to identify: 1) the factors determining success for national LF elimination programs (defined as the rapid, sustained reduction in microfilaremia/ antigenemia after repeated mass drug administration [MDA]); 2) the priorities for operational research to enhance LF elimination efforts.

Of more than 40 factors identified, the most prominent were 1) initial level of LF …

Patterns Of Body And Tail Length And Body Mass In Sciuridae, Virginia Hayssen

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

For squirrels, physical size varies with ancestry, locomotion, and sex. Body length has little variation associated with subfamilies or tribes but varies significantly among genera within tribes. Thus, patterns in body size among genera represent more recent evolutionary pressures. Flying squirrels weigh less than similarly sized tree or ground squirrels but ecological profile and ancestry are confounded for flying squirrels. Tail length has clear relationships with ecological profile in squirrels. Tail length is shorter in ground squirrels, longer in tree squirrels, and longest in flying squirrels. In addition, in arboreal squirrels, females have longer tails, relative to body length, than …

A Reverse Transcriptase-Pcr Assay For Detecting Filarial Infective Larvae In Mosquitoes, Sandra J. Laney, Caitlin J. Buttaro, Sabato Visconti, Nils Pilotte, Reda M.R. Ramzy, Gary J. Weil, Steven A. Williams

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: Existing molecular assays for filarial parasite DNA in mosquitoes cannot distinguish between infected mosquitoes that contain any stage of the parasite and infective mosquitoes that harbor third stage larvae (L3) capable of establishing new infections in humans. We now report development of a molecular L3-detection assay for Brugia malayi in vectors based on RT-PCR detection of an L3-activated gene transcript.

Methodology/Principal Findings: Candidate genes identified by bioinformatics analysis of EST datasets across the B. malayilife cycle were initially screened by PCR using cDNA libraries as templates. Stage-specificity was confirmed using RNA isolated from infected mosquitoes. Mosquitoes were collected daily …

Reproduction Within Marmotine Ground Squirrels (Sciuridae, Xerinae, Marmotini): Patterns Among Genera, Virginia Hayssen

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The sciurid tribe Marmotini has a distinctive, highly specialized reproductive profile characterized by annually produced litters of many offspring, each of small mass and fast growth rate. However, not all genera of marmotines follow the reproductive profile of the tribe. In fact, included in the tribe are squirrels with the highest and lowest energetic investment into reproduction of the entire family. Because of its large litter size, Ammospermophilus has the largest energetic investment into reproduction of nearly all squirrels. Also, Ammospermophilus is not limited to 1 litter per year. At the opposite extreme, Marmota has the smallest energetic investment into …

Reproductive Effort In Squirrels: Ecological, Phylogenetic, Allometric, And Latitudinal Patterns, Virginia Hayssen

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The distinctive features of reproduction in squirrels are the lack of allometric influences on the duration of reproductive investment; the strong allometric influences on offspring mass; and a trade-off between number and size of young, suggesting an important developmental component to reproduction. Lengths of gestation and lactation do not vary with body size but neonatal and weaning mass do. Apparently, the major constraint on reproduction in squirrels is not resources per se (food, calories, minerals, or water) but rather the length of time such resources are available. Squirrels adjust growth rate to fit the timing of resource abundance. Within the …

Tasting Phenylthiocarbamide (Ptc): A New Integrative Genetics Lab With An Old Flavor, Robert B. Merritt, Lou Ann Bierwert, Barton Slatko, Michael P. Weiner, Jessica Ingram, Kristianna Sciarra, Evan Weiner

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

First reported in the early 1930s, variation in the ability to taste phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) has since become one of the most widely studied of all human genetic traits. Guo and Reed (2001) provide an excellent review of work on this polymorphism prior to the identification and sequencing of the PTC gene by Kim et al. (2003), and Wooding (2006) provides a stimulating historical review of the role various scientists have played in the study of PTC taste sensitivity and the importance of these studies in relation to natural selection. Identification of the PTC gene and a number of subsequent …

Human Cardiac-Specific Cdna Array For Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy: Sex-Related Differences, Georges E. Haddad, Lori J. Saunders, Seth D. Crosby, Maria Carles, Federica Del Monte, Kindra King, Michael R. Bristow, Francis G. Spinale, Thomas E. Macgillivray, Marc J. Semigran, G. William Dec, Steven A. Williams, Roger J. Hajjar, Judith K. Gwathmey

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) constitutes a large portion of patients with heart failure of unknown etiology. Up to 50% of all transplant recipients carry this clinical diagnosis. Female-specific gene expression in IDCM has not been explored. We report sex-related differences in the gene expression profile of ventricular myocardium from patients undergoing cardiac transplantation. We produced and sequenced subtractive cDNA libraries, using human left ventricular myocardium obtained from male transplant recipients with IDCM and nonfailing human heart donors. With the resulting sequence data, we generated a custom human heart failure microarray for IDCM containing 1,145 cardiac-specific oligonucleotide probes. This array was …

The Homodimeric Kinesin, Kif17, Is Essential For Vertebrate Photoreceptor Sensory Outer Segment Development, Christine Insinna, Narendra Pathak, Brian Perkins, Iain Drummond, Joseph C. Besharse

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

Sensory cilia and intraflagellar transport (IFT), a pathway essential for ciliogenesis, play important roles in embryonic development and cell differentiation. In vertebrate photoreceptors IFT is required for the early development of ciliated sensory outer segments (OS), an elaborate organelle that sequesters the many proteins comprising the phototransduction machinery. As in other cilia and flagella, heterotrimeric members of the kinesin 2 family have been implicated as the anterograde IFT motor in OS. However, in Caenorhabditis elegans, OSM-3, a homodimeric kinesin 2 motor, plays an essential role in some, but not all sensory cilia. Kif17, a vertebrate OSM-3 homologue, is known for …

The Dynamic Nature Of Eukaryotic Genomes, Laura Wegener Parfrey, Daniel J.G. Lahr, Laura A. Katz

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Analyses of diverse eukaryotes reveal that genomes are dynamic, sometimes dramatically so. In numerous lineages across the eukaryotic tree of life, DNA content varies within individuals throughout life cycles and among individuals within species. Discovery of examples of genome dynamism is accelerating as genome sequences are completed from diverse eukaryotes. Though much is known about genomes in animals, fungi, and plants, these lineages represent only 3 of the 60-200 lineages of eukaryotes. Here, we discuss diverse genomic strategies in exemplar eukaryotic lineages, including numerous microbial eukaryotes, to reveal dramatic variation that challenges established views of genome evolution. For example, in …

Broadly Sampled Multigene Trees Of Eukaryotes, Hwan Su Yoon, Jessica Grant, Yonas I. Tekle, Min Wu, Benjamin C. Chaon, Jeffrey C. Cole, John M. Logsdon, David J. Patterson, Debashish Bhattacharya, Laura A. Katz

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background. Our understanding of the eukaryotic tree of life and the tremendous diversity of microbial eukaryotes is in flux as additional genes and diverse taxa are sampled for molecular analyses. Despite instability in many analyses, there is an increasing trend to classify eukaryotic diversity into six major supergroups: the 'Amoebozoa', 'Chromalveolata', 'Excavata', 'Opisthokonta', 'Plantae', and 'Rhizaria'. Previous molecular analyses have often suffered from either a broad taxon sampling using only single-gene data or have used multigene data with a limited sample of taxa. This study has two major aims: (1) to place taxa represented by 72 sequences, 61 of which …

An Unidentified Filarial Species And Its Impact On Fitness In Wild Populations Of The Black-Footed Ferret (Mustela Nigripes), Samantha M. Wisely, Jo Gayle Howard, Steven A. Williams, Odile Bain, Rachel M. Santymire, Katherine D. Bardsley, Elizabeth S. Williams

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Disease can threaten the restoration of endangered species directly by substantially decreasing host survival or indirectly via incremental decreases in survival and reproduction. During a biomedical survey of reintroduced populations of the highly endangered black-footed ferret from 2002 to 2005, microfilariae discovered in the blood were putatively identified as Dirofilaria immitis, and widespread screening was initiated using a commercially available antigen-based ELISA test. A subset of animals (n = 16) was screened for D. immitis using a highly sensitive PCR-based assay. Microfilariae were also molecularly and morphologically characterized. Of 198 animals at six reintroduction sites, 12% had positive results using …

Low Temperature (23 °C) Increases Expression Of Biofilm-, Cold-Shock- And Rpos-Dependent Genes In Escherichia Coli K-12, Christine A. White-Ziegler, Suzin Um, Natalie M. Pérez, Abby L. Berns, Amy J. Malhowski, Sarah Young

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Temperature serves as a cue to regulate gene expression in Escherichia coli and other bacteria. Using DNA microarrays, we identified 297 genes whose expression is increased at 23 6C compared to 37 6C in E. coli K-12. Of these genes, 122 are RpoS-controlled, confirming genome-wide the model that low temperature serves as a primary cue to trigger the general stress response. Several genes expressed at 23 6C overlap with the cold-shock response, suggesting that strategies used to adapt to sudden shifts in temperature also mediate long-term growth at 23 6C. Another category of genes more highly expressed at 23 6C …