Life Sciences Commons^™

The Impact Of A Non-Ionic Adjuvant To The Persistence Of Pesticides On Produce Surfaces, Daniel Barnes

Masters Theses

Adjuvants can enhance the performance of the pesticide active ingredients in many ways including decreasing surface tension and reducing evaporation. Understanding how adjuvants effect pesticide behavior (e.g., surface persistence) is crucial for developing effective pesticide formulations, as well as facilitating the development of effective approaches to reduce pesticide residues from the surface of fresh produce post-harvest. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of a non-ionic surfactant, Surf-Ac 910, on the persistence of two model pesticides, thiabendazole and phosmet on apple surfaces. The result shows that the addition of Surf-Ac 910 increased both the maximum wetted area …

Production And Characterization Of Monoclonal Antibodies To Xenopus Proteins, Brett A. Horr

Masters Theses

Monoclonal antibodies are powerful and versatile tools that enable the study of proteins in diverse contexts. They are often utilized to assist with identification of subcellular localization and characterization of the function of target proteins of interest. However, because there can be considerable sequence diversity between orthologous proteins in Xenopus and mammals, antibodies produced against mouse or human proteins often do not recognize Xenopus counterparts. To address this issue, we refined existing mouse monoclonal antibody production protocols to generate antibodies against Xenopus proteins of interest. Here, we describe several approaches for the generation of useful mouse anti-Xenopus antibodies to multiple …

Comparison Of The Humoral Immune Response Following Both Bacterial Challenge And Rnai Of Major Factors On Proliferation Of Bartonella Quintana In The Human Louse, Jake Zina

Masters Theses

Human body lice, Pediculus humanus humanus, and head lice, Pediculus humanus capitis, have been hematophagous ectoparasites of humans for thousands of years. Despite being ecotypes, only body lice are known to transmit bacterial diseases to humans, and it appears that lower humoral and cellular immune responses allow body lice to possess a higher vector competence. We previously observed that the transcription level of the defensin 1 gene was up-regulated only in head lice following oral challenge of Bartonella quintana, a causative agent of trench fever, and also that body lice excreted more viable B. quintana in their …

Defining The Role Of Rbbp4 In Oocyte Maturation And Preimplantation Development Using Trim-Away, Holly L. Barletta

Masters Theses

Retinoblastoma-binding protein 4 (RBBP4) is a subunit of chromatin remodeling factor 1 (CAF-1) and is essential for mammalian oocyte maturation, embryo survival, and embryo implantation. RBBP4 also localizes to the chromatin and is a ubiquitously expressed nuclear protein. Previous methods used to study this protein include short interfacing RNAs (siRNAs) and CRISPR/Cas9. These techniques have limitations such as determining an indirect depletion of proteins, may trigger compensatory mechanisms, and may not be useful in non-dividing primary cells. A new, acute, and rapid endogenous protein depletion technique called Trim-Away, can overcome these limitations. Trim-Away is also widely applicable since it can …

Investigating The Role Of Lbh During Early Embryonic Development In Xenopus Laevis, Emma Weir

Masters Theses

LBH is a highly conserved protein whose role during vertebrate development is relatively under-studied. In collaboration with the Albertson lab, our lab has previously shown that it is necessary for cranial neural crest cell migration in the zebrafish and in Xenopus laevis. The molecular mechanisms through which it acts are not well understood.

In Xenopus, LBH is a maternally deposited protein. As such, studying its role in early development has not been feasible through the morpholino-mediated knockdown techniques that prevent translation of target genes. Recently, a technique for degrading endogenous proteins was developed, called Trim-Away. This was developed in mammalian …

Promoting Extracellular Matrix Crosslinking In Synthetic Hydrogels, Marcos M. Manganare

Masters Theses

The extracellular matrix (ECM) provides mechanical and biochemical support to tissues and cells. It is crucial for cell attachment, differentiation, and migration, as well as for ailment-associated processes such as angiogenesis, metastases and cancer development. An approach to study these phenomena is through emulation of the ECM by synthetic gels constructed of natural polymers, such as collagen and fibronectin, or simple but tunable materials such as poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) crosslinked with short peptide sequences susceptible to digestion by metalloproteases and cell-binding domains. Our lab uses PEG gels to study cell behavior in three dimensions (3D). Although this system fosters cell …

Studying Nanoparticle/Cell And Nanoparticle/Biosurface Interaction With Mass Spectrometry, Singyuk Hou

Masters Theses

Nanoparticles (NPs) have been used widely in various fields ranging from biomedical applications to life science due to their highly tunable properties. It is essential to understanding how NPs interact with biological systems of interest, therefore, analytical platforms to efficiently track NPs from cell to animal level are essential. In this thesis, laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) and inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been developed and applied to quantify NP/cell and NP/biological surface interactions. These two methods provide fast, label-free and quantitative analysis. New capability of LDI-MS to differentiate cell surface-bound and internalized NPs were established and ICP-MS …

Rnai Mediated Silencing Of Cell Wall Invertase Inhibitors To Increase Sucrose Allocation To Sink Tissues In Transgenic Camelina Sativa Engineered With A Carbon Concentrating Mechanism, Joshua Zuber

Masters Theses

Plant invertases are a class of proteins that have enzymatic function in cleaving sucrose to fructose and glucose. Cell wall invertase, located on the exterior of the cell wall of plant cells, plays a key role in the unloading of sucrose from the apoplast to the sink tissues. Cell wall invertase interacts with an inhibitor, cell wall invertase inhibitor, post-transcriptionally to regulate its activity. The inhibitor is constitutively expressed in pollen development, early developing seeds, and senescing leaves: indicative of sucrose allocation being a limiting factor at these stages of development. We introduced algal bicarbonate transporters LCIA/CCP1 to Camelina sativa …