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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Immunology Of The Gray Short-Tailed Opossum During Pregnancy And Prenatal Development, Victoria L. Hansen
Immunology Of The Gray Short-Tailed Opossum During Pregnancy And Prenatal Development, Victoria L. Hansen
Biology ETDs
Vertebrate species that bear live young have overcome the evolutionary challenge of maintaining both a functional adaptive immune system and viviparous life cycle. In normal pregnancy, viviparous mothers are able sustain and nourish a fetus that is genetically half non-self without mounting an immunological attack. In 1953 Sir Peter Medawar brought attention to the “enigma of the fetal graft” and immunologists have been puzzling out the intricacies of fetal tolerance ever since. Although viviparity has evolved in all jawed vertebrate lineages aside from Aves, the vast majority of reproductive immunology research has been limited to eutherian mammals. There are insights …
Evaluation Of Mertk Evolution And Efferocytosis Signalling, Amanda L. Evans
Evaluation Of Mertk Evolution And Efferocytosis Signalling, Amanda L. Evans
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
The TAM (TYRO3, AXL, and MERTK) family of receptor tyrosine kinases allow phagocytes to engage in the phagocytic removal of apoptotic cells. Although all three members of the TAM family are structurally homologous and function in a similar fashion, both human genome-wide association studies and knockout mice models have demonstrated that MERTK is the critical member of the TAM family for maintaining homeostasis. In this thesis, an evolutionary analysis was used to provide insight into the function of MERTK. Selection analysis in primates unexpectedly revealed a high degree of recent positive selection in MERTK’s signal peptide and transmembrane domain, …
Evolutionary And In Silico Analysis Of The Antiviral Trim22 Gene, Jenna Kelly
Evolutionary And In Silico Analysis Of The Antiviral Trim22 Gene, Jenna Kelly
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Tripartite motif protein 22 (TRIM22) is an evolutionarily ancient interferon-induced protein that been shown to potently inhibit human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and influenza A virus (IAV) replication. Altered TRIM22 expression levels have also been linked to autoimmune disease, cancer, and cellular proliferation. Despite its important role in a number of biological processes, the factors that influence TRIM22 expression and/or antiviral activity remain largely unknown. To identify key functional sites in TRIM22, we performed extensive evolutionary and in silico analyses on the TRIM22 coding region. These tools allowed us to pinpoint multiple sites in TRIM22 that have …