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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Regulation Of Dkk1, An Inhibitor Of The Wnt Signaling Pathway, By Dax-1 In Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells, Victor D. Gavallos Dec 2014

Regulation Of Dkk1, An Inhibitor Of The Wnt Signaling Pathway, By Dax-1 In Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells, Victor D. Gavallos

Undergraduate Honors Theses

DAX-1 is known to play a key role in the maintenance of pluripotency in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC), such that elimination of DAX-1 (through methods such as RNAi) leads to the differentiation of ESC (Khalfallah et al. 2009). Earlier research by the Tzagarakis-Foster lab identified target genes of DAX-1 in mESC through PCR array methodology (Torres 2013). The Dickkopf 1 gene (Dkk1) was identified as a potential target of DAX-1 by these studies and has since been confirmed to be a DAX-1 target in mESC. However, to date very little is understood of the mechanism of DAX-1 repression of …


Mitoneet: Reduction In Insulin Resistance Through Ameliorated Oxidative Stress?, Nicolas A. Ferry May 2014

Mitoneet: Reduction In Insulin Resistance Through Ameliorated Oxidative Stress?, Nicolas A. Ferry

Undergraduate Honors Theses

MitoNEET is a mitochondrial iron-sulfur protein with poorly-understood functions. Proposed functions of mitoNEET include regulating of oxidative capacity, reactive oxygen homeostasis, and other possible roles. Investigating the interactions of mitoNEET with other proteins might help identify functional roles of this protein. MitoNEET was discovered in 2004 to identify physiological targets of pioglitazone hydrochloride, a drug that is commonly used to treat type-2 diabetes. Type-2 diabetes is a metabolic disease and, although the exact pathology is complex, the role of the mitochondrion in cellular energy production and glucose oxidation indicates that this organelle has a role in type-2 diabetes. Because of …


Eggshell Calcium Regulates Calcium Transport Protein Expression In An Oviparous Snake, Hannah Frye May 2014

Eggshell Calcium Regulates Calcium Transport Protein Expression In An Oviparous Snake, Hannah Frye

Undergraduate Honors Theses

One hypothesis explaining the numerous independent evolutionary transitions from oviparity to viviparity among squamates (snakes and lizards) proposed that squamate embryonic development is independent of eggshell calcium. Recent research showed at least 25% of the calcium in hatchling oviparous squamates is extracted from the shell. Though not a direct test, these results are inconsistent with the hypothesis. To directly test the hypothesis, we removed eggshell calcium (through peeling) early in development of Pantherophis guttatus (corn snake) eggs. Survivorship to hatching did not differ between peeled and intact eggs. Yet hatchlings from peeled eggs were shorter (273.6 ± 3.4 vs. 261.0 …