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Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Cooperative Regulation Of Translational Repression By Fmrp And The Mirna Pathway, Navneeta Kaul
Cooperative Regulation Of Translational Repression By Fmrp And The Mirna Pathway, Navneeta Kaul
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common inherited monogenic cause of intellectual disability. FXS patients exhibit social and language deficits, hyperactivity, seizures, growth abnormalities, macroorchidism, anxiety, and epilepsy. FXS is caused by the transcriptional silencing of the fragile X mental retardation gene 1 (Fmr1), resulting in the loss of the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). FMRP is a selective mRNA binding protein that plays a role in translation repression. Studies suggest that FMRP utilizes the miRNA pathway to repress translation of its target mRNAs through an unknown mechanism. The aim of my thesis is to investigate …
Spg Directs Arp2/3 Mediated F-Actin Networks To Support Syncytial Furrow Ingression In Drosophila, Shannon M. Henry
Spg Directs Arp2/3 Mediated F-Actin Networks To Support Syncytial Furrow Ingression In Drosophila, Shannon M. Henry
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In the Drosophila embryo, nuclear divisions 10-13 occur in a syncytium with transient membrane furrows separating neighboring nuclei before the occurrence of cellularization. This process is driven by cytoskeletal and membrane trafficking networks, and while RalA and Rab8 have been identified to drive membrane addition to furrows, less is known about the control of dynamic F-actin networks needed for furrow formation. Here, the role of the DOCK protein Sponge (Spg) in furrow formation is explored through shRNA knockdown and live-imaging of syncytial Drosophila embryos. I have found that Spg is required for furrow ingression and that without Spg, furrows can …
Origins Of Animal Cell Adhesion, Jennyfer Mora Mitchell
Origins Of Animal Cell Adhesion, Jennyfer Mora Mitchell
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
A fundamental requirement for multicellularity is cell adhesion. This includes mechanisms by which cells adhere to each other and to their secreted extracellular matrix (ECM). Two well characterized adhesion complexes in animals include: 1) adherens junctions (AJs), which are involved in cell-cell adhesion and composed of cadherin receptors, p120-, α- and β-catenin, and 2) focal adhesions (FAs), which are involved in cell-ECM adhesion and include proteins such as integrins, vinculin, paxillin, talin and focal adhesion kinase (FAK). The molecular components of AJs are widely conserved in animals, and largely absent in non-animals. In contrast, the molecular components of FAs have …
Effects Of Anthropogenic Noise On Mating Behavior And Fitness, Gabrielle A. Gurule-Small
Effects Of Anthropogenic Noise On Mating Behavior And Fitness, Gabrielle A. Gurule-Small
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
When environments change rapidly, adaptive phenotypic plasticity can ameliorate negative effects of environmental change on survival and reproduction. Recent evidence, however, suggests that plastic responses to human induced environmental change are often maladaptive or insufficient to overcome novel selection pressures. Anthropogenic noise is a ubiquitous and expanding disturbance with demonstrated effects on fitness-related traits of animals like stress responses, foraging, vigilance, and pairing success. Elucidating the lifetime fitness effects of noise has been challenging because long-lived vertebrate systems are typically studied in this context. In both chapters described herein, I reared field crickets, Teleogryllus oceanicus, in masking traffic noise, …
Superresolved Three-Dimensional Analysis Of The Spatial Arrangement Of The Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1 (Hiv-1) Envelope Glycoprotein At Sites Of Viral Assembly, Carmen Anne Buttler
Superresolved Three-Dimensional Analysis Of The Spatial Arrangement Of The Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1 (Hiv-1) Envelope Glycoprotein At Sites Of Viral Assembly, Carmen Anne Buttler
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) replicates by forcing infected host cells to produce new virus particles, which assemble form protein components on the inner leaflet of the host cell's plasma membrane. This involves incorporation of the essential viral envelope glycoprotein (Env) into a structural lattice of viral Gag proteins. The mechanism of Env recruitment and incorporation is not well understood. To better define this process, we seek to describe the timing of Env-Gag encounters during particle assembly by measuring angular positions of Env proteins about the surfaces of budding particles. Using three-dimensional superresolution microscopy, we show that Env distributions …
The Ecology Of Land Managers In Riparian Restoration, Lisa Buie Clark
The Ecology Of Land Managers In Riparian Restoration, Lisa Buie Clark
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
While previous studies in restoration ecology have focused on the efficacy of direct management actions, the driving forces on management decisions (e.g., managers' characteristics or attitudes, environmental conditions) and the indirect impacts on restoration outcomes from management decisions (such as whether to collaborate) are quantified here for the first time. As a case study, I used data from 244 sites across the riparian Southwest US where the invasive shrubby tree Tamarix sp. was removed using various different methods. I surveyed and interviewed the 45 land managers who were responsible for the removal projects to determine their characteristics, attitudes, and …
Evaluating The Interaction Between The Human Melanocortin-2 Receptor And The Accessory Protein, Mrap1: Chimeric Receptor And Alanine Substitution Studies On Transmembrane Domain 4, Extracellular Loop 2, And Transmembrane Domain 5, Perry Victoria Davis
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The melanocortin-2 receptor (MC2R) is the most complex due to its trafficking and ligand selectivity requirements for proper activation. The MC2R requires the melanocortin receptor accessory protein-1 (MRAP1) for proper trafficking and activation of the receptor by the melanocortin hormone, ACTH. MRAP1 is a single transmembrane-spanning domain protein that creates a homodimer with another MRAP1 protein. Furthermore, MRAP2 creates a heterodimer with the MC2R. Previous studies have shown that the MRAP1 protein contains an activation motif required for activation of MC2R and this activation motif located on the extracellular space side of the plasma membrane of the cell. The objective …
Diet Breadth Evolution And Diversification Of A Generalist Insect Herbivore, Mayra Cadorin Vidal
Diet Breadth Evolution And Diversification Of A Generalist Insect Herbivore, Mayra Cadorin Vidal
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Insect herbivores are one of the most diverse groups of multicellular organisms, and the vast majority are specialists, which feed on only a few plant species. The factors that cause some herbivores to be specialists and others to be generalists are still unclear. It is known that the selective forces from natural enemies (top-down) and the host plants (bottom-up) influence an herbivore's diet breadth. In my meta-analysis evaluating the relative important of top-down and bottom-up forces on insect herbivore fitness, I found that herbivores usually have greater performance on better quality plants and in the absence or reduction of enemy …