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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Investigation Of Notch Signaling In Cone Fate Specification In Vertebrate Retina, Xueqing Chen
Investigation Of Notch Signaling In Cone Fate Specification In Vertebrate Retina, Xueqing Chen
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In the vertebrate retina, cone photoreceptors are crucial for high acuity color vision. Several retinal diseases lead to loss of cones and there is a need to identify the normal developmental genesis of these cells to inform the development of stem cell-based therapies. Cone genesis has previously been shown to be repressed by Notch signaling, however, the mechanism by which Notch signaling controls cone fate determination is still unclear. It has been identified that cone photoreceptors are formed from multipotent retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) that first generate genetically-defined, restricted RPCs with limited mitotic and fate potential to preferentially form cones …
Evolution And Development Of The Seed Coat In Gymnosperms, Cecilia Zumajo
Evolution And Development Of The Seed Coat In Gymnosperms, Cecilia Zumajo
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Gymnosperms and angiosperms are the most abundant plant lineages on earth and constitute a turning point in the evolution of plants because they are at the origin of the seed, a key morphological and developmental novelty in the evolution of land plant. Although the morphological variation of the seed, across seed plants, may on its own, explain the complexity of this structure, the origin, and evolution are even more, the understanding of these topics is still under discussion. Evidence shows that previous studies have often lacked the component of gene expression, particularly in species that are not model species. The …
Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Cell Fate Choice Within Specific Retinal Lineages, Estie Schick
Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Cell Fate Choice Within Specific Retinal Lineages, Estie Schick
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
During development, retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) divide to form all of the cell types that make up the retina. Multipotent RPCs are competent to generate all retinal cell types, while restricted RPCs form specific lineages of cells. In particular, one genetically-defined RPC type preferentially gives rise to cone photoreceptors and horizontal cells. Many of the mechanisms that are responsible for directing cell fate choice within this lineage are unknown. This thesis largely focuses on examining the development of specific cell types and subtypes from restricted RPCs and on investigating the gene regulatory events that underlie cone photoreceptor and horizontal cell …
Development And Maintenance Of The Thymic Epithelial Microenvironment, Shami Chakrabarti
Development And Maintenance Of The Thymic Epithelial Microenvironment, Shami Chakrabarti
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The thymus plays a critical role in adaptive immunity by providing a suitable microenvironment for developing and selecting the functional self-tolerant T-cell population. Thymic epithelial cells play an essential role in the development of a naïve, self-tolerant T-cell population. Paradoxically thymus undergoes acute age-related involution, which in turn causes loss of functional T-cell populations. Involution reduces the functionality of the thymus markedly, but the thymus can still develop self-tolerant naïve T-cells. It is crucial to understand how the thymic microenvironment is maintained to provide a suitable T-cell population for life. It has been previously demonstrated that the thymic epithelial homeostasis …