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Full-Text Articles in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology

Much Needed Studies Of The Three Players Of Chagas Disease In Central America: Vertebrate Blood Meal Sources And Ecohealth, A New Vector Species Description, And Key Phylogenetic Analysis Of The Trypanosome Parasite., Raquel Asuncion Lima Cordon Jan 2021

Much Needed Studies Of The Three Players Of Chagas Disease In Central America: Vertebrate Blood Meal Sources And Ecohealth, A New Vector Species Description, And Key Phylogenetic Analysis Of The Trypanosome Parasite., Raquel Asuncion Lima Cordon

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (Trypanosomatida: Trypanosomatidae) is the etiological agent of Chagas disease, reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) as responsible for over 10,000 deaths in 2015. Chagas disease is considered a Neglected Tropical Disease by the WHO, this designation highlights the challenges to overcoming the disease as it afflicts the most vulnerable populations, mainly the rural poor in Latin America. Understanding T. cruzi transmission dynamics is particularly difficult because it can be vectored by over 150 species of Triatominae insects, and all mammal species are potential hosts. Thus, results from one locale may not be generalizable to …


Transcriptional Programming By Thyroid Hormone Receptor Beta Maintains Normal Cell Identity And Suppresses Tumor Growth, Noelle Elizabeth Gillis Jan 2021

Transcriptional Programming By Thyroid Hormone Receptor Beta Maintains Normal Cell Identity And Suppresses Tumor Growth, Noelle Elizabeth Gillis

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The overall incidence of thyroid cancer has more than tripled over the past several decades, as has aggressive disease and mortality. The direct relationship between thyroid disease, thyroid hormone levels, and development of thyroid cancer is incomplete. Recent meta-analyses have indicated a higher risk of thyroid cancer for patients with thyroid diseases that reflect an altered thyroid-pituitary signaling axis, which can have profound impacts on the physiology of the thyroid gland. These largely unanswered questions regarding altered thyroid hormone signaling and its consequences for thyroid tumor growth present a significant clinical challenge. This dilemma may come from a lack of …


Structural Characterization Of The Novel Flightin Domain Wyr And Its Defining Role In The Thick Filament Structure And Mechanics, Lynda Menard Jan 2021

Structural Characterization Of The Novel Flightin Domain Wyr And Its Defining Role In The Thick Filament Structure And Mechanics, Lynda Menard

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The evolutionary success of Insecta has been attributed largely to the development of efficient means of motility: flight powered by muscle architecture harboring a largely conserved yet tunable system of power relay. The indirect flight muscle (IFM) of Drosophila melanogaster is a well-studied model for dissection of the structural and mechanical means by which muscle operates and evolves. Striated muscle, conserved throughout Animalia, is demarcated by an ordered array of thick- and thin-filaments prominently composed of the proteins myosin and actin. Flightin (fln) is a myosin binding thick filament protein essential for IFM stability, structure and function. The manner by …


The Maintenance Of Genomic Stability: Impacts Of The Loss Of Kif18a, Leslie Anne Sepaniac Jan 2021

The Maintenance Of Genomic Stability: Impacts Of The Loss Of Kif18a, Leslie Anne Sepaniac

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Regulated and repeated cell division is necessary for the development, growth, and reproduction of multicellular organisms. A central purpose of mitosis is to faithfully pass hereditary information from one cell onto two genetically identical daughter cells, thus maintaining genomic stability. Cells employ several mechanisms for maintaining genomic stability, including well-characterized cell cycle checkpoints. However, chromosome segregation errors can occur in spite of these regulatory mechanisms. Such errors can result in an improper number of chromosomes being distributed to daughter cells – termed aneuploidy – or improper localization of chromosomes into separate satellite nuclei – termed micronuclei. What, if any, additional …


Sarracenia Purpurea As A Model System For Aquatic Ecosystem State Changes And Their Impact On Bacterial Communities, Amanda Claire Northrop Jan 2021

Sarracenia Purpurea As A Model System For Aquatic Ecosystem State Changes And Their Impact On Bacterial Communities, Amanda Claire Northrop

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Aquatic ecosystems can undergo abrupt and long-lasting transitions from one state to another, often with negative ecological and economic consequences. With anthropogenic enrichment, aquatic ecosystems such as lakes and ponds may shift rapidly from an oligotrophic, clear water state to a eutrophic, turbid state. These shifts, or state changes, generally occur due to a phenomenon called hysteresis in which the relationship between a driving variable and ecosystem variable depend on the current state of the ecosystem. Such dynamics often make recovery difficult or impossible. Though state changes in aquatic ecosystems have been studied extensively since the 1970s, there have been …