Molecular Biology Commons^™

Virulence Of An Emerging Respiratory Pathogen, Genus Pandoraea, In Vivo And Its Interactions With Lung Epithelial Cells, Gillian Herbert, Anne Costello, Lydia Fabunmi, Kirsten Schaffer, Kevin Kavanagh, Emma M. Caraher, Máire Callaghan, Siobhan Mcclean

Articles

Pandoraea species have emerged as opportunistic pathogens among cystic fibrosis (CF) and non-CF patients. Pandoraea pulmonicola is the predominant Pandoraea species among Irish CF patients. The objective of this study was to investigate the pathogenicity and potential mechanisms of virulence of Irish P. pulmonicola isolates and strains from other Pandoraea species. Three patients from whom the P. pulmonicola isolates were isolated have since died. The in vivo virulence of these and other Pandoraea strains was examined by determining the ability to kill Galleria mellonella larvae. The P. pulmonicola strains generally were the most virulent of the species tested, with three …

Alkylphenol Contamination In Homarus Americanus, Jennifer Renee Urban

Honors Scholar Theses

Alkylphenols are pollutants that are present in marine sediments and fishes. In earlier work it has been discovered that alkylphenols are present in the Homarus americanus, or the American lobster. Research suggests that alkylphenols could behave as endocrine disruptors as they have been found to affect juvenile hormone activity. It has been hypothesized that lobsters may be able to rid themselves of alkylphenol contamination through secreting these compounds into the environment or sequestering them in their tissues. In this study, I address the question of how lobsters may rid themselves of alkylphenols by analyzing hemolymph, muscle, gill, and shell samples …

Characterization Of The Putative Xyloglucan Glycosyltransferase Gt14 In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Najam R. Syed

Honors Scholar Theses

Plant cell walls largely consist of matrix polysaccharides that are linked to cellulose microfibrils. Xyloglucan, the primary hemicellulose of the cell wall matrix, consists of a repeating glucose tetramer structure with xylose residues attached to the first three units ('XXXG'). In Arabidopsis thaliana, the core XXXG structure is further modified by enzymatic addition of galactose and fucose residues to the xylose side chains to produce XLXG, XXLG, XLLG and XLFG structures. GT14 is a putative glycosyltransferase in the GT47 gene family. Initial predictions of GT14's hydrophobic regions, based on its translated amino acid sequence, are almost identical to its Arabidopsis …

Determination Of The Myogenic Potential Of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Rory Coleman

Honors Scholar Theses

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have the potential to

differentiate to all adult somatic cells. This property makes hESCs a very promising area of research for the treatment of disorders in which specific cell populations need to be restored. Despite this potential, research that focuses on producing mesodermally derived cell populations from hESCs is decidedly limited, notwithstanding the prevalence of disorders involving mesodermal tissues for which treatment options are limited. Skeletal muscle myoblasts are derivatives of mesodermal cells and are characterized by the expression of the MyoD gene. These cells are difficult to obtain from hESCs in a reproducible and …

Animal Models Of Alzheimer's Disease, Gemma Casadesus, Gary Arendash, Frank Laferla, Mike Mcdonald

Molecular Biosciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Comparing Models Of Evolution For Ordered And Disordered Proteins, Celeste J. Brown, Audra K. Johnson, Gary W. Daughdrill

Molecular Biosciences Faculty Publications

Most models of protein evolution are based upon proteins that form relatively rigid 3D structures. A significant fraction of proteins, the so-called disordered proteins, do not form rigid 3D structures and sample a broad conformational ensemble. Disordered proteins do not typically maintain long-range interactions, so the constraints on their evolution should be different than ordered proteins. To test this hypothesis, we developed and compared models of evolution for disordered and ordered proteins. Substitution matrices were constructed using the sequences of putative homologs for sets of experimentally characterized disordered and ordered proteins. Separate matrices, at three levels of sequence similarity ( …