Molecular Biology Commons^™

Exploring The Interactions Between Sars-Cov-2 And Host Proteins., Sojan Shrestha

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the current pandemic, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 is considered to be of zoonotic origin; it originated in non-human animals and was transmitted to humans. Since the early stage of the pandemic, however, the evidence of transmissions from humans to animals (reverse zoonoses) has been found in multiple animal species including mink, white-tailed deer, and pet and zoo animals. Furthermore, secondary zoonotic events of SARS-CoV-2, transmissions from animals to humans, have been also reported. It is suggested that non-human hosts can act as SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs where accumulated …

Dgts Production As A Phosphate Starvation Response In The Human Fungal Pathogen Candida Albicans, Caleb Wehling

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Betaine lipids are a class of membrane lipids with betaine head groups. Three betaine lipids are known - diacylglyceryltrimethylhomoserine (DGTS), diacylglycerylhydroxymethylalanine (DGTA), and diacylglycerylcarboxymethylcholine (DGCC). Betaine lipids are most common in algae, although DGTS, the most common betaine lipid, is also found in many bacteria and fungi. Organisms which produce betaine lipids (especially DGTS) often don’t produce phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho), and DGTS structure resembles PtdCho structure without any phosphorous, leading to the hypothesis that betaine lipids may substitute for phospholipids in some organisms. This has been confirmed by discoveries that some organisms are capable of switching their membrane composition from PtdCho …

Gut Symbiont Viability In Honey Bees Exposed To Agrochemical Stressors, Bryant Justin Gabriel

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The honey bee gut microbiome is essential for protecting this pollinator against abiotic and biotic stressors, including the prevention of harmful gut parasites and pathogens. Previous studies have not only demonstrated a linkage of bee gut dysbiosis to increased immunodeficiencies and pathogen sensitivities, but also report the maladaptation of the gut microbiome in bees exposed to agricultural and apicultural chemistries. There are few techniques available that allow for a simple and reliable analysis of the relative proportions of live and dead gut microbes in bees exposed to these chemistries. Previous techniques for measuring gut symbiont dysbiosis are temporally limited by …

Structure-Function Analysis Of A Protein Encoded By The Bhv-1 Latency Related Gene, Devis Sinani

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Bovine herpes virus 1 (BHV-1) is a significant viral pathogen in cattle that induces a myriad of clinical symptoms. These symptoms include: conjunctivitis, upper respiratory tract infections, genital disorders, and abortions. BHV-1 infection can also lead to transient immune-suppression, which predisposes cattle to secondary bacterial infection leading to life-threatening pneumonia referred to as bovine respiratory disease (BRD). Following acute infection, BHV-1 establishes latency in sensory neurons within trigeminal ganglia. Reactivation of the virus can occur periodically, resulting in virus transmission. The latency-related (LR) RNA is the only abundantly expressed transcript in latently infected sensory neurons and it encodes several proteins, …

Gata-Family Transcription Factors In Magnaporthe Oryzae, Cristian F. Quispe

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The filamentous fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, responsible for blast rice disease, destroys around 10-30% of the rice crop annually. Infection begins when the specialized infection structure, the appressorium, generates enormous internal turgor pressure through the accumulation of glycerol. This turgor acts on a penetration peg emerging at the base of the cell, causing it to breach the leaf surface allowing its infection.

The enzyme trehalose-6- phosphate synthase (Tps1) is a central regulator of the transition from appressorium development to infectious hyphal growth. In the first chapter we show that initiation of rice blast disease requires a regulatory mechanism involving an …

Carmoviruses (Tombusviridae), Feng Qu, Thomas Jack Morris

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Carmovirus is one of two officially recognized genera of Tombusviridae. Members of Tombusviridae all have icosahedral virions of about 30 nm in diameter with T = 3 symmetry that consists of 180 coat protein (CP) subunits of about 38- 43 kDa and a single-stranded (ss) RNA genome ranging in size from 4.0 to 4.7 kb. Carmoviruses share recognizable sequence similarity in both the polymerase and structural genes with members of the other genus, Tombusvirus. Sequence comparisons and phylogenetic analysis of these genes support the view that the genera are distinct but closely related. In addition, the genome organization of the …