Molecular Biology Commons^™

Determining The Key Residues For Capsule Production In The Gbs Cpsa Protein, Anna Struba

Honors College

Streptococcus agalactiae (GBS) is a common bacterium found commensally in the vaginal mucosa of healthy adults. GBS also causes severe infection in neonates, often leading to meningitis, which can cause lifelong health consequences including impaired hearing and seizures. Infection of newborns mainly arises from a colonized mother, either before birth through ascending infection or during labor. Ascending infection, where the bacteria travel to the fetus from the vaginal mucosa, is especially concerning as it can lead to loss of pregnancy or premature birth. The most common method of neonatal GBS disease prevention is antibiotic prophylaxis during delivery, though this method …

Preliminary Analysis Of Β-Methylamino-L-Alanine Interactions With Cu/Zn Superoxide Dismutase In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Zebrafish Models, Elizabeth Pflugradt

Honors College

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a terminal neurodegenerative disease

with symptoms including limb-onset muscle wasting, difficulties swallowing and breathing, leading to death. Sporadic ALS occurs in 90% of patients, while 10% of cases are familial (FALS). Twenty percent of FALS cases are a result of mutation in the copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene, leading to the activation of the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. Meanwhile, a prominent cause of sporadic ALS is exposure to neurotoxins, such as β-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA). BMAA has been suggested to induce selective motor neuron death, which is observed in ALS patients. While research has been done to how …

The Role Of Morphology Transitions In Tissue-To-Blood Spread Of Infestation, Joshua M. Jones

Honors College

The fungal organism Candida albicans is a nearly ubiquitous commensal inhabitant of the human body. However, in susceptible individuals it can establish mucosal infections as well as life-threatening systemic infection. We are investigating a key contributor to C. albicans’ pathogenesis: its ability to switch among multiple growth forms in response to an array of environmental signals. We hypothesize that this ability to undergo morphological transitions mediates its ability to disseminate from localized infections to system-wide bloodstream infection. Using a transparent zebrafish embryo model of infection, we have directly assessed specific contributions of C. albicans’ morphologies in the process of tissue-to-bloodstream …

Evolutionary And Molecular Analysis Of Conserved Vertebrate Immunity To Fungi, Erin Carter

Honors College

The innate immune system is highly conserved amongst all multicellular organisms. Yet a constant battle exists between host cells and pathogens due to the rapid evolution of immune system components. Functional genomics and in silico methods can be employed to elucidate the evolutionary patterns of vertebrate immunity to pathogenic fungi such as Candida albicans, an opportunistic fungal pathogen that can cause lethal candidiasis in the immunocompromised. Mammals such as humans and mice possess conserved C-type lectin receptors that recognize the C. albicans cell wall. However, these receptors have not been identified in fish. Here I describe how we identified potential …

Characterization Of Genes In The Cftr-Mediated Innate Immune Response, Eric Peterman

Honors College

Recently, the Kim Lab has shown that the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (cftr) gene is responsible for mediating resistance to Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a zebrafish infection model. Using the Gene Expression Omnibus, an NCBI functional genomics data repository, it was determined that Smad3, a transcription factor in the TGF-β signaling pathway, is upregulated in the presence of P. aeruginosa. It was found that in our zebrafish model, the Smad3 paralogs Smad3a and Smad3b are upregulated following microinjection of a cftr antisense morpholino oligomer. It was also found that microinjection of Smad3a and Smad3b morpholinos, along with …