Genomics Commons^™

Dual Engagement Of The Nlrp3 And Aim2 Inflammasomes By Plasmodium-Derived Hemozoin And Dna During Malaria, Parisa Kalantari, Rosane B. Deoliveira, Jennie Chan, Yolanda Corbett, Vijay A. K. Rathinam, Andrea Stutz, Eicke Latz, Ricardo T. Gazzinelli, Douglas T. Golenbock, Katherine A. Fitzgerald

Katherine A. Fitzgerald

Hemozoin (Hz) is the crystalline detoxification product of hemoglobin in Plasmodium-infected erythrocytes. We previously proposed that Hz can carry plasmodial DNA into a subcellular compartment that is accessible to Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), inducing an inflammatory signal. Hz also activates the NLRP3 inflammasome in primed cells. We found that Hz appears to colocalize with DNA in infected erythrocytes, even before RBC rupture or phagolysosomal digestion. Using synthetic Hz coated in vitro with plasmodial genomic DNA (gDNA) or CpG oligodeoxynucleotides, we observed that DNA-complexed Hz induced TLR9 translocation, providing a priming and an activation signal for inflammasomes. After phagocytosis, Hz and …

Arabidopsis Chromatin Remodeler Brahma: Its Functional Interplay With Polycomb Proteins And The Ref6 Histone Demethylase, Chenlong Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

BRAHMA (BRM) is a SWI/SNF-type chromatin remodeling ATPase that plays an important role in regulation of gene expression. Tri-methylation of lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27me3) is a histone modification that is associated with transcriptionally repressed genes and catalyzed by Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins. BRM has been proposed to antagonize the function of PcG proteins but the underlying molecular mechanism is unclear. To understand how BRM regulates the function of PcG proteins during plant development, a genome-wide analysis of H3K27me3 in brm mutant was performed using chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by next generation sequencing (ChIP-seq). Loss of BRM leads to increased …

Global Analysis Of Drosophila Cys2-His2 Zinc Finger Proteins Reveals A Multitude Of Novel Recognition Motifs And Binding Determinants, Metewo Selase Enuameh, Yuna Asriyan, Adam Richards, Ryan G. Christensen, Victoria L. Hall, Majid Kazemian, Cong Zhu, Hannah Pham, Qiong Cheng, Charles Blatti, Jessie A. Brasefield, Matthew D. Basciotta, Jianhong Ou, Joseph C. Mcnulty, Lihua Julie Zhu, Susan E. Celniker, Saurabh Sinha, Gary D. Stormo, Michael H. Brodsky, Scot A. Wolfe

Michael Brodsky

Cys2-His2 zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) are the largest group of transcription factors in higher metazoans. A complete characterization of these ZFPs and their associated target sequences is pivotal to fully annotate transcriptional regulatory networks in metazoan genomes. As a first step in this process, we have characterized the DNA-binding specificities of 129 zinc finger sets from Drosophila using a bacterial one-hybrid system. This data set contains the DNA-binding specificities for at least one encoded ZFP from 70 unique genes and 23 alternate splice isoforms representing the largest set of characterized ZFPs from any organism described to date. These recognition motifs …

Combined Metagenomic And Phenomic Approaches Identify A Novel Salt Tolerance Gene From The Human Gut Microbiome, Eamon Culligan, Julian R. Marchesi, Colin Hill, Roy D. Sleator

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

In the current study, a number of salt-tolerant clones previously isolated from a human gut metagenomic library were screened using Phenotype MicroArray (PM) technology to assess their functional capacity. PM's can be used to study gene function, pathogenicity, metabolic capacity and identify drug targets using a series of specialized microtitre plate assays, where each well of the microtitre plate contains a different set of conditions and tests a different phenotype. Cellular respiration is monitored colorimetrically by the reduction of a tetrazolium dye. One clone, SMG 9, was found to be positive for utilization/transport of L-carnitine (a well-characterized osmoprotectant) in the …

Cluster M Mycobacteriophages Bongo, Pegleg, And Rey With Unusually Large Repertoires Of Trna Isotopes, Welkin H. Pope, Kirk R. Anders, Madison Baird, Charles A. Bowman, Michelle M. Boyle, Gregory W. Broussard, Tiffany Chow, Kari L. Clase, Shannon Cooper, Kathleen A. Cornely, Randall J. Dejong, Veronique A. Delesalle, Lisa Deng, David Dunbar, Nicholas P. Edgington, Christina M. Ferreira, Kathleen Weston Hafer, Grant A. Hartzog, J. Robert Hatherill, Lee E. Hughes, Khristina Ipapo, Gregory P. Krukonis, Christopher G. Meier, Denise L. Monti, Matthew R. Olm, Shallee T. Page, Craig L. Peebles, Claire A. Rinehart, Michael R. Rubin, Daniel A. Russell, Erin R. Sanders, Morgan Schoer, Christopher D. Shaffer, James Wherley, Edwin Vazquez, Han Yuan, Daiyuan Zhang, Steven G. Cresawn, Deborah Jacobs-Sera, Roger W. Hendrix, Graham F. Hatfull

Biology Faculty Publications

Genomic analysis of a large set of phages infecting the common hostMycobacterium smegmatis mc²155 shows that they span considerable genetic diversity. There are more than 20 distinct types that lack nucleotide similarity with each other, and there is considerable diversity within most of the groups. Three newly isolated temperate mycobacteriophages, Bongo, PegLeg, and Rey, constitute a new group (cluster M), with the closely related phages Bongo and PegLeg forming subcluster M1 and the more distantly related Rey forming subcluster M2. The cluster M mycobacteriophages have siphoviral morphologies with unusually long tails, are homoimmune, and have larger than average …

Small Rna Expression During Programmed Rearragement Of A Vertebrate Genome, Joseph R. Herdy Iii

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) undergoes programmed genome rearrangements (PGRs) during embryogenesis that results in the deletion of ~0.5 Gb of germline DNA from the somatic lineage. The underlying mechanism of these rearrangements remains largely unknown. miRNAs (microRNAs) and piRNAs (PIWI interacting RNAs) are two classes of small noncoding RNAs that play important roles in early vertebrate development, including differentiation of cell lineages, modulation of signaling pathways, and clearing of maternal transcripts. Here, I utilized next generation sequencing to determine the temporal expression of miRNAs, piRNAs, and other small noncoding RNAs during the first five days of lamprey …

Structural And Functional Characterization Of The Mbd2-Nurd Co-Repressor Complex, Megha Desai

Theses and Dissertations

The MBD2-NuRD co-repressor complex is an epigenetic regulator of the developmental silencing of embryonic and fetal β-type globin genes in adult erythroid cells as well as aberrant methylation-dependent silencing of tumor suppressor genes in neoplastic diseases. Biochemical characterization of the MBD2-NuRD complex in chicken erythroid cells identified RbAp46/48, HDAC1/2, MTA1/2/3, p66α/β, Mi2α/β and MBD2 to comprise this multi-protein complex.

In the work presented in Chapter 2, we have pursued biophysical and molecular studies to describe a previously uncharacterized domain of human MBD2 (MBD2_IDR). Biophysical analyses show that MBD2_IDR is an intrinsically disordered region (IDR). Despite this inherent …