Molecular Biology Commons^™

Virulence Regulation In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Via The Alginate Regulators, Algu And Algr, The Posttranscriptional Regulator, Rsma, And The Two-Component System, Algz/R, Sean Stacey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative bacillus able to colonize a wide variety of environments. In the human host, P. aeruginosa can establish an acute infection or persist and create a chronic infection. P. aeruginosa is able to establish a niche and persist in human hosts by using a wide array of virulence factors used for: movement, killing host cells, and evading immune cells and antibiotics. Understanding virulence factors and their regulation has proved to be an important means of combating the morbidity and mortality of P. aeruginosa as well as the ever-increasing threat of drug resistance. By targeting virulence factors ...

Evaluation Of Motor Cortex Neuronal Morphology In Developmental Hyperserotonemia Rat Model, Colten Z. Dillinger

MSU Graduate Theses

Fetal serotonin levels are involved in the development of the serotonergic system in an autoregulatory manner as well as the organization and connectivity of non-serotonergic neurons. Insufficient serotonin levels during development result in improper neuronal maturation and decreased synaptogenesis. Conversely, excess developmental serotonin levels can alter the progression of serotonergic neurons, ultimately resulting in a chronic decrease of serotonin in the developed brain via a negative feedback mechanism. There is a known correlation between autistic patients and chronically decreased brain serotonin concentrations; this is potentially implicated in the impaired development of the autistic brain. Incomplete or delayed development of motor ...

Basic Cell And Molecular Biology 3e: What We Know And How We Found Out, Gerald Bergtrom

Cell and Molecular Biology 3e: What We Know and How We Found Out - All Versions

Like its predecessor, the interactive electronic text (iText) Cell and Molecular Biology 3e: What We Know & How We Found Out focuses on experimental support for what we know about cell and molecular biology. It was written to serve as the introductory biology course for biology majors with high school chemistry and biology prerequisites as well as for “gateway” cell and molecular biology courses for students with a college-level general biology and general chemistry course background. This is a free Open Education Resource (OER), covered by a Creative Commons CCBY license (for more details, check out the license page of the ...

The Impact Of Lncrna Dysregulation On Clinicopathology And Survival Of Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Tian Tian, Meng Wang, Shuai Lin, Zhiming Dan, Kang Liu, Wenge Zhu, +Several Additional Authors

Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Dysregulation of multiple long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) was reported to play major roles in breast cancer (BC). Here we aimed to collect most of the relevant literature to assess the prognostic value of lncRNAs in BC. To this end, we systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang to identify published articles on the associations of lncRNAs with clinicopathology and/or survival of BC. Via this searching, we identified 70 articles involving 9,307 BC patients and regarding 48 lncRNAs. The expression of 41 lncRNAs was related to one or more clinicopathological parameters of ...

Computational Analysis Of Genomic Variants Affecting Predicted Microrna:Target Interactions In Prostate Cancer., Angélica Paola Hernández Pérez

KGI Theses and Dissertations

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer of men in the United States and is third only to lung and colon as a cause of cancer death. Clinical behavior of the disease is variable and the combination of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening and Gleason score staging are currently the best available molecular and pathology tools to predict outcomes. Cancer biology research establishes microRNAs (miRNAs) as key molecular components in both normal and pathological states. Thus, elucidating miRNAs perturbed by genomic alterations will expand our understanding of the molecular taxonomy of PCa with the aim to complement current practices in ...

Characterization Of The Celf6 Rna Binding Protein: Effects On Mouse Vocal Behavior And Biochemical Function, Michael A. Rieger

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Behavior in higher eukaryotes is a complex process which integrates signals in the environment, the genetic makeup of the organism, and connectivity in the nervous system to produce extremely diverse adaptations to the phenomenon of existence. Unraveling the subcellular components that contribute to behavioral output is important for both understanding how behavior occurs in an unperturbed state, as well as understanding how behavior changes when the underlying systems that generate it are altered. Of the numerous molecular species that make up a cell, the regulation of messenger RNAs (mRNAs), the coding template of all proteins, is of key importance to ...

Gq Noncanonical Roles In Translational Regulation, Brett Demarco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates protein nucleic acid interactions, focusing on G-quadruplex (GQ) forming DNA/RNA in human disease. GQ structures are formed in DNA/RNA, when four guanine residues form planar tetrads stabilized by Hoogsteen base pairing, that stack forming a GQ structure stabilized by potassium ions. These GQ structures are targeted by the arginine glycine-glycine (RGG) RNA-binding domain. Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), a translation regulator protein implicated in the fragile X syndrome, has an RGG domain and has been previously shown to interact with neuronal GQ forming messenger RNA (mRNA). We have investigated three neuronal FMRP mRNA targets ...

Characterization Of Interleukin (Il)-1Β Regulatory Elements And Chromatin Conformation In Macrophage Activation, Woohyun Cho

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

IL-1β is a potent inflammatory cytokine promptly expressed in activated myeloid cells. PU.1 is a lineage-determining transcription factor that regulates myeloid-specific genes by activating distal enhancers. This study addresses the functional importance of a potential enhancer of IL-1β, and how PU.1 regulates its activity state. A putative enhancer RNA (eRNA) was transcribed from the enhancer, and eRNA knock-down with antisense oligonucleotides inhibited IL-1β production. Furthermore, enhancer-promoter interactions in stimulated macrophages were detected via chromatin conformation capture (3C) analysis. The role of PU.1 was examined in PU.1-overexpressed B16-BL6 cells, which responded to LPS and expressed IL-1β mRNA ...

Improving Biomanufacturing Production With Novel Elp-Based Transcriptional Regulators, Juya Jeon, Logan R. Readnour, Kevin V. Solomon

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Microbes can be used to produce valuable drugs, chemicals, and biofuels, but their potential has not been fully realized due to low production yields. To improve biomanufacturing processes and yield, we are developing novel, transcriptional regulators using biosynthesis technology in order to improve cellular health and overall production. Our regulator contains elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), which make ideal sensors since they exhibit a sharp, inverse phase transition to indicators of cell health such as intracellular pH and ionic strength, and external stimuli such as temperature. We hypothesize that ELP can be fused to transcription factors to control expression of target genes ...

Structural And Functional Characterization Of Hyper-Phosphorylated Grk5 Protein Expressed From E. Coli, Joseph M. Krampen, John Tesmer, Qiuyan Chen

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) kinases (GRKs) are proteins in the cell responsible for regulating GPCRs located on the cell membrane. GRKs regulate active GPCRs by phosphorylating them at certain sites which causes them to stop normal signaling on the membrane. This ultimately affects how the cell responds to its environment. GRK5 is a kinase of particular interest due to its involvement in the pathology of diseases such as cardiac failure, cancers, and diabetes. Understanding the structure and function of GRK5 is essential for discovering ways to manipulate its behavior with these diseases, but not much is known about how GRK5 ...

Engineering Bioluminescent Sensors Of Cyclic Amp To Study Opioid Signaling, Alexander L. Tesmer, Alexander R. French, Mathew Tantama

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Opioids are small signaling molecules which bind to opioid receptors on the surface of cells. The kappa opioid receptor (KOR) is one of three major types of opioid receptors found in human neurons. When an opioid binds to a KOR, a variety of biochemical signaling pathways are activated inside the cell. Each of these pathways are associated with different physiological effects of KOR activation. The production of a small signaling molecule, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), is known to be inhibited during KOR activation of the analgesic (pain-killing) signaling pathway. The ability to interrogate the individual responses of KOR signaling pathways ...

Characterization Of Receptor Expression And Aberrant Gli2 Signaling In Osteosarcoma Cells, Chanelle Hunter, Erik Beadle M.S., Julie Sterling

Chanelle Hunter

The Role Of Rad4 In Dna Repair And Its Interplay With Telomeres In Tetrahymena Thermophila, Emily Nischwitz

MSU Graduate Theses

Telomeres are repetitive parts of the genome that act as a protective end cap to the chromosomes. Telomeres are critical to the integrity and stability of the genome, therefore, ensuring that their sequence is maintained, even after damage, is crucial. Much of the pioneering work responsible for explaining telomeres has been conducted in ciliates, specifically in Tetrahymena thermophila. Telomeres in T. thermophila have a high amount of tandem thymine repeats (GGGGTT) and, thus, are susceptible to ultraviolet light (UV) induced lesions called pyrimidine dimers, which must be repaired by nucleotide excision repair (NER). In humans, Xeroderma Pigmentosum C (XPC) is ...

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

Dissertations and Student Research in Entomology

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 ...

Activities And Classroom Demonstrations In Biological Physics: A Resource Document, Philip C. Nelson, William Berner

Department of Physics Papers

We give detailed recipes for a number of classroom demonstrations relevant to biological physics instruction. We developed them mainly for use in 2nd-3rd year undergraduate Physics courses. But you can (and we do) use them for primary school, through high school, up to PhD candidates. You adapt the words for each audience, but a phenomenon is a phenomenon.

We also outline a 1-hour introduction to Python for undergraduate scientific computing.

Finally we document some outcomes from courses taught at U Pennsylvania using these resources and others cited here. This material was presented at a workshop at the AAPT meeting in ...

Production Of A Candidate Recombinant Protein Vaccine For Mannheimia Haemolytica In Lettuce And Tobacco Chloroplasts, Coby K. Martin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The cattle industry worldwide is ravaged by bovine respiratory disease (BRD), a bacterial disease caused by Mannheimia haemolytica. Recent efforts to design vaccines against M. haemolytica focus on a virulence factor, leukotoxin, in addition to surface lipoproteins. Plant-based protein production is a safe and inexpensive alternative to traditional methods. Edible vaccines deliver antigens to pharyngeal tissues, which can provide local immunization against M. haemolytica prior to its progression into the lungs. In this project, a chimeric protein containing M. haemolytica antigens was produced in tobacco chloroplasts as a candidate edible vaccine for BRD. Attempts were made to transform lettuce chloroplasts ...

Rgn-259 (Thymosin Β4) Improves Clinically Important Dry Eye Efficacies In Comparison With Prescription Drugs In A Dry Eye Model., Chae Eun Kim, Hynda K Kleinman, Gabriel Sosne, George W Ousler, Kyeongsoon Kim, Sinwook Kang, Jaewook Yang

Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

This study evaluated the clinical activity of RGN-259 (thymosin β4) in comparison with cyclosporine A (CsA), diquafosol (DQS), and lifitegrast (LFA) in a murine model of dry eye. The model was NOD.B10-H2b mice in a 30-40% humidified environment together with daily scopolamine hydrobromide injections for 10 days. After desiccation stress, all drugs were evaluated after 10 treatment days. RGN-259 increased tear production similar to that in the DQS- and LFA-treated mice while CsA was inactive. RGN-259 improved corneal smoothness and decreased fluorescein staining similar to that of LFA group while CsA and DQS were inactive. Corneal epithelial detachment was ...

Identification Of Novel Δnp63Α-Regulated Mirnas Using An Optimized Small Rna-Seq Analysis Pipeline, Suraj Sakaram, Michael P. Craig, Natasha T. Hill, Amjad Aljiagthmi, Christian Garrido, Oleg Paliy, Michael Bottomley, Michael Raymer, Madhavi Kadakia

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Advances in high-throughput sequencing have enabled profiling of microRNAs (miRNAs), however, a consensus pipeline for sequencing of small RNAs has not been established. We built and optimized an analysis pipeline using Partek Flow, circumventing the need for analyzing data via scripting languages. Our analysis assessed the effect of alignment reference, normalization method, and statistical model choice on biological data. The pipeline was evaluated using sequencing data from HaCaT cells transfected with either a non-silencing control or siRNA against ΔNp63α, a p53 family member protein which is highly expressed in non-melanoma skin cancer and shown to regulate a number of miRNAs ...

Annotated Cell And Molecular Biology 3e: What We Know And How We Found Out, Gerald Bergtrom

Cell and Molecular Biology 3e: What We Know and How We Found Out - All Versions

Like its predecessor, the interactive electronic text (iText) Cell and Molecular Biology 3e: What We Know & How We Found Out focuses on experimental support for what we know about cell and molecular biology. It was written to serve as the introductory biology course for biology majors with high school chemistry and biology prerequisites as well as for “gateway” cell and molecular biology courses for students with a college-level general biology and general chemistry course background. This is a free Open Education Resource (OER), covered by a Creative Commons CCBY license (for more details, check out the license page of the ...

Effect Of Egta On Sit1 Scramblase Gene Expression And Cell Growth In Tetrahymena Thermophila, Emma Esposito, Theda Knauth, Amelia Ohnstad, Stefanie Otto-Hitt

Life and Environmental Sciences Course-based Research Projects

Scramblase is an enzyme that facilitates the movement of newly synthesized phospholipids from the cytosolic side to the extracellular side of the lipid bilayer. This process is vital for cell membrane repair and growth. In Tetrahymena thermophila, the gene SIT1 encodes for the Scramblase protein, whose functionality is Ca2+-dependent. In this experiment, the concentration of accessible Ca2+ ions was decreased in order to observe whether the change had an aect on the expression of SIT1 and cell growth. It was hypothesized that expression of the SIT1 gene would increase, while cell growth would decrease. To carry out the experiment ...