Digital Commons Network^™

Tackling Adverse Environment—Molecular Mechanism Of Plant Stress Response And Biotechnology Tool Development, Ning Yuan

All Dissertations

Abiotic and biotic stresses such as drought, salt, nutrition starvation, and pathogen infection are major factors threatening our agricultural production. With the rapidly increasing population and limited arable land area, genetic engineering of crops for new products with more stable and higher yield than conventional cultivars under adverse environment provides a powerful new tool for use in developing novel GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) to feed the large population in the immediate future. To develop novel GMOs with enhanced performance under adverse conditions, we need first to understand molecular mechanisms underlying plant stress response. To better understand how signaling transduction pathway …

Two-Electron Quenching Of Dinuclear Ruthenium(Ii) Polypyridyl Complexes, Yinling Zhang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A bridging ligand 5,5’-Bi- 1,10-phenanthroline, diphen, was prepared using dichlorobis(triphenylphosphine)Ni(II), Ni(PPh3)2Cl2 as catalyst with a yield of 40%. Yellow cubic crystals were able to obtain from the good purity product for single crystal analysis. The torsion angle between the planes of the subunit phenanthrolines is about 66 degrees.

A dinuclear ruthenium (II) polypyridyl complex, (phen)2Ru(diphen)Ru(phen)24+, was synthesized by using polymeric ruthenium carbonyl compound as the entry point, diphen as the bridging ligand and 1,10-phenanthroline, phen, as the terminal legand. Brown needlelike crystals were precipitated from acetonitrile that were not suitable for single crystal diffraction.

The photochemistry of the dimer was …

Heparin-Peptide Interactions, Jacqueline Anastasia Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Heparin is a polydispersed sulfated molecule that is part of the family called glycosaminoglycans found in the extracellular matrix and cell surfaces. This molecule is extremely important for the activation of proteins and protein-receptor interactions that are responsible for downstream cell signaling pathways. Heparin has been isolated from porcine intestine and used as an anticoagulant for the prevention of embolisms, heart thrombosis, and clotting during heart surgeries. This so-called miracle drug was in use until 2008, when isolated batches were found to be contaminated with other glycosaminoglycans similar to heparin. From 2008, there has been a dire need for a …

Innate Immunity In Chickens: In Vivo Responses To Different Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns, Kristen Alicia Byrne

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) on host cells recognize motifs known as pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) that are common to groups of microbes. Examples include LPS on Gram-negative bacteria, the structural motif PGN common to all bacteria, MDP the smallest immunostimulatory unit of PGN, and poly I:C the dsRNA analog. PAMP recognition by and stimulation of the innate immune system is crucial to an individual’s ability to quickly limit microbial growth and stimulate the adaptive immune system. Characterization of the in vivo immune responses initiated by PAMPs has not been directly addressed. Using growing feathers (GF) as a novel intradermal …

Reconstitution Of Munc18-Dependent Mast Cell Degranulation, Matthew Grant Arnold

Master's Theses

Mast cells are specialized secretory leukocytes that play diverse roles in the body, mediated by release of histamine and other pharmacologically active substances. Although offering essential protection in innate and adaptive immunity, mast cells are also essential to the progression of inflammatory diseases, including allergy and asthma, (Theoharides et al., 2012). Exocytosis of pro-inflammatory mast cell mediators in response to otherwise innocuous antigens relies on evolutionarily-conserved membrane fusion machinery. These proteins, called SNAREs are regulated by the Sec1/Munc18 (SM) protein family (Axle Lorentz, Baumann, Vitte, & Blank, 2012). Mast cells express three mammalian Munc18 isoforms (a, b, and c), which …

Use Of Clustering Techniques For Protein Domain Analysis, Eric Rodene

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Next-generation sequencing has allowed many new protein sequences to be identified. However, this expansion of sequence data limits the ability to determine the structure and function of most of these newly-identified proteins. Inferring the function and relationships between proteins is possible with traditional alignment-based phylogeny. However, this requires at least one shared subsequence. Without such a subsequence, no meaningful alignments between the protein sequences are possible. The entire protein set (or proteome) of an organism contains many unrelated proteins. At this level, the necessary similarity does not occur. Therefore, an alternative method of understanding relationships within diverse sets of proteins …

Competent Overall Water-Splitting Electrocatalysts Derived From Zif-67 Grown On Carbon Cloth, Xin Liu, Jinmei Dong, Bo You, Yujie Sun

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The design of nonprecious, bifunctional, and highly competent electrocatalysts for both H₂ and O₂evolution reactions (HER and OER) has attracted increasing interest recently. Herein, we report a cobalt-based electrocatalyst derived from ZIF-67 grown on carbon cloth (Co–P/NC/CC) for overall water splitting electrocatalysis. The as-prepared Co–P/NC/CC catalyst exhibited remarkable catalytic performance in 1 M KOH with Tafel slopes of 52 and 61 mV dec⁻¹ for HER and OER, respectively. When serving as catalysts for both the cathode and anode, our Co–P/NC/CC demonstrated high efficiency and strong robustness. A thorough comparison with other control samples and detailed characterization …

Fulleretic Well-Defined Scaffolds: Donor–Fullerene Alignment Through Metal Coordination And Its Effect On Photophysics, Derek E. Williams, Ekaterina A. Dolgopolova, Danielle C. Godfrey, Evgeniya D. Ermolaeva, Perry J. Pellechia Dr., Andrew B. Greytak Prof. Dr., Mark Smith Dr., Stanislav M. Avdoshenko, Dr., Alexey A. Popov Dr., Natalia B. Shustova Prof. Dr.

Faculty Publications

Herein, we report the first example of a crystalline metal–donor–fullerene framework, in which control of the donor–fullerene mutual orientation was achieved through chemical bond formation, in particular, by metal coordination. The 13C cross-polarization magic-angle spinning NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy were performed for comprehensive structural analysis and energy-transfer (ET) studies of the fulleretic donor–acceptor scaffold. Furthermore, in combination with photoluminescence measurements, the theoretical calculations of the spectral overlap function, Förster radius, excitation energies, and band structure were employed to elucidate the photophysical and ET processes in the prepared fulleretic material. We envision that the well-defined fulleretic donor–acceptor …

Nmrfx Processor: A Cross-Platform Nmr Data Processing Program, Michael Norris, Bayard Fetler, Jan Marchant, Bruce A. Johnson

Advanced Science Research Center

NMRFx Processor is a new program for the processing of NMR data. Written in the Java programming language, NMRFx Processor is a cross-platform application and runs on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows operating systems. The application can be run in both a graphical user interface (GUI) mode and from the command line. Processing scripts are written in the Python programming language and executed so that the low-level Java commands are automatically run in parallel on computers with multiple cores or CPUs. Processing scripts can be generated automatically from the parameters of NMR experiments or interactively constructed in the GUI. …

Long-Range Acoustic Interactions In Insect Swarms: An Adaptive Gravity Model, Dan Gorbonos, Reuven Ianconescu, James G. Puckett, Rui Ni, Nicholas T. Ouellette, Nir S. Gov

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The collective motion of groups of animals emerges from the net effect of the interactions between individual members of the group. In many cases, such as birds, fish, or ungulates, these interactions are mediated by sensory stimuli that predominantly arise from nearby neighbors. But not all stimuli in animal groups are short range. Here, we consider mating swarms of midges, which are thought to interact primarily via long-range acoustic stimuli. We exploit the similarity in form between the decay of acoustic and gravitational sources to build a model for swarm behavior. By accounting for the adaptive nature of the midges' …

The Confounding Effects Of Particle Size And Substrate Bulk Density On Phanerochaete Chrysosporium Pretreatment On Panicum Virgatum, Amanda N. Hickman, Sue E. Nokes, William S. Sympson, Mathew J. Ruwaya, Michael D. Montross, Barbara L. Knutson

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Phanerochaete chrysosporium treatment is less effective as a biological pretreatment on feedstock with larger particle sizes. We hypothesized that the improved effectiveness of the pretreatment when smaller particle sizes are used may be due to the inherently higher bulk density with smaller particle sizes. The effects of substrate bulk density and particle size on the efficacy of P. chrysosporium pretreatment of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) was tested experimentally. Phanerochaete chrysosporium was grown on senesced switchgrass (2 different particle sizes) with various bulk densities. In all treatments, the fungal-pretreated samples released more glucose during enzymatic saccharification than the control sample. …

Identification Of Preferred Dna-Binding Sites For The Thermus Thermophilus Transcriptional Regulator Sbtr By The Combinatorial Approach Repsa, Michael W. Van Dyke, Matthew D. Beyer, Emily Clay, Jonathan L. Mcmurry

Faculty Articles

One of the first steps towards elucidating the biological function of a putative transcriptional regulator is to ascertain its preferred DNA-binding sequences. This may be rapidly and effectively achieved through the application of a combinatorial approach, one involving very large numbers of randomized oligonucleotides and reiterative selection and amplification steps to enrich for high-affinity nucleic acid-binding sequences. Previously, we had developed the novel combinatorial approach Restriction Endonuclease Protection, Selection and Amplification (REPSA), which relies not on the physical separation of ligand-nucleic acid complexes but instead selects on the basis of ligand-dependent inhibition of enzymatic template inactivation, specifically cleavage by type …

In Vitro Monitoring Of Time And Dose Dependent Cytotoxicity Of Aminated Nanoparticles Using Raman Spectroscopy, Esen Efeoglu, Alan Casey, Hugh Byrne

Articles

No abstract provided.

Domains Of Stip1 Responsible For Regulating Prpc-Dependent Amyloid-Β Oligomer Toxicity., Andrzej Maciejewski, Valeriy G Ostapchenko, Flavio H Beraldo, Vania F Prado, Marco A M Prado, Wing-Yiu Choy

Biochemistry Publications

Soluble oligomers of amyloid-beta peptide (AβO) transmit neurotoxic signals through the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Secreted stress-inducible phosphoprotein 1 (STIP1), an Hsp70 and Hsp90 cochaperone, inhibits AβO binding to PrP(C) and protects neurons from AβO-induced cell death. Here, we investigated the molecular interactions between AβO and STIP1 binding to PrP(C) and their effect on neuronal cell death. We showed that residues located in a short region of PrP (90-110) mediate AβO binding and we narrowed the major interaction in this site to amino acids 91-100. In contrast, multiple binding sites on STIP1 (DP1, TPR1 and TPR2A) …

Ten Simple Rules For Taking Advantage Of Git And Github, Yasset Perez-Riverol, Laurent Gatto, Rui Wang, Timo Sachsenberg, Julian Uszkoreit, Felipe Da Veiga Leprevost, Christian Fufezan, Tobias Ternent, Stephen J. Eglen, Daniel S. Katz, Tom J. Pollard, Alexander Konovalov, Robert M. Flight, Kai Blin, Juan Antonio Vizcaíno

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of The Stress - Inducible Carotenoid - Binding Protein Complex From Synechocystis Pcc 6803, Soumana Daddy Gaoh

Theses and Dissertations

Photosynthetic organisms experience continuous fluctuation in their environment, including changes in light conditions and nutrient availability. These organisms adjust their photosynthetic activity to balance light absorption with the energetic and growth requirements of the cell. This organization provides a mechanism to reduce the formation of potentially damaging reactive oxygen species that result from excessive illumination and excitation of pigment molecules. Cyanobacteria, probable progenitors of chloroplasts, are ancient photosynthetic prokaryotes that have adapted successfully to diverse and adverse environments. Their widespread occurrence and fascinating acclimation capability has rendered them the largest group of photosynthetic prokaryotes on our planet. How these organisms …

Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Flux Of Restored Vs. Unrestored Wetlands: A Case Study At Prairie Wolf Slough, Matthew Connors, Beth Lawrence

DePaul Discoveries

Wetlands provide ecological services such as cleansing the water supply, sequestering carbon, and providing habitat for wildlife, however wetland restoration often alters the greenhouse gas flux of the site. Our study aims to investigate the effects of wetland restoration on greenhouse gas flux at Prairie Wolf Slough. We did this by comparing greenhouse gas flux on matching hydric soil series from the restored wetland with an adjacent abandoned agricultural field. We measured known controls of greenhouse gas flux such as soil moisture and soil temperature. We found that there was no detectable methane and nitrous oxide flux at either site, …

Hepatitis C Virus Frameshift/Alternate Reading Frame Protein Suppresses Interferon Responses Mediated By Pattern Recognition Receptor Retinoic-Acid-Inducible Gene-I, Seung Bum Park, Scott Seronello, Wasima Mayer, David M. Ojcius

All Dugoni School of Dentistry Faculty Articles

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) actively evades host interferon (IFN) responses but the mechanisms of how it does so are not completely understood. In this study, we present evidence for an HCV factor that contributes to the suppression of retinoic-acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I)-mediated IFN induction. Expression of frameshift/alternate reading frame protein (F/ARFP) from HCV -2/+1 frame in Huh7 hepatoma cells suppressed type I IFN responses stimulated by HCV RNA pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) and poly(IC). The suppression occurred independently of other HCV factors; and activation of interferon stimulated genes, TNFα, IFN-λ1, and IFN-λ2/3 was likewise suppressed by HCV F/ARFP. Point mutations in …

Spectroscopic Studies Of Anthracyclines: Structural Characterization And In Vitro Tracking, Zeineb Farhane, Hugh Byrne, Malgorzata Baranska

Articles

A broad spectroscopic characterization, using ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) and Fourier transform infrared absorption as well as Raman scattering, of two commonly used anthracyclines antibiotics (DOX) daunorubicin (DNR), their epimers (EDOX, EDNR) and ten selected analogs is presented. The paper serves as a comprehensive spectral library of UV-vis, IR and Raman spectra of anthracyclines in the solid state and in solution. The particular advantage of Raman spectroscopy for the measurement and analysis of individual antibiotics is demonstrated. Raman spectroscopy can be used to monitor the in vitro uptake and distribution of the drug in cells, using both 488 nm and 785 nm …

Computational Modeling Of Allosteric Stimulation Of Nipah Virus Host Binding Protein, Priyanka Dutta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nipah belongs to the family of paramyxoviruses that cause numerous fatal diseases in humans and farm animals. There are no FDA approved drugs for Nipah or any of the paramyxoviruses. Designing antiviral therapies that are more resistant to viral mutations require understanding of molecular details underlying infection. This dissertation focuses on obtaining molecular insights into the very first step of infection by Nipah. Such details, in fact, remain unknown for all paramyxoviruses. Infection begins with the allosteric stimulation of Nipah virus host binding protein by host cell receptors. Understanding molecular details of this stimulation process have been challenging mainly because, …

Distinct And Shared Functions Of Als-Associated Proteins Tdp-43, Fus And Taf15 Revealed By Multisystem Analyses, Katannya Kapeli, Gabriel A. Pratt, Anthony Q. Vu, Kasey R. Hutt, Fernando J. Martinez, Balaji Sundararaman, Ranjan Batra, Peter Freese, Nicole J. Lambert, Stephanie C. Huelga, Seung J. Chun, Tiffany Y. Liang, Jeremy Chang, John P. Donohue, Lily Shiue, Jiayu Zhang, Haining Zhu, Franca Cambi, Edward J. Kasarskis, Shawn Hoon, Manuel Ares Jr., Christopher B. Burge, John Ravits, Frank Rigo, Gene W. Yeo

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The RNA-binding protein (RBP) TAF15 is implicated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To compare TAF15 function to that of two ALS-associated RBPs, FUS and TDP-43, we integrate CLIP-seq and RNA Bind-N-Seq technologies, and show that TAF15 binds to ∼4,900 RNAs enriched for GGUA motifs in adult mouse brains. TAF15 and FUS exhibit similar binding patterns in introns, are enriched in 3′ untranslated regions and alter genes distinct from TDP-43. However, unlike FUS and TDP-43, TAF15 has a minimal role in alternative splicing. In human neural progenitors, TAF15 and FUS affect turnover of their RNA targets. In human stem cell-derived motor …

A Caenorhabditis Elegans Model To Detect Developmental Teratogens With Adverse Reproductive And Metabolic Effects, Alexis Ann Killeen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Obesity is a current epidemic in the United States. Greater than one third of adults and nearly one fifth of children are classified as obese (Ogden, 2014). Increased awareness of this problem has triggered interest into the potentially causal agents in our environment. These agents, termed obesogens, are a type of teratogen hypothesized to work during embryonic development by programming offspring to store excess fat. A type of teratogen, obesogens are also typically reprotoxic, affecting germline development and embryonic viability. These noxious teratogens span a variety of different chemical classes including estrogen mimics, metals and metalloids, biocides, and even voluntary …

Trimethylated Lysine 4 At Histone 3 Shows The Same Circadian Rhythm At Promoters Of Diversely-Expressed Genes In Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Robyn M. Wilson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Circadian clocks are biochemical mechanisms that allow eukaryotic and some prokaryotic organisms to coordinate their physiology with daily environmental changes. It enables organisms to increase their fitness by taking advantage of beneficial environmental conditions while also avoiding or restricting certain sensitive processes during harsh conditions. Similarly, post-translational histone modifications allow eukaryotic organisms to regulate gene expression in response to environmental or developmental factors. Some post-translational modifications of histones are associated with active transcription while others are associated with repressed transcription depending upon the location, type and degree of modification. Trimethylation of lysine 4 on the N-terminal tail of histone H3 …

Multiplexed Detection Of Double-Stranded Pathogenic Dna With Engineered Zinc Finger Proteins, Juhwa Kim

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The development of a new technology for the detection of doublestranded (ds) DNA enables multiple biomedical applications including identifying multiple pathogens simultaneously. We previously employed colorimetric SEquence-Enabled Reassembly with TEM-1 β-lacatamase (SEER-LAC) to detect specific bacterial DNA sequence. SEER-Lac consists of the two inactive β-lactamase fragments which of each attached to a zinc finger protein (ZFP) would reassemble into an active full-length enzyme upon ZFPs binding to its target DNA. Here, we engineered two pairs of ZFPs which of each recognizes shiga toxin in E. coli O157 and staphylococcal enterotoxin B in Staphylococus Aureus, respectively. Biotin was simply conjugated to …

Identification Of Collagen Iv Associated Proteins In Drsophila Using Genetics And Mass Spectrometry, Mayank S. Kapadia

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Metastatic cancer cells invade and spread to other locations by disrupting the basement membrane (BM). The membrane plays a major role during the normal development of an organism as well. In order to understand the invasion mechanism it is important to know about the interactions occurring between the proteins of the BM during normal development. This study concentrates on isolating and identifying the major factors associated with collagen IV, a major component of BM, during the third instar larval development of Drosophila. Western blot and mass spectrometry analysis revealed that collagen IV associates with various growth factors, signaling molecules, and …

Functional And Expression Analysis Of A Novel Basement Membrane Degrader In Drosophila Melanogaster, Christopher J. Fields

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Srivastava Lab is focused on the identification and characterization of genes that play a role in basement membrane remodeling. Previously, we identified putative basement membrane degraders through a genetic screen. One such gene has been suggested to play a role in the maintenance of the stem cell niche in Drosophila melanogaster, but no other information about the role this gene plays in development or disease has been published. Here, data are presented from experiments utilizing Drosophila genetics and immunohistochemistry that provide important insights on the biological role of this gene.

Collagenase activity was up-regulated upon overexpression of this gene, …

Using Zinc Finger Proteins As A Diagnostic Tool For The Detection Of A Cancer Biomarker, Anu Kini

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

RASSF1A is a tumor suppressor gene which loses its function due to methylation of CpG islands on its promoter region. Detection of methylation leads to early diagnosis of cancer.

Zinc finger proteins are capable of detecting a specific DNA sequence and Methyl binding domain can bind to the methyl group on the CpG, using this idea mCpG SEER- Lac system makes use of a split protein, β-lactamase. Lac A attached to the ZFP and Lac B attached to the MBD protein. On binding to the DNA, the Lac A and Lac B come in close proximity with each other causing …

Synthetic Investigation On The Biomimetic Metal-Catalyzed Sulfoxidations And Photochemical Generation Of A Highly Reactive Ruthenium(V)-Oxo Porphyrin, Weilong Luo

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Catalytic oxidation plays a crucial role in current chemical and pharmaceutical industries which is also a leading technology for green chemical processes. In Nature, the ubiquitous cytochrome P450 enzymes can catalyze a wide variety of oxidation reactions with high efficiency and selectivity. Many transition metal catalysts are designed as the biomimetic model of cytochrome P450 enzymes. In this work, series of metalloporphyrins and metallocorroles have been successfully synthesized to investigate and develop catalytic selective oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides.

Manganese(III) porphyrin complexes (2) and manganese(III) corrole complexes (6) with iodobenzene diacetate [PhI(OAc)2] as a mild oxygen source exhibited remarkable catalytic …

Red-Shifted Aequorin Variants Incorporating Non-Canonical Amino Acids: Applications In In Vivo Imaging, Kristen M. Grinstead, Laura Rowe, Mark Ensor, Smita Joel, Pirouz Daftarian, Emre Dikici, Jean-Marc Zingg, Sylvia Daunert

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

The increased importance of in vivo diagnostics has posed new demands for imaging technologies. In that regard, there is a need for imaging molecules capable of expanding the applications of current state-of-the-art imaging in vivo diagnostics. To that end, there is a desire for new reporter molecules capable of providing strong signals, are non-toxic, and can be tailored to diagnose or monitor the progression of a number of diseases. Aequorin is a non-toxic photoprotein that can be used as a sensitive marker for bioluminescence in vivo imaging. The sensitivity of aequorin is due to the fact that bioluminescence is a …

Arsenite Resistance Of Euglena Mutabilis, Nicole Loumarinett Rosendo Mercado, Doug G. Cole (Mentor)

Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research

Euglena are photosynthetic unicellular protozoa. Commonly found in rivers, lakes and ponds, some Euglena are found in toxic environments, like areas of acid mine drainage where they can grow at low pH and in the presence of heavy metals and metalloids such as arsenite (e.g. Euglena mutabilis). The goal of this research is to determine if an Idaho Euglena isolate (SG6) belongs to the E. mutabilis species and to compare it’s level of arsenite resistance with other E. mutabilis strains. As part of the methodology, we have developed microtiter plate assays in which the cells are …