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Exploring The Genetic Diversity And Population Structure Of Serbian And Selected European Bread Wheat Cultivars Through Ipbs-Retrotransposon Markers, Rada Šućur, Amjad Ali, Parnaz Mortazavi, Muhammad Tanveer Altaf, Muhammed Tatar, Muhammad Azhar Nadeem, Bojan Jocković, Velimir Mladenov, Sotirios Fragkostefanakis, Yong Suk Chung, Faheem Shehzad Baloch Aug 2025

Exploring The Genetic Diversity And Population Structure Of Serbian And Selected European Bread Wheat Cultivars Through Ipbs-Retrotransposon Markers, Rada Šućur, Amjad Ali, Parnaz Mortazavi, Muhammad Tanveer Altaf, Muhammed Tatar, Muhammad Azhar Nadeem, Bojan Jocković, Velimir Mladenov, Sotirios Fragkostefanakis, Yong Suk Chung, Faheem Shehzad Baloch

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Bread wheat is a globally vital crop, sustaining millions and contributing to food security. The present study investigated the molecular characterization of 60 bread wheat accessions, using 12 interprimer binding site (iPBS) retrotransposon markers, which yielded a total of 260 distinct bands. Out of the 260 bands, 42 were monomorphic while the remaining 218 (83.84%) were polymorphic, with polymorphism information content values ranging from 0.38 to 0.45. Genetic diversity indices, including Shannon’s information index (I = 0.01–0.53), effective number of alleles (Ne = 1.00–1.63), gene diversity (He = 0.0037–0.36), and marker index (MI = 0.31– 0.51), revealed moderate variability across …


The Status Of Agritourism In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Nerma Čolaković-Prguda, Jasna Hasanbegović, Irma Đidelija Čolaković, Lejla Škaljić, Nuray Demi̇r Aug 2025

The Status Of Agritourism In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Nerma Čolaković-Prguda, Jasna Hasanbegović, Irma Đidelija Čolaković, Lejla Škaljić, Nuray Demi̇r

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Agritourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina has a lot of potential benefit for economic growth and sustainable development in rural regions, as it incorporates local culture and natural beauty into the tourism offerings of the region. Tourism creates opportunities to diversify the economy, retain traditions, improve local income, and protect natural resources. This study covered Međugorje, Ilijaš, Rostovo, Vlašić, Bosanska Krupa, Neum, Olovo, Gornji Vakuf, Sarajevo, and Donji Vakuf. Agritourism can provide authentic experiences like learning about traditional agriculture, fruit harvesting, tasting local products, and environmental preservation in destinations like Međugorje and Neum. Ilijaš and Gornji Vakuf have potential in organic …


Wbd-Yolo-Am: Yolov8 With Attention Module And Iot-Based Wild Boar Detection And Deterrence System For Safeguarding Small Millets, Aditya Joshi, Neha Pandey, Manoj Diwakar, Prabhishek Singh, Achyut Shankar, Fayez Alqahtani Aug 2025

Wbd-Yolo-Am: Yolov8 With Attention Module And Iot-Based Wild Boar Detection And Deterrence System For Safeguarding Small Millets, Aditya Joshi, Neha Pandey, Manoj Diwakar, Prabhishek Singh, Achyut Shankar, Fayez Alqahtani

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Small millets are traditional and climate-resilient food crops that can grow in adverse weather conditions. Animal intrusion, specifically from wild boars, is a main threat to the production of small millets, which reduces interest in the cultivation of small millets and affects farmers’ incomes. To address the problem of wild boar attack on agriculture land, an improved YOLOv8 is proposed, with an attention module based on WBD-YOLO-AM and that works from the collection of data, its preprocessing, attention mechanism to improve the feature maps, training then building the model, after that the models hyperparameter are tuned to boost the performance …


Assessment Of Bat Species (Mammalia: Chiroptera) In Canubas Cave, Kibawe, Bukidnon, Philippines, Jurriel Mari D. Alce, Jasmine Rouida M. Abenes, Leo Gabriel Cervantes, Matthew Eli K. Llacer, Von Zhyrus P. Oche, Ian Jay P. Saldo, Jhovel Roy D. Calo Aug 2025

Assessment Of Bat Species (Mammalia: Chiroptera) In Canubas Cave, Kibawe, Bukidnon, Philippines, Jurriel Mari D. Alce, Jasmine Rouida M. Abenes, Leo Gabriel Cervantes, Matthew Eli K. Llacer, Von Zhyrus P. Oche, Ian Jay P. Saldo, Jhovel Roy D. Calo

Sinaya: A Philippine Journal for Senior High School Teachers and Students

Bats, flying mammals, are essential to ecosystems, playing vital roles in pollination, seed dispersal, and insect control. Despite their ecological importance, no prior bat research exists for Canubas Cave, Kibawe, Bukidnon. This study aimed to assess the bat species at the site, documenting their morphometric data, diversity and richness indices, and conservation statuses. A purposive sampling design was implemented by setting up mist nets inside and outside the cave. A total of 13 individuals were identified, comprising three species from two families: Rousettus amplexicaudatus and Eonycteris spelaea (family Pteropodidae, fruit bats), and Miniopterus schreibersii (family Miniopteridae, bent-winged bats). Based on …


Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptor 1: Implications For Precision Medicine And Rett Syndrome Therapeutics, Mackenzie Smith Aug 2025

Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptor 1: Implications For Precision Medicine And Rett Syndrome Therapeutics, Mackenzie Smith

Dissertations

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the gene coding for methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2). Currently, there is no cure for RTT and few effective treatment options to address the social, cognitive, motor, and respiratory symptoms that patients face. With the goal of identifying novel targets, our lab performed RNA-sequencing experiments in human autopsy samples and found decreased levels of the M1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor. We have established that potentiation of this receptor in a Mecp2+/- mouse model of RTT rescues social, cognitive, and respiratory phenotypes, providing support for using drugs that act on …


Biophysical Effects Of Altered Myosin Binding Protein Stoichiometry In Atrial Myofilaments, Kelly N. Araujo Aug 2025

Biophysical Effects Of Altered Myosin Binding Protein Stoichiometry In Atrial Myofilaments, Kelly N. Araujo

Dissertations

Cardiomyopathies, such as hypertrophic and dilated subtypes, are leading causes of heart failure and are often driven by genetic mutations that disrupt the structure and function of the cardiac sarcomere. While much of the research has focused on ventricular involvement, the role of atrial sarcomere dysfunction remains unexplored. The regulation of contractile function by sarcomeric proteins in the atria remains poorly understood, especially the impact of protein stoichiometry among myosin binding proteins. Cardiac myosin binding protein-C (cMyBP-C) and its atrial paralog, myosin binding protein H-like (MyBP-HL), have been shown to have a stoichiometric relationship within the atrial sarcomere. These two …


A Multimodal Approach To Assess A Liposomal Carrier’S Biodistribution, Stability, And Clearance, Cayla A Wood, Claire E Jones, Ananthakrishnan Soundaram Jeevarathinam, Riley Watson, Sangheon Han, Jennifer Meyer, Konstantin V Sokolov, Richard R Bouchard Aug 2025

A Multimodal Approach To Assess A Liposomal Carrier’S Biodistribution, Stability, And Clearance, Cayla A Wood, Claire E Jones, Ananthakrishnan Soundaram Jeevarathinam, Riley Watson, Sangheon Han, Jennifer Meyer, Konstantin V Sokolov, Richard R Bouchard

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Liposomal carriers, used for site-specific drug delivery, are being investigated for diagnostic approaches by replacing the therapeutic with an imaging contrast agent, exploring potential for selective treatment planning. There remains a critical need to improve in vivo assessment of biodistribution, stability, and clearance kinetics of liposomal carriers. This pilot study presents a multimodal approach in which liposome-encapsulated J-aggregated indocyanine green (ICG) dye (Lipo-JICG) is imaged with high spatial resolution using both in vivo photoacoustic (PA) imaging, to assess the absorbance characteristics of JICG and monomeric ICG, and ex vivo cryofluorescence tomography (CFT), to measure ICG fluorescence. An in vitro assay …


In Silico Investigation Of The Anticancer Activity Of Natural Isoquinoline Alkaloids Targeting The Monoamine Oxidase A Enzyme, Reham A. Al-Anssari, Anwar H. Ali, Ola Adel Al-Saad, Shaker A.N. Al-Jadaan Aug 2025

In Silico Investigation Of The Anticancer Activity Of Natural Isoquinoline Alkaloids Targeting The Monoamine Oxidase A Enzyme, Reham A. Al-Anssari, Anwar H. Ali, Ola Adel Al-Saad, Shaker A.N. Al-Jadaan

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

Monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) has recently been identified as a candidate for cancer therapy due to its roles in tumor development and growth. Conventional approaches for the discovery of MAO-A inhibitors are both costly and time-consuming. The objective of this work was to apply in silico methods to predict natural isoquinoline alkaloids capable of acting as potent MAO-A inhibitors, and to establish this class of compounds as potential sources of a cost-effective anticancer therapy. Twenty-one natural isoquinoline alkaloids were subjected to a multistep computer-aided drug discovery protocol. The compounds were initially screened for pharmacokinetic (ADME), toxicity, and drug-likeliness properties by …


Statistical Analysis Of Multi-Endpoint Phenotypic Screening Increases Sensitivity Of Planarian Neurotoxicity Testing, Danielle Ireland, L. J. Word, Eva-Maria S. Collins Aug 2025

Statistical Analysis Of Multi-Endpoint Phenotypic Screening Increases Sensitivity Of Planarian Neurotoxicity Testing, Danielle Ireland, L. J. Word, Eva-Maria S. Collins

Biology Faculty Works

There is an urgent need for high-throughput screening (HTS) models to replace, refine, and/or reduce (“3Rs”) vertebrate toxicity testing. Replacing in vivo animal studies is challenging for neurotoxicity and developmental neurotoxicity (DNT), where the functional relevancy of adverse outcomes needs to be assessed on the whole organism. We previously screened the NTP 87-compound library (NTP87), consisting of known and suspected developmental neurotoxicants, and showed that planarian HTS can identify known (developmental) neurotoxicants. Because analysis methods can impact screening results, and our original analysis used the lowest-observed-effect-level (LOEL) only, we hypothesized that the use of state-of-the-art statistical analysis would increase the …


Prefrontal Cortex Astrocytes Modulate Distinct Neuronal Populations To Control Anxiety-Like Behavior, Eunyoung Kim, Hairuo Du, Yanqi Tan, Brandon L Brown, Yaowen Chang, Blanca Díaz-Castro, Jonathan V Sweedler, Xinzhu Yu Aug 2025

Prefrontal Cortex Astrocytes Modulate Distinct Neuronal Populations To Control Anxiety-Like Behavior, Eunyoung Kim, Hairuo Du, Yanqi Tan, Brandon L Brown, Yaowen Chang, Blanca Díaz-Castro, Jonathan V Sweedler, Xinzhu Yu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Accumulating evidence has supported diverse regulatory functions of astrocytes in different neural circuits as well as various aspects of complex behaviors. However, little is known about how astrocytes regulate different neuronal subpopulations that are linked to specific behavioral aspects within a single brain region. Here, we show that astrocytes in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) encode anxiogenic environmental cues in freely behaving mice. Silencing mPFC astrocyte Ca


Circzfr/Ythdf3 Axis Drives Lymph Node Metastasis In Cervical Cancer Via Fasn Translation, Mingyi Zhou, Yan Gao, Yong Zhang, Lian He, Bo Gao, Yue Zhang, Francois X Claret, George A Calin, Danbo Wang Aug 2025

Circzfr/Ythdf3 Axis Drives Lymph Node Metastasis In Cervical Cancer Via Fasn Translation, Mingyi Zhou, Yan Gao, Yong Zhang, Lian He, Bo Gao, Yue Zhang, Francois X Claret, George A Calin, Danbo Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Lymph node metastasis is a key driver of poor outcomes in cervical cancer. However, the molecular mechanisms of circular RNAs (circRNAs) driving cervical cancer lymph node metastasis remain unclear.

Methods: We identified circZFR, fatty acid synthase (FASN) and YTH N6-methyladenosine RNA binding protein F3 (YTHDF3) protein expression in the cervical cancer patients with long and short disease-free survival (DFS). Functional experiments were performed to investigate the function of circZFR, FASN and YTHDF3 on cell migration and invasion. MeRIP-qPCR, RNA pulldown, RNA Immunoprecipitation (RIP), and Co-Immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) assays were executed to investigate the mechanism of circZFR regulating FASN protein expression. …


Reducing Residential Landscape Water Use In Utah: Technologies And Strategies, Maya Cottam, Kendall Becker, Katlyn Stemmler, Shital Poudyal, Wesley Crump, Lewis Kogan, Scott Hotaling Aug 2025

Reducing Residential Landscape Water Use In Utah: Technologies And Strategies, Maya Cottam, Kendall Becker, Katlyn Stemmler, Shital Poudyal, Wesley Crump, Lewis Kogan, Scott Hotaling

All Current Publications

Water conservation is a critical issue in Utah, and several actions are already underway to help lower residential landscape water use. Strategies include smart irrigation controllers, efficient sprinkler bodies and nozzles, drip irrigation systems, soil amendments that increase water-holding capacity, and drought-tolerant grass cultivars for lawns. While additional conservation efforts will be necessary to reach sustainable water management, statewide adoption of current programs can help reduce water use and loss.


Native Ticks As A Model For The Effectiveness Of Fire As A Tool For The Management Of Cattle Fever Ticks In South Texas, Lauren P. Maestas, Sarah E. Mays Maestas, Kathleen M. Yeater, Manuel Zavala, Reyes Garcia, John A. Goolsby Aug 2025

Native Ticks As A Model For The Effectiveness Of Fire As A Tool For The Management Of Cattle Fever Ticks In South Texas, Lauren P. Maestas, Sarah E. Mays Maestas, Kathleen M. Yeater, Manuel Zavala, Reyes Garcia, John A. Goolsby

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

The species of cattle fever ticks (CFT) present in North America, Rhipicephalus (=Boophilus) annulatus, and R. microplus, remain an important agricultural and economic burden. The use of acaricides to control CFT has been a common practice over the past half century. However, alternative strategies for control are needed to improve the options for sustainable pest control. Fire is a tool to manage vegetation, and some evidence supports its potential for use to control ticks. We evaluated the effectiveness of fire as a management tool for ticks in South Texas. Our site was a 28.2-ha property in Cameron …


Scorpions Of The Horn Of Africa (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Part Xliii. Lanzatus Fuscipalpis Sp. N. From Ethiopia (Buthidae), František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe Aug 2025

Scorpions Of The Horn Of Africa (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Part Xliii. Lanzatus Fuscipalpis Sp. N. From Ethiopia (Buthidae), František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe

Euscorpius

The rare Horn of Africa buthid genus Lanzatus Kovařík, 2001, known only from Somalia and Somaliland, is recorded for the first time from Ethiopia. We describe a new species Lanzatus fuscipalpis sp. n. fully illustrated with color photographs showing its morphology, habitus, hemispermatophore, and collection sites.


Targeted Proteomic Analysis Identifies Acvrl1 As A Marker Of Cerebral Edema In Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Bosco Seong Kyu Yang, Lena O'Keefe, Sarah Hinds, Hua Chen, Athziry Paz, Jude Savarraj, Han-Gil Jeong, Moon-Ku Han, Aaron Gusdon, Xuefang Sophie Ren, Spiros Blackburn, Huimahn Alex Choi Aug 2025

Targeted Proteomic Analysis Identifies Acvrl1 As A Marker Of Cerebral Edema In Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Bosco Seong Kyu Yang, Lena O'Keefe, Sarah Hinds, Hua Chen, Athziry Paz, Jude Savarraj, Han-Gil Jeong, Moon-Ku Han, Aaron Gusdon, Xuefang Sophie Ren, Spiros Blackburn, Huimahn Alex Choi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cerebral edema (CE) is a major component of early brain injury from aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Despite the utility of blood-based protein markers, biomarkers targeting cerebral edema have yet to be developed. We performed a targeted proteomic search analyzing 141 proteins in plasma samples taken from 80 adult patients within 48 hours after aneurysmal rupture to identify plasma biomarkers of cerebral edema. The protein expression profiles were analyzed for associations with a higher level of the subarachnoid hemorrhage early brain edema score measured in admission computed tomography scans. Five differentially expressed proteins-brorin, ectodysplasin A2 receptor, layilin, scavenger receptor class A …


Enhanced Meropenem Activity And Stability Following Load In Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanofiber Scaffolds With Sitagliptin As Quorum Sensing Inhibitor On Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Samar A. Salim, Abdelrhman Mohsen, Mohamed Emara, Taghrid Elmahdy Aug 2025

Enhanced Meropenem Activity And Stability Following Load In Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanofiber Scaffolds With Sitagliptin As Quorum Sensing Inhibitor On Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Samar A. Salim, Abdelrhman Mohsen, Mohamed Emara, Taghrid Elmahdy

Nanotechnology Research Centre

Background The increasing resistance of bacteria to conventional antibiotics poses a significant health challenge. Innovative strategies, such as combining antibiotics with agents like quorum sensing inhibitors (QSIs), have been developed to combat this issue. QSIs enhance antibiotic efficacy without inhibiting bacterial growth, minimizing the risk of resistance. Aims Evaluate the combined effect of Sitagliptin (STG) as a QSI with Meropenem (MER), fabricate drug-loaded Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) nanofibers, and investigate their antimicrobial activity against standard Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAO1) and carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (CRPA). Methods The combinatorial effect was assessed using a checkerboard assay. PVA/STG, PVA/MER, and PVA/STG/ MER nanofibers were fabricated …


Exposure To Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Reveals A Death Resistance Mechanism In Dictyostelium Discoideum, Zoya Nadeem Faruqui Aug 2025

Exposure To Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Reveals A Death Resistance Mechanism In Dictyostelium Discoideum, Zoya Nadeem Faruqui

Theses and Dissertations

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are very versatile due to their multifunctional properties including unique physicochemical and antimicrobial characteristics. They are widely utilized across various fields such as biomedical, industrial fields, environmental remediation, and agriculture. Therefore, their cytotoxic effects on biological systems necessitate a deeper understanding of the cellular responses to nanoparticle exposure. This project primarily investigates the impact of ZnO NPs on the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum AX4 (social amoeba) which has not been examined before unlike a vast variety of organisms in the literature. The cytotoxic effects of ZnO NPs on Dictyostelium discoideum AX4 cells are compared with …


Exploring Infant Toy Interactions In Free Play Environments, Emma Bermudez, Jacqueline Hammack Aug 2025

Exploring Infant Toy Interactions In Free Play Environments, Emma Bermudez, Jacqueline Hammack

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

Infants’ interactions with toys play a crucial role in their early cognitive and motor development, yet much of the research on this topic has been conducted in controlled laboratory settings, which may not accurately reflect the diversity of toys and interactions infants experience in their natural environments. This study uniquely examined these interactions in a home setting by utilizing an online video conferencing platform. This study investigated how toy properties influence manual infant-object interactions during dyadic tabletop free play, where mothers selected the toys for the session. Within the confines of this study, results show that infants spend significantly more …


Use Of A Novel Plant Essential Oil-Based Insecticide For Insect Control In Household Gardens And Lawns, Mia Michnik, Alysa Suissa, Liah Brussolo Cremona, Annalise Wellman, Nicholas Nifakos, Alexander Spanoudis, John M. Harlin Aug 2025

Use Of A Novel Plant Essential Oil-Based Insecticide For Insect Control In Household Gardens And Lawns, Mia Michnik, Alysa Suissa, Liah Brussolo Cremona, Annalise Wellman, Nicholas Nifakos, Alexander Spanoudis, John M. Harlin

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

Insecticide use has increased as population and agricultural demand for crops grows. Commercial insecticides contain active ingredients that are often harmful to humans and the environment. A viable alternative to this concern is developing and using insecticides with low toxicity and minimum risk to the environment. In this study, we sought to empirically assess the effectiveness of an insecticide based entirely on plant essential oil active ingredients, which contain complex secondary metabolites. Our results show that a concoction of several plant essential oils was effective in killing a wide range of household garden insect species and bedbugs, encompassing five orders …


Artist Statement, Shreyansh Patel Aug 2025

Artist Statement, Shreyansh Patel

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.


Mechanism Of Unconventional Il-33 Release In Airway Disease, Omar Osorio Aug 2025

Mechanism Of Unconventional Il-33 Release In Airway Disease, Omar Osorio

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The alarmin cytokine IL-33 is a strong inducer of type two inflammation and has been implicated in various chronic lung diseases. Although much work has been done to understand the inflammatory effects of extracellular IL-33, there is still a knowledge gap in understanding how this cytokine is secreted by airway epithelial cells in steady-state conditions. In the work laid out in this document, a COPD-disease associated isoform of IL-33, that has exons 3 and 4 (IL-3334) spliced out and is tonically secreted at baseline conditions. This IL-33 isoform is secreted from airway epithelial cells alongside, or as part of, extracellular …


Plant-Microbe Interactions Across Scales: Diversity, Disease, And Stress In Herbaceous Plant Communities, Philippa Tanford Aug 2025

Plant-Microbe Interactions Across Scales: Diversity, Disease, And Stress In Herbaceous Plant Communities, Philippa Tanford

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Plants interact consequentially with microbes spanning mutualism to pathogenicity, with broader effects on large-scale plant community structure. These plant communties, in turn, shape below and aboveground microbial communities through a variety of mechanisms. However, plant diversity-microbial diversity relationships remain broadly inconsistent across environments and among different plant and microbial assemblages. In my dissertation, I work to bridge some of these gaps in plant-microbial ecology in three experimental chapters assessing relationships between plant diversity and microbial diversity, including the influence of belowground-aboveground microbiome interactions, the influence of drought stress, and incorporating different spatial and experimental scales. First, I explore the microbial …


Genomic Editing Of A Pathogenic Sequence Variant In Acta2 Rescues Multisystemic Smooth Muscle Dysfunction Syndrome In Mice, Qianqian Ding, Peiheng Gan, Zhisheng Xu, Hui Li, Lei Guo, Camryn Macdonald, Wei Tan, Efrain Sanchez-Ortiz, John R Mcanally, Yu Zhang, Dileep Karri, Lin Xu, Ning Liu, Eric N Olson Aug 2025

Genomic Editing Of A Pathogenic Sequence Variant In Acta2 Rescues Multisystemic Smooth Muscle Dysfunction Syndrome In Mice, Qianqian Ding, Peiheng Gan, Zhisheng Xu, Hui Li, Lei Guo, Camryn Macdonald, Wei Tan, Efrain Sanchez-Ortiz, John R Mcanally, Yu Zhang, Dileep Karri, Lin Xu, Ning Liu, Eric N Olson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs), the predominant cell type in the aortic wall, play a crucial role in maintaining aortic integrity, blood pressure, and cardiovascular function. Vascular SMC contractility and function depend on ACTA2 (smooth muscle α-actin 2). The pathogenic variant ACTA2 c.536G>A (p.R179H) causes multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome, a severe disorder marked by widespread smooth muscle abnormalities, resulting in life-threatening aortic disease and high risk of early death from aneurysms or stroke. No effective treatments exist for multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome.

Methods: To develop a comprehensive therapy for multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome, we used …


Lipid-Laden Microglia: Characterization And Roles In Diseases, Jiani Xing, Takese Mckenzie, Jian Hu Aug 2025

Lipid-Laden Microglia: Characterization And Roles In Diseases, Jiani Xing, Takese Mckenzie, Jian Hu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Microglia are resident phagocytes of the central nervous system that play an essential role in brain development and homeostasis. When the intracellular lipid content exceeds the metabolic capacity of microglia, lipid droplets accumulate, giving rise to a distinct population termed lipid-laden microglia (LLMs). LLMs have been implicated in various neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases, functioning as both regulators/indicators of inflammation and potential therapeutic targets. This review summarizes the current research on LLMs, focusing on disease-specific regulators and functions, protective roles, interactions with neighboring cells, and advances in diagnostic and analytical tools. We also discuss the blurred distinction between LLMs and macrophages, …


Therapeutic Targeting Of Syndecan-1 Axis Overcomes Acquired Resistance To Kras-Targeted Therapy In Gastrointestinal Cancers, Madelaine S Theardy, Mitsunobu Takeda, Alexey Sorokin, Shuaitong Chen, Zecheng Yang, Xiaofei Wang, Preeti Kanikarla, Oluwadara Coker, Phuoc Nguyen, Yongkun Wei, Jun Yao, Liang Yan, Yanqing Jin, Yiming Cai, Masakatsu Paku, Ziheng Chen, Kara Z Li, Francesca Citron, Hideo Tomihara, Sisi Gao, Angela K Deem, Jun Zhao, Huamin Wang, Samir Hanash, Ronald A Depinho, Anirban Maitra, Giulio F Draetta, Haoqiang Ying, Scott Kopetz, Wantong Yao Aug 2025

Therapeutic Targeting Of Syndecan-1 Axis Overcomes Acquired Resistance To Kras-Targeted Therapy In Gastrointestinal Cancers, Madelaine S Theardy, Mitsunobu Takeda, Alexey Sorokin, Shuaitong Chen, Zecheng Yang, Xiaofei Wang, Preeti Kanikarla, Oluwadara Coker, Phuoc Nguyen, Yongkun Wei, Jun Yao, Liang Yan, Yanqing Jin, Yiming Cai, Masakatsu Paku, Ziheng Chen, Kara Z Li, Francesca Citron, Hideo Tomihara, Sisi Gao, Angela K Deem, Jun Zhao, Huamin Wang, Samir Hanash, Ronald A Depinho, Anirban Maitra, Giulio F Draetta, Haoqiang Ying, Scott Kopetz, Wantong Yao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The therapeutic benefit of recently developed mutant KRAS (KRAS∗) inhibitors remains limited by the rapid onset of resistance. Here, we aim to delineate mechanisms underlying acquired resistance and identify actionable targets for overcoming this clinical challenge. Previously, we identified syndecan-1 (SDC1) as a key effector for pancreatic cancer progression whose surface expression is driven by KRAS∗. By leveraging both pancreatic and colorectal cancer models, we show that surface SDC1 expression initially diminishes upon KRAS∗ inhibition but recovers in tumor cells that bypass KRAS∗ dependency. Mechanistically, we reveal that YAP1 activation drives the recovery of SDC1 surface localization to enhance macropinocytosis-mediated …


Trpc4 Regulates Limbic Behavior And Neuronal Development By Stabilizing Dendrite Branches Through Actomyosin-Driven Integrin Activation, Jaepyo Jeon, Travis I Moore, Insuk So, Marc Freichel, Veit Flockerzi, Lutz Birnbaumer, Michael X Zhu Aug 2025

Trpc4 Regulates Limbic Behavior And Neuronal Development By Stabilizing Dendrite Branches Through Actomyosin-Driven Integrin Activation, Jaepyo Jeon, Travis I Moore, Insuk So, Marc Freichel, Veit Flockerzi, Lutz Birnbaumer, Michael X Zhu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Transient Receptor Potential Canonical 4 (TRPC4) channels have been implicated in multiple neurological functions, including anxiety and sociability. TRPC4 variants were also found in patients with autism. However, the contributions of TRPC4 to neurodevelopment remain undefined. Here, we show that neurobehavioral deficits appear early in young TRPC4 knockout (Trpc4−/−) mice immediately after weaning, manifesting as alterations in multiple, limbic-related behaviors, such as nesting, marble burying, burrowing, self-grooming, and social interactions. Hippocampal neurons of Trpc4−/− mice exhibit reduced dendritic arborization both in vivo and in vitro. Mechanistically, we found that TRPC4 expression in dendrites surged at the …


Causes Of Symptoms And Symptom Persistence In Long Covid And Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Anthony L Komaroff, Robert Dantzer Aug 2025

Causes Of Symptoms And Symptom Persistence In Long Covid And Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Anthony L Komaroff, Robert Dantzer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Debilitating symptoms for many years can follow acute COVID-19 ("long COVID"), myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and various post-acute infection syndromes (PAISs). Together, long COVID and ME/CFS affect 60-400 million individuals, globally. Many similar underlying biological abnormalities have been identified in both conditions including autoantibodies against neural targets, endothelial dysfunction, acquired mitochondrial dysfunction, and a pro-inflammatory gut microbiome. Each of these abnormalities may directly cause some of the symptoms. In addition, the symptoms also may be caused by ancient, evolutionarily conserved symptomatic and metabolic responses to vital threats-sickness behavior and torpor-responses mediated by specific, recently discovered neural circuits. These neural …


Three New Species Of Androctonus From Morocco (Arachnida: Scorpiones: Buthidae), František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe, František Šťáhlavský Aug 2025

Three New Species Of Androctonus From Morocco (Arachnida: Scorpiones: Buthidae), František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe, František Šťáhlavský

Euscorpius

New data are presented on the taxonomy and distribution of the dark species of the genus Androctonus Ehrenberg, 1828 in Morocco and Western Sahara. Three new species, A. argoubi sp. n., A. stockmanni sp. n., and A. vaneki sp. n. from Morocco are described, characterized by having metasoma I–IV ventrally punctate, a character that is well developed in A. stockmanni sp. n., and A. vaneki sp. n., and weakly developed in A. argoubi sp. n. Dark species from Morocco are compared with A. sergenti Vachon, 1948, and A. bourdoni Vachon, 1948. We describe and compare their …


Two Decapod Crustaceans, Panopeus Herbstii And Petrolisthes Armatus, Stabilize Their Gaze Using Achromatic Visual Cues, But Not The Angle Of Linearly Polarized Light, M. Janakis, S. Guirges, A. C. Grant, I. Paris, E. F. Lopresti, Daniel Isaac Speiser Aug 2025

Two Decapod Crustaceans, Panopeus Herbstii And Petrolisthes Armatus, Stabilize Their Gaze Using Achromatic Visual Cues, But Not The Angle Of Linearly Polarized Light, M. Janakis, S. Guirges, A. C. Grant, I. Paris, E. F. Lopresti, Daniel Isaac Speiser

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Mechanisms Of Ssdna Gap Resection In Brca1-Proficient And -Deficient Cells, Isabelle Seppa Aug 2025

Mechanisms Of Ssdna Gap Resection In Brca1-Proficient And -Deficient Cells, Isabelle Seppa

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Single-stranded (ss) DNA gaps are potentially genome-destabilizing structures that require prompt repair (or filling) to prevent DNA breakage and genome instability. We previously showed that gap repair is defective in cancer cells with deficiencies in the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1. These findings explain why ssDNA gaps accumulate in BRCA1-deficient cells in response to therapies that target DNA, such as platinum-based compounds, or therapies that inhibit specific repair pathways, such as PARP inhibitors (PARPi). We also discovered that gap repair can be restored in BRCA1-deficient cells by inhibiting MRE11 nuclease activity, indicating that nuclease processing plays a central role in …