Digital Commons Network^™

Scorpions Of The Horn Of Africa (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Part Xlii. Parabuthus Qaraaf Sp. N. From Ethiopia (Buthidae), František Kovařík, Hassan Sh A. Elmi

Euscorpius

No abstract provided.

Advancing Single-Molecule Nanopore Sensing: From Protein Conformation And Metal Binding To Dna Transport Via Hybrid Nanostructures, Matthew J. Odonohue

Multidisciplinary Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development and application of solid-state and hybrid nanopore platforms for single-molecule analysis of biomolecular interactions. First, a silicon nitride nanopore was employed to characterize the conformational states of the transferrin receptor (TfR), enabling discrimination between its monomeric and dimeric forms, as well as from its ligand, human serum transferrin (hSTf), despite their similar molecular weights. In a separate study, the same nanopore configuration was used to track the real-time binding of titanium ions to transferrin, demonstrating single-molecule sensitivity to metal-induced conformational changes. A hybrid microtubule–solid-state nanopore (MT–SSN) was then engineered, repurposing microtubules as electrostatically anchored conduits …

Novel Nanomaterials For Developing Bone Scaffolds And Tissue Regeneration, Nazim Uddin Emon, Lu Zhang, Shelby Dawn Osborne, Mark Allen Lanoue, Yan Huang, Z. Ryan Tian

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nanotechnologies bring a rapid paradigm shift in hard and soft bone tissue regeneration (BTR) through unprecedented control over the nanoscale structures and chemistry of biocompatible materials to regenerate the intricate architecture and functional adaptability of bone. This review focuses on the transformative analyses and prospects of current and next-generation nanomaterials in designing bioactive bone scaffolds, emphasizing hierarchical architecture, mechanical resilience, and regenerative precision. Mainly, this review elucidated the innovative findings, new capabilities, unmet challenges, and possible future opportunities associated with biocompatible inorganic ceramics (e.g., phosphates, metallic oxides) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approved synthetic polymers, including …

Dopaminergic Neurons In The Zebrafish Subpallium Belong To The Extended Medial Amygdala, Daniel Armbruster, Thomas Mueller, Wolfgang Driever

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The amygdala is a heterogeneous, multinuclear telencephalic structure critical for motivated and emotion-related behaviors in vertebrates. In ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii) like the teleost zebrafish, a telencephalic outward-growing process called eversion makes defining amygdaloid territories particularly challenging. Teleosts are also peculiar in that they develop numerous dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the subpallium, while in tetrapods, such populations are less prominent or appear only transiently. To shed light on the organization of the amygdala in teleosts, we pursued an evolutionary developmental approach focusing on the topological origin of subpallial DA neurons. Specifically, we analyzed the distribution of tyrosine hydroxylase (Th) in conjunction …

The Benefits Of High Phosphate Concentration (10n : 1p) And Diagonal Orientation On The Ex Situ Grow-Out Of Caribbean Coral Juveniles, Ashley Shen

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

As coral reefs keep declining, it is imperative to increase coral production ex situ for restoration, but this requires culture protocols to be optimized. This study examined the impacts of grow-out orientation and phosphate concentration (and nitrate (N): phosphate (P) ratio) on the survival and growth of Montastraea cavernosa and Pseudodiploria clivosa juveniles from 3 to 9 months old. Pristine reefs typically have low nitrate (0.12μmol/L) and low phosphate (0.03μmol/L) concentrations, leading to N:P ratios of 4-16 N: 1P. In recirculating tanks, it is difficult to lower nitrate concentrations below 25μmol/L. Here we hypothesized that increasing the phosphate concentration in …

Recreation Effects On Soil Carbon, Biocrust Presence, Soil Stability, And Invasive Species In Indian Creek, Bears Ears National Monument, Elisabeth M. Currit

Theses and Dissertations

Desert ecosystems perform essential ecosystem services, including playing a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. Because of this, it is important to understand how recreational activities, common in desert environments, impacts dryland ecosystems' ability to perform ecosystem services. The growing popularity of outdoor recreation in Western US poses a threat to desert ecosystems, and unregulated activities can harm soil health, particularly the presence and functioning of biological soil crusts (biocrusts). This study uses the Indian Creek Special Recreation Management area in Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, USA, as a case study for recreation impacted desert ecosystems. It examines the …

Exploring Soil-Derived Antimicrobials For Inhibiting Dairy-Associated Pathogens And Spoilage Bacteria, Michael Joseph Moran

Theses and Dissertations

Spore-forming bacteria are among the most problematic contaminants in fluid milk. They can survive pasteurization, grow at refrigeration temperatures, and secrete heat-stable enzymes, making them a major cause of spoilage in both pasteurized and reconstituted milk products. Current nonthermal strategies for reducing spore counts, including microfiltration and bactofugation, are often costly and inconsistent. The increasing consumer demand for natural additives in food products has sparked interest in the use of bacterially-derived antimicrobial compounds, particularly those from generally recognized as safe (GRAS) organisms, as an alternative method of dairy preservation. This study explores the antimicrobial potential of ten soil-derived Bacillus and …

Increased Fungal Burden In The Gastrointestinal Tract Of Brain-Dead Organ Donors, Erika J Nachman, Colleen K Ardis, A Kyle B Ardis, Javier Nieto, Madeline M Bresson, Clare M Robertson, Maggie N Seale, Nora M Villafuerte, Zhe Lyu, Eva C Preisner, Heather A Danhof, Sara C Di Rienzi, Yolanda T Becker, Robert A Britton

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Approximately 3% of organ transplant recipients will be diagnosed with an invasive fungal infection (IFI), with 10%-47% being fatal. The source of IFI is typically not known, but Candida spp. cause the majority of IFI cases. We obtained intestines from two types of organ donors, brain-dead (BD) (n = 7) and donation after circulatory death (DCD) (n = 5), to sample microbes from the mucosal surface and the lumen. BD donors were parenterally fed and treated with corticosteroids in the days before procurement, whereas DCD donors were enterally fed and not given corticosteroids. We found fungi present in …

Information Theory Optimization Of Signals From Small-Angle Scattering Measurements, Robert P Rambo, John A Tainer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) of particles in solution informs on the conformational states and assemblies of biological macromolecules (bioSAXS) outside of cryo- and solid-state conditions. In bioSAXS, the SAXS measurement under dilute conditions is resolution limited, and through an inverse Fourier transform, the measured SAXS intensities directly relate to the physical space occupied by the particles via the P(r)-distribution. Yet, this inverse transform of SAXS data has been historically cast as an ill-posed, ill-conditioned problem requiring an indirect approach. Here, we show that through the applications of matrix and information theories, the inverse transform of SAXS intensity data is a …

Phase 2 Study Of Zilovertamab Vedotin In Participants With Metastatic Solid Tumors, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Martin Gutierrez, Enrique Sanz-Garcia, Diego Villa, Jun Zhang, Jennifer Friedmann, Fengting Yan, Mark A Socinski, John Sarantopoulos, Luis E Raez, Quincy S Chu, Maxime Chénard-Poirier, Manash Chatterjee, Hong Ren, Qi Liu, Douglas A Levine, Komal L Jhaveri

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Zilovertamab vedotin, an antibody‒drug conjugate targeting receptor tyrosine kinase‒like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1), had manageable safety and promising antitumor activity in participants with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphomas. We evaluated zilovertamab vedotin in participants with previously-treated metastatic solid tumors.

Methods: This phase 2, open-label, nonrandomized study (NCT04504916) enrolled participants with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, hormone receptor‒positive (HR+) breast cancer, nonsquamous non‒small-cell lung cancer, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, or pancreatic cancer. Participants received zilovertamab vedotin ≤2.5 mg/kg once every 3 weeks (Q1/3W) or < 1.75 mg/kg twice every 3 weeks (Q2/3W). Primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST v1.1 by blinded independent central review. ROR1 protein expression was correlated with clinical outcomes.

Results: 102 participants were enrolled (Q1/3W, n=70; Q2/3W, n=32). ORR was 1% (95% CI, 0%‒8%) with …

Profiling Brain Morphology For Autism Spectrum Disorder With Two Cross-Culture Large-Scale Consortia, Xue-Ru Fan, Ye He, Yin-Shan Wang, Lei Li, Lifespan Brain Chart Consortium (Lbcc), China Autism Brain Imaging Consortium (Cabic), Xujun Duan, Xi-Nian Zuo, John Blangero

Human Genetics Publications

We explore neurodevelopmental heterogeneity in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through normative modeling of cross-cultural cohorts. By leveraging large-scale datasets from Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) and China Autism Brain Imaging Consortium (CABIC), our model identifies two ASD subgroups with distinct brain morphological abnormalities: subgroup “L” is characterized by generally smaller brain region volumes and higher rates of abnormality, while subgroup “H” exhibits larger volumes with less pronounced deviations in specific areas. Key areas, such as the isthmus cingulate and transverse temporal gyrus, were identified as critical for subgroup differentiation and ASD trait correlations. In subgroup H, the regional volume …

Three Things We Can Do Now To Reduce The Risk Of Avian Influenza Spillovers, Kenneth B Yeh, William P Bahnfleth, Elaine Bradford, Carol Cardona, Kristen K Coleman, Peter J Hudson, Bernadeta Dadonaite, Rebecca J Hutchins, Anthony Maresso, C Raina Macintyre, Matthew Scotch

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Crop Yield Prediction At Multiple Spatial Scales With Statistical Machine Learning, Vaibhav Charan, Pratishtha Poudel

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

Understanding and accurately predicting crop yield is becoming increasingly important today in the face of global food security challenges, and thus, the availability of standardized data and scalable models is the need of the hour. To support this, researchers have developed CY-Bench (Crop Yield Benchmark), a comprehensive dataset that helps forecast maize and wheat yields on a global scale. This research project primarily involved working with the CY-Bench dataset aiming to improve crop yield prediction through machine learning. Initially, papers explaining the CY-Bench dataset and other papers for agriculture modeling were studied and analyzed in detail. The research then progressed …

Volumetric Imaging Of Cellular Dynamics Using Light-Sheet Microscopy: From Subcellular Structures To Whole Organisms, Md Nasful Huda Prince

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Advancing biomedical imaging requires platforms that combine high-resolution, speed, and stability across biological scales. This dissertation presents three innovations designed to address limitations of conventional light-sheet and oblique plane imaging. First, we introduce Reflected Inline Detection in Epi-Oblique Plane Microscopy (RIDE-OPM), a compact and drift-resistant system that eliminates a tertiary detection path while maintaining alignment flexibility, enabling robust long-term live imaging. Second, we present a high-speed Axially Swept Light-Sheet Microscopy (ASLM) platform for cleared tissues, using dual foci and synchronized sweeping to achieve isotropic sub-micron resolution at up to 40 frames-per-second, a fourfold improvement over standard ASLM. Integrated with a …

Opposing Roles For Iron Transport Systems In Gallium Tolerance In Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia Coli, Nagama Parveen

Theses and Dissertations

Iron is required for bacterial growth because it serves as a co-factor for enzymes involved in DNA synthesis, cellular respiration, and other processes. Disrupting bacterial iron homeostasis is an effective strategy to prevent the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and gallium (Ga³⁺) has emerged as a promising candidate due to its ability to displace iron (Fe³⁺) and prevent essential iron-dependent pathways. However, Escherichia coli are naturally less sensitive to gallium than many other bacteria, and the mechanisms that control gallium tolerance are not completely understood. To address this, we performed a genome-wide transposon sequencing (TnSeq) screen to identify genes important for …

Indirect Dna Transfer To Duct Tape Rolls Stored In Cars, Yuching Chung

Student Theses

This project investigated the accumulation of DNA on duct tape rolls stored in cars. Specifically, we analyzed samples recovered from three areas (the inside, outside, and flat sides) of unused duct tape stored under the driver's seat and trunk of cars for seven days. Twelve volunteers were recruited, resulting in 64 DNA samples from 12 cars. We evaluated DNA quantities and STR genotyping outcomes after amplification with the GlobalFiler™ kit. On average, the DNA yields from under the driver's seat were higher than from the trunk, but the difference was not significant. The inside of the tape roll yielded significantly …

The Ring-Finger Ubiquitin E3 Ligase Rfel1 Targets Wheat Npr3 For Degradation To Confer Broad-Spectrum Resistance Against Biotrophic Fungal Pathogens, Liuhui Qiao, Kunpu Zhang, Jinyan Li, Ziming Zhang, Xiao Sun, Huiyun Liu, Ziyue Li, Nannan Ni, Ximei Ma, Jianhui Zhao, Guangwei Li, Xiaohuan Jin, Wenming Zheng, Daowen Wang, Zheng Qing Fu, Huan Wang

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Landscape Of Clinical Trials In Cancer Cachexia: Assessment Of Trends From 1995-2024, Ana Regina Cabrera, Kaitlyn Parker, Deena B. Snoke, Bart Hammig, Nicholas P. Greene

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background Cancer cachexia, a multifactorial syndrome characterized by unintentional weight loss, is a frequent complication of cancer that impacts patients' quality of life and survival.

Methods In this retrospective review, we evaluated the landscape of clinical trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov for the consideration of potential factors contributing to biological human heterogeneity in their design and analyses.

Results Among clinical trials registered from 1995-2024, we observed increased inclusion of female participants, but lack of reporting of sex as a biological variable. The majority (similar to 93%) of participants were of Caucasian descent. There was a substantial divergence in the diagnostic criteria …

Integrating Ctdna Analysis And Radiomics For Dynamic Risk Assessment In Localized Lung Cancer, Everett J Moding, Mohammad Shahrokh Esfahani, Cheng Jin, Angela B Hui, Barzin Y Nabet, Yufei Liu, Jacob J Chabon, Michael S Binkley, David M Kurtz, Emily G Hamilton, Aadel A Chaudhuri, Chih Long Liu, Zhe Li, Rene F Bonilla, Alice L Jiang, Brianna C Lau, Pablo Lopez, Jianzhong He, Yawei Qiao, Ting Xu, Luyang Yao, Saumil Gandhi, Zhongxing Liao, Millie Das, Kavitha J Ramchandran, Sukhmani K Padda, Joel W Neal, Heather A Wakelee, Michael F Gensheimer, Billy W Loo, Ruijiang Li, Steven H Lin, Ash A Alizadeh, Maximilian Diehn

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The complementarity and clinical utility of combining liquid biopsies and radiomic image analysis has not been demonstrated. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) minimal residual disease after chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is highly prognostic, but on-treatment biomarkers are needed to enable response-adapted therapies. Here, we analyzed 418 patients with NSCLC undergoing CRT to develop and validate a novel dynamic risk model that accurately predicts ultimate progression-free survival during treatment. We optimize tissue-free variant calling from plasma samples to facilitate ctDNA monitoring and demonstrate the importance of accounting for persistent clonal hematopoiesis variants. We show that mid-CRT ctDNA concentration …

Car-Macrophage Cell Therapy: A New Era Of Hope For Pancreatic Cancer, Daoyan Wei, Liang Wang, Yi Liu, Xiangsheng Zuo, Xiling Shen, Robert S Bresalier

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest malignancies, characterized by late diagnosis, early metastasis, and resistance to conventional therapies. A major barrier to effective treatment is its desmoplastic and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), which restricts T cell infiltration and dampens responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). These features highlight the urgent need for innovative immunotherapeutic strategies capable of overcoming PDAC's immunologic and physical barriers. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-macrophage (CAR-M) therapy has emerged as a promising approach to address these challenges. Unlike CAR-T or CAR-NK cells, CAR-Ms can efficiently infiltrate tumors, remodel the TME, phagocytose tumor cells, and stimulate …

Depletion Of Effector Regulatory T Cells Associates With Major Response To Induction Dual Immune Checkpoint Blockade, Xianli Jiang, Nils-Petter Rudqvist, Bo Jiang, Shengbin Ye, Shan He, Qingnan Liang, Jinzhuang Dou, Michelle D Williams, Joe Dan Dunn, Jason M Johnson, Keiko Akagi, Weihong Xiao, Shaoheng Liang, Satvik Elayavalli, Baohua Sun, Edwin R Parra, Renata Ferrarotto, Adam S Garden, Clifton David Fuller, Jay Reddy, Neil D Gross, Miriam N Lango, Cheuk Hong Leung, Suyu Liu, Diane D Liu, Meng Li, J Jack Lee, Michael A Curran, Jack Phan, Ken Chen, Maura L Gillison

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In a phase II trial, patients with local-regionally advanced human papillomavirus-positive oropharyngeal carcinoma (n = 35) received ipilimumab (anti-CTLA4) and nivolumab (anti-PD-1) as induction immunotherapy and concurrently with radiotherapy (NCT03799445). Coprimary endpoints included 6-month complete metabolic response rate (94%) and 2-year progression-free survival (84%). Induction yielded a 46% major histopathologic response rate. Single-cell profiling revealed responders had higher baseline intratumoral CD8+ T cells with a tumor-reactive, tissue-resident memory (TRM) phenotype and a treatment-related decrease in effector regulatory T (eTreg) cells. The eTreg decrease correlated with CD8+ T-cell clonotype transitioning from TRM to effector memory and IFNG+ effector cells. …

Silicon Is The Next Frontier In Plant Synthetic Biology, Aniruddha Acharya, Kaitlin Hopkins, Tatum Simms

Faculty Publications - Biological Sciences

Silicon has a striking similarity to carbon and is found in plant cells. However, there is no specific role that has been assigned to silicon in the life cycle of plants. The amount of silicon in plant cells is species specific and can reach levels comparable to macronutrients. Silicon is used extensively in artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and the digital revolution, and thus can serve as an informational molecule such as nucleic acids. The diverse potential of silicon to bond with different chemical species is analogous to carbon; thus, it can serve as a structural candidate similar to proteins. The discovery …

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Identifying Conifers Through Science And Tradition, Madhav P. Nepal

iLEARN Teaching Resources

This lesson on plant taxonomy introduces students to the scientific system used to name, classify, and identify plant species, with a focus on conifer trees found in local environments. Students explore how observable traits—such as needle shape, cone structure, and bark texture—are used to group plants into categories that reflect their evolutionary relationships. Through a hands-on tree-walk activity, students use a simplified dichotomous key to identify at least five conifer species on or near school grounds. They then use digital plant ID tools to confirm their findings and compare traditional and modern identification methods. The lesson also emphasizes the hierarchical …

Restoration At The Intersection Of Science And Outreach-The Working Woods Learning Forest, Katharine L. Stuble, David J. Burke, Samuel C. Harbol, Chad Knisely, Jessica Miller Mecaskey, Alexa S. Wagner, Michael Watson, Kevin E. Mueller

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

Botanical gardens and arboreta have enormous (if often under-realized) potential to increase understanding of restoration as a predictive science while simultaneously serving as platforms promoting large-scale restoration by public and private stakeholders. Public gardens often have deep histories of both research and outreach and, increasingly, engagement in restoration efforts. As a team of researchers and practitioners, we share our experiences using a forest management manipulation at the Holden Arboretum for both research and outreach. Forest management is a key tool for enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services in young forests. Known as the Working Woods Learning Forest, this restoration simultaneously serves …

Sex, Stress And Hormones : The Role Of Modifiable Risk Factors In The Kinetics Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Hannah Marie Edwards

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease hallmarked by the presence of amyloid- plaques and tau tangles in the brain. The process of the disease begins decades prior to the onset of symptoms and is thought to be driven first by a buildup of amyloid- peptide in the extracellular space, triggering a cascade of pathology and symptomology culminating in loss of cerebral volume and cognitive impairment. Women are diagnosed with AD at a rate 2/3 higher than their male counterparts, even when controlling for age. While most driving factors of the disease are thought to be genetic, roughly 40% of …

Quantile Index Predictors Using R Package Hyper.Gam, Tingting Zhan, Misung Yi, Inna Chervoneva

Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

MOTIVATION: Evaluation of single-cell protein expression from immunohistochemistry images is used increasingly in biomedical research. Many proteins are used solely for phenotyping cells in the tumor microenvironment. Other proteins with meaningfully quantitative expression levels provide so-called functional protein biomarkers. There is still a limited number of methods and software tools available for utilizing the entire distributions of single-cell expression levels.

RESULTS: We present the R package hyper.gam, providing a supervised learning framework for deriving biomarkers based on single-cell distribution quantiles. The single-cell data are first converted into sample quantile functions, which are then used as predictors in scalar-on-function regression models …

Rna Sequencing And Immunohistochemistry Jointly Improve Tumor Biomarker Interpretation, Vladimir Kushnarev, Danil Stupichev, Suren Davitavyan, Kirill Kriukov, Basavaraja U Shanthappa, Anna Butusova, Sofia Menshikova, Anna Belozerova, Anastasia Shvyrkova, Arina Tkachuk, Olga Khatenkova, Linda Balabanian, Ekaterina Postovalova, Jochen K Lennerz, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Alexander Bagaev

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This study aimed to assess the correlation between RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) in detecting key cancer biomarkers across solid tumors, and then, to establish RNA-seq thresholds that accurately reflect clinical IHC classifications. Expression levels of nine biomarkers-ESR1, PGR, AR, MKI67, ERBB2, CD274, CDX2, KRT7, and KRT20-were analyzed in 365 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples from breast, lung, gastrointestinal, and other solid carcinomas. Correlations between RNA-seq data and IHC scores were determined using Spearman's correlation coefficients, with RNA-seq cut-offs established to distinguish positive from negative IHC scores. The results revealed strong correlations for most biomarkers, with coefficients ranging from 0.53 to …

Breeding Season Bird Use Of And Non-Native Plants Found In Food Plots In The Southern Appalachian Mountains, Nathan A. Klaus, Kirk Stodola

Georgia Journal of Science

Traditional agricultural style food plots, or wildlife openings, are widely used for wildlife management and hunting opportunities on public and private lands in the Southeastern United States. These habitats are often cited as beneficial for game and nongame wildlife, but there are few published studies examining nongame bird use of food plots in recent decades. Modern concerns about the ecological costs of food plots, particularly fragmentation and invasive non-native species, warrant a new examination of this practice. We conducted avian surveys during the breeding season of 2008 at 39 sites composed of three different treatments: traditional food plots, novel food …

Tides, Tourists, And Tails: Exploring Human-Wildlife Overlap On The Homer Spit, Alaska, Serena Seiler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Coastal areas present unique challenges for human-wildlife coexistence due to their shared use by people and marine species. The Homer Spit in Homer, AK (59.6481° N, 151.5299° W) is a projection of land into Kachemak Bay on which lodging, restaurants, campgrounds, RV parks, fishing, and a variety of coastal activities exist or occur, especially during the summer months. Two of the most popular nearshore marine mammals that attract visitors are sea otters (Enhydra lutris) and harbor seals (Phoca vitulina). These two species spend time swimming, foraging, and resting around the Spit, potentially resulting in co occurrences with humans. Using a …

Applying Transcriptomics For Technology Development And Conservation In North American Marine Organisms, Cory Von Eiff

Dissertations

RNA biology is a rapidly expanding field, with many avenues of discovery among marine organisms. In this study, we analyze both mollusks and sawfish. First, we perform an evaluation of sRNA biogenesis pathways throughout Mollusca, with emphasis on the easter oyster, Crassostrea virginica. Understanding these molecules prescribes RNAi-based gene silencing approaches, benefiting genetic investigation and biotechnology. Similar to other animal groups, mollusks have conserved microRNAs (miRNAs), with some shared with ecdysozoans and deuterostomes; however, there is no evidence of an endogenous small interfering RNA (siRNA) pathway. These results suggest that long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-based RNAi is not appropriate for gene …