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Impact Of Altered Polyamine Metabolism On Streptococcus Pneumoniae Capsule, Moses Babatunde Ayoola
Impact Of Altered Polyamine Metabolism On Streptococcus Pneumoniae Capsule, Moses Babatunde Ayoola
Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation is a compilation of published works and a manuscript that seek to understand the possible role of polyamines in the regulation of capsule in Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn, pneumococcus). Spn remains a major health risk worldwide while the capsule is widely recognized as the principal virulence factor. Polyamines on the other hand are small hydrocarbon molecules known to regulate a number of cellular processes in bacteria. This work investigates the impact of deletion of polyamine biosynthesis gene, SP_0916 (cadA, lysine decarboxylase at the time of first and second publication), on protein expression and the capsule biosynthesis of virulent pneumococcal …
Identifying The Molecular Mechanisms Responsible For Persistent Effects Of Developmental Exposure To Chlorpyrifos On Behavior, Navatha Alugubelly
Identifying The Molecular Mechanisms Responsible For Persistent Effects Of Developmental Exposure To Chlorpyrifos On Behavior, Navatha Alugubelly
Theses and Dissertations
Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is one of the most widely used organophosphorus insecticides (OPs). The developmental exposure to low levels of CPF results in the inhibition of the endocannabinoid metabolizing enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and in altered emotional behavior (increased social play) without affecting the acetylcholinesterase, the canonical target of OPs. However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for this increased social play are not known. In this study, male rat pups were exposed orally to either corn oil, 0.75 mg/kg CPF, or 0.02 mg/kg PF-04457845 (PF; a specific inhibitor of FAAH) daily from postnatal day 10 (PND10) - PND16. This dosage …
Platelet-Cancer Cell Interactions: Insights From The Canine Model, Shauna Ashtin Fuhrmann
Platelet-Cancer Cell Interactions: Insights From The Canine Model, Shauna Ashtin Fuhrmann
Theses and Dissertations
Animal models have been recognized for the valuable roles they serve in both animal and human medicine. Dogs share many of the same naturally occurring tumors as humans including osteosarcoma, lymphoma, and mammary tumors. In addition, dogs share the same environment as humans, have a shorter lifespan, and often have a quicker progression of disease, making them an attractive model of human disease. Platelets are small anucleate cell fragments that have essential roles in hemostasis, angiogenesis, and wound healing, and, more recently recognized, roles in development, survival, growth, and metastasis of various cancers. Their roles in angiogenesis has proven to …
A Framework For The Design And Analysis Of High-Performance Applications On Fpgas Using Partial Reconfiguration, Richard D. Anderson
A Framework For The Design And Analysis Of High-Performance Applications On Fpgas Using Partial Reconfiguration, Richard D. Anderson
Theses and Dissertations
The field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is a dynamically reconfigurable digital logic chip used to implement custom hardware. The large densities of modern FPGAs and the capability of the on-thely reconfiguration has made the FPGA a viable alternative to fixed logic hardware chips such as the ASIC. In high-performance computing, FPGAs are used as co-processors to speed up computationally intensive processes or as autonomous systems that realize a complete hardware application. However, due to the limited capacity of FPGA logic resources, denser FPGAs must be purchased if more logic resources are required to realize all the functions of a complex application. …
Application Of Proteomics In Understanding Pale Soft And Exudative Condition In Broiler Breast Meat, Monil Ajitbhai Desai
Application Of Proteomics In Understanding Pale Soft And Exudative Condition In Broiler Breast Meat, Monil Ajitbhai Desai
Theses and Dissertations
This experiment was conducted to determine the differences in meat quality (cooking loss and shear force), descriptive sensory characteristics, consumer acceptance, and whole muscle proteomes between normal and Pale, Soft, and Exudative (PSE) broiler breast meat. Male Hubbard × Cobb 500 birds (n = 1,050) were raised in commercial houses. Prior to harvest, a sample of the broilers (n = 900) were subjected to short-term stress (38 °C for 2 h), and the remaining broilers (n = 150) were maintained at control conditions (21 °C for 2 h). From the stressed and control condition broilers, breast samples were characterized by …
The Effect Of Oxygen On Bile Resistance In Listeria Monocytogenes, Morgan Layne Wright
The Effect Of Oxygen On Bile Resistance In Listeria Monocytogenes, Morgan Layne Wright
Theses and Dissertations
Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive facultative anaerobe that is the causative agent of the disease listeriosis and is responsible for nearly 20% of all food-related deaths in the United States. The ability of this bacterium to cause infections is proposed to correlate to its ability to resist the bactericidal properties of bile acids found in bile. Bile resistance mechanisms have exhibited increased activity under anaerobic conditions. Therefore, we hypothesized that limited oxygen could enhance the bile resistance of L. monocytogenes. Upon survival analysis, viability for virulent strains F2365, EGD-e, and 10403S increased upon 10% porcine bile extract under anaerobic conditions. …
Validating Pasture Heaves As An Equine Model Of Neutrophilic Asthma: A Systems Biology Approach, Lauren Ashley Bright
Validating Pasture Heaves As An Equine Model Of Neutrophilic Asthma: A Systems Biology Approach, Lauren Ashley Bright
Theses and Dissertations
Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease characterized by reversible airway obstruction, persistent airway hyperresponsiveness, chronic airway inflammation, and chronic airway remodeling. Most adult asthmatics have neutrophilic airway inflammation that correlates to increasing disease severity, and fail to respond to corticosteroid therapies that mitigate other asthma endotypes. Accordingly, there is a need to investigate the molecular mechanisms responsible for neutrophilic asthma. Pasture heaves, a respiratory disease affecting horses housed on pasture in conditions of high heat and humidity, shares the aforementioned characteristics of human asthma, including neutrophilic inflammation. The cause is undetermined, but genetic propensities for reactivity to seasonally inhaled, pasture-associated, …
Molecular And Proteomic Analysis Of Components Involved In Abscisic Acid (Aba) Signaling Network, Jie Song
Molecular And Proteomic Analysis Of Components Involved In Abscisic Acid (Aba) Signaling Network, Jie Song
Theses and Dissertations
Abscisic acid is an important plant hormone in the responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, which also regulates various growth and developmental processes in plants. Three major components-receptors (PYRs), the PP2C type phosphatases and the SnRK2 subtype kinases form a double negative regulatory system: PYR/PYL/RCARs inhibit the activity of PP2Cs while PP2Cs inhibit that of SnRK2s in ABA signaling pathway. The results of my studies showed that ABA would directly affect the interaction between SnRK2.2 and ABI1 in absence of PYRs. Furthermore, ABA can inhibit the catalytic activity of the SnRK2.2 kinase. These findings indicated that ABA may directly interact …
Computational Methods On Study Of Differentially Expressed Proteins In Maize Proteomes Associated With Resistance To Aflatoxin Accumulation, Alka Tiwari
Theses and Dissertations
Plant breeders have focused on improving maize resistance to Aspergillus flavus infection and aflatoxin accumulation by breeding with genotypes having the desirable traits. Various maize inbred lines have been developed for the breeding of resistance. Identification of differentially expressed proteins among such maize inbred lines will facilitate the development of gene markers and expedite the breeding process. Computational biology and proteomics approaches on the investigation of differentially expressed proteins were explored in this research. The major research objectives included 1) application of computational methods in homology and comparative modeling to study 3D protein structures and identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) …
Epigenetic Regulations In Cell Wall Degradation And Regeneration In Oryza Sativa, Feng Tan
Epigenetic Regulations In Cell Wall Degradation And Regeneration In Oryza Sativa, Feng Tan
Theses and Dissertations
It is well known that chromatin components are key players in establishing and maintaining spatial and temporal gene expression in plants, however, little is known about the epigenetic regulation on cell wall degradation and regeneration. This study aimed to 1) investigate the global proteome and phosphoproteome of rice chromatin, and 2) characterize changes in chromatin components and chromatin structure associated with cell wall degradation and regeneration, and 3) characterize the differentially regulated proteins and eventually explore the mechanism. In this dissertation, we examine proteins copurified with chromatin using both 2-DE gel and shotgun approaches from rice (Oryza sativa) suspension cells. …
Systems Biology Modeling Of Bovine Fertility Using Proteomics, Divya Swetha Peddinti
Systems Biology Modeling Of Bovine Fertility Using Proteomics, Divya Swetha Peddinti
Theses and Dissertations
Beef and milk production industries represent the largest agricultural industries in the United States with a retail equivalent value of approximately $112 billion (USDA, 2008). Infertility is the major problem for mammalian reproduction. In the United States approximately 66% of cows are bred by Artificial Insemination (AI), but only ~50% of these inseminations result in successful pregnancies. Infertility can occur either from male factor (spermatozoon) or female factor (oocyte) and male contributes approximately 40% of cases. Infertility costs the producer approximately $5 per exposed cow for every 1% reduction in pregnancy rate. In spite of its millions of dollars in …
Machine Learning And Mapping Algorithms Applied To Proteomics Problems, William Shane Sanders
Machine Learning And Mapping Algorithms Applied To Proteomics Problems, William Shane Sanders
Theses and Dissertations
Proteins provide evidence that a given gene is expressed, and machine learning algorithms can be applied to various proteomics problems in order to gain information about the underlying biology. This dissertation applies machine learning algorithms to proteomics data in order to predict whether or not a given peptide is observable by mass spectrometry, whether a given peptide can serve as a cell penetrating peptide, and then utilizes the peptides observed through mass spectrometry to aid in the structural annotation of the chicken genome. Peptides observed by mass spectrometry are used to identify proteins, and being able to accurately predict which …
A Proteomic Approach To Profiling The Pipping Muscle Of The Broiler Embryo, Adebayo Oluwaseun Sokale
A Proteomic Approach To Profiling The Pipping Muscle Of The Broiler Embryo, Adebayo Oluwaseun Sokale
Theses and Dissertations
The Musculus complexus (pipping muscle) plays a primary role in the hatching of the chick from the eggshell at the end of its embryonic life. Various metabolic and cellular changes have been associated with the pipping muscle during development. These studies profiled the pipping muscle at the molecular level by identifying proteins which are associated with the developmental changes. In the first phase of the study, protein expression profile of the Day 13 chicken embryo pipping muscle was obtained using DDF with nano HPLC mass spectrometric analyzer. Identified proteins were categorized based on Gene Ontology. In the second phase, pipping …
A Method For Integrating Heterogeneous Datasets Based On Go Term Similarity, Chamali Lankara Thanthiriwatte
A Method For Integrating Heterogeneous Datasets Based On Go Term Similarity, Chamali Lankara Thanthiriwatte
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis presents a method for integrating heterogeneous gene/protein datasets at the functional level based on Gene Ontology term similarity. Often biologists want to integrate heterogeneous data sets obtain from different biological samples. A major challenge in this process is how to link the heterogeneous datasets. Currently, the most common approach is to link them through common reference database identifiers which tend to result in small number of matching identifiers. This is due to lack of standard accession schemes. Due to this problem, biologists may not recognize the underlying biological phenomena revealed by a combination of the data but by …
Improving Structural And Functional Annotation Of The Chicken Genome, Teresia Buza
Improving Structural And Functional Annotation Of The Chicken Genome, Teresia Buza
Theses and Dissertations
Chicken is an important non-mammalian vertebrate model organism for biomedical research, especially for vaccine production and the study of embryology and development. Chicken is also an important agricultural species and major food source for high-quality protein worldwide. In addition, chicken is an important model organism for comparative and evolution genomics. Exploitation of this genome as a biomedical model is hindered by its incomplete structural and functional annotation. This incomplete annotation makes it difficult for researchers to model their functional genomics datasets. Improving structural and functional annotation of the chicken genome will allow researchers to derive biological meaning from their functional …
Molecular And Biochemical Analysis Of Water Stress Induced Responses In Grape, Ramesh Katam
Molecular And Biochemical Analysis Of Water Stress Induced Responses In Grape, Ramesh Katam
Theses and Dissertations
Water stress affects vine productivity, disease tolerance, and enological characteristics of grape. Florida Hybrid Bunch grape are developed through hybridization of local grape spp with Vitis vinifera. These cultivars are mostly grown in southeast region of United States. Water deficit conditions resulted due to failure of rains in the region has developed concern among Florida grape growers to increase water use efficiency of grape. The goal of this research is to identify genes and proteins differentially expressed in response to water stress and to correlate these changes with enological characteristics. Investigating transcripts and proteins will allow us to correlate them …
Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus Infections Affect Professional Antigen Presentation In Bovine Monocytes, Sang-Ryul Lee
Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus Infections Affect Professional Antigen Presentation In Bovine Monocytes, Sang-Ryul Lee
Theses and Dissertations
Monocytes are professional antigen presenting cells (APC). They serve as precursors of macrophages and dendritic cells (DC). We have used cytopathic (cp) and non-cytopathic (ncp) Bovine Viral Diarrhea Viruses (BVDV) to determine the genes and proteins expression levels in bovine monocytes. Four specific aims were accomplished in this study. The first aim was to assess the baseline expression of the proteins involved in professional antigen presentation in bovine monocytes. The results showed that the differential detergent fractionation (DDF) approach can provide interpretable and meaningful functional information in bovine monocytes. The second aim was to evaluate the role of in vitro …
Proteomic Analysis Of Listeria Monocytogenes, Sana Mujahid
Proteomic Analysis Of Listeria Monocytogenes, Sana Mujahid
Theses and Dissertations
Listeria monocytogenes is a deadly, Gram-positive foodborne pathogen that is ubiquitous in the environment. The bacterium expresses a number of virulence and stress adaptation proteins that support its pathogenic capabilities. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) was used to map L. monocytogenes surface proteins, which play a central role in virulence, and to examine protein expression by L. monocytogenes grown on ready-to-eat meat, an important source of Listeria infections. A novel method for solubilization of surface proteins from L. monocytogenes for 2-DE was developed. Additionally, the unique proteome expressed by L. monocytogenes grown on a meat matrix was uncovered. The developed solubilization …
Identification, Characterization And Anti-Fungal Activities Of Silk Proteins In Aspergillus Flavus Resistant And Susceptible Maize Inbreds, Bela Peethambaran
Identification, Characterization And Anti-Fungal Activities Of Silk Proteins In Aspergillus Flavus Resistant And Susceptible Maize Inbreds, Bela Peethambaran
Theses and Dissertations
This study aimed to understand the mechanism of maize inbreds resistance to A. flavus by exploring the proteins that are differentially regulated in presence of pathogen. Silk has been hypothesized as one of the entry routes of fungal growth and so the proteome of silks was investigated by 1) performing a comparative proteomic study to identify silk proteins that are abundant in resistant maize inbreds and down-regulated or absent in susceptible inbreds, 2) identifying the up-regulated proteins in maize resistant and susceptible inbreds when challenged by A. flavus 3) by mapping the proteome of silk proteins in a A. flavus …