Digital Commons Network^™

Dengue Virus Induces Mitochondrial Elongation Through Impairment Of Drp1-Triggered Mitochondrial Fission, Vincent Barbier, Diane Lang, Dierra Valois, Alan L. Rothman, Carey L. Medin

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles that undergo continuous cycles of fission and fusion to maintain essential cellular functions. An imbalance between these two processes can result in many pathophysiological outcomes. Dengue virus (DENV) interacts with cellular organelles, including mitochondria, to successfully replicate in cells. This study used live-cell imaging and found an increase in mitochondrial length and respiration during DENV infection. The level of mitochondrial fission protein, Dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1), was decreased on mitochondria during DENV infection, as well as Drp1 phosphorylated on serine 616, which is important for mitochondrial fission. DENV proteins NS4b and NS3 were also associated …

Genome Sequencing Of The Sweetpotato Whitefly Bemisia Tabaci Med/Q, Wen Xie, Evan L. Preisser, Et Al

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci is a highly destructive agricultural and ornamental crop pest. It damages host plants through both phloem feeding and vectoring plant pathogens. Introductions of B. tabaci are difficult to quarantine and eradicate because of its high reproductive rates, broad host plant range, and insecticide resistance. A total of 791 Gb of raw DNA sequence from whole genome shotgun sequencing, and 13 BAC pooling libraries were generated by Illumina sequencing using different combinations of mate-pair and pair-end libraries. Assembly gave a final genome with a scaffold N50 of 437 kb, and a total length of 658 Mb. …

First Record Of The Megamouth Shark, Megachasma Pelagios, (Family Megachasmidae) In The Tropical Western North Atlantic Ocean, Grisel Rodriguez-Ferrer, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Michelle Schärer, Craig Lilyestrom, Jan P. Zegarra, Mahmood Shivji

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: A new record of Megachasma pelagios is here reported for the tropical western North Atlantic Ocean from Puerto Rico.

Results: On December 10, 2016, a tourist reported an unusual stranded shark on Mojacasabe Beach, Cabo Rojo, on the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico. Visual examination of the carcass and mitochondrial DNA analysis from a dorsal fin sample revealed it to be a 457 cm female megamouth shark.

Conclusion: This record represents the first record of M. pelagios for the tropical western North Atlantic Ocean within the Caribbean Sea of southwest Puerto Rico and only the second record of M. …

Expression Map Of A Complete Set Of Gustatory Receptor Genes In Chemosensory Organs Of Bombyx Mori, Huizhen Guo, Tingcai Cheng, Zhiwei Chen, Liang Jiang, Youbing Guo, Jianqiu Liu, Shenglong Li, Kiyoko Taniai, Kiyoshi Asaoka, Keiko Kadono-Okuda, Kallare P. Arunkumar, Jiaqi Wu, Hirohisa Kishino, Huijie Zhang, Rakesh K. Seth, Karumathil P. Gopinathan, Nicolas Montagné, Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly, Marian R. Goldsmith, Qingyou Xia, Kazuei Mita

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Most lepidopteran species are herbivores, and interaction with host plants affects their gene expression and behavior as well as their genome evolution. Gustatory receptors (Grs) are expected to mediate host plant selection, feeding, oviposition and courtship behavior. However, due to their high diversity, sequence divergence and extremely low level of expression it has been difficult to identify precisely a complete set of Grs in Lepidoptera. By manual annotation and BAC sequencing, we improved annotation of 43 gene sequences compared with previously reported Grs in the most studied lepidopteran model, the silkworm, Bombyx mori, and identified 7 new tandem copies …

Individual And Non‐Additive Effects Of Exotic Sap‐Feeders On Root Functional And Mycorrhizal Traits Of A Shared Conifer Host, Robert N. Schaeffer, Claire M. Wilson, Laura Radville, Mauri Barrett, Elizabeth Whitney, Sofia Roitman, Esther R. Miller, Benjamin E. Wolfe, Carol S. Thornber, Colin M. Orians, Evan L. Preisser

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

1. Forest pests drive tree mortality through disruption of functional traits linked to nutrient acquisition, growth and reproduction. The impacts of attack by individual or multiple above‐ground herbivores on root functional traits critical to tree health have received little attention. This is especially true for exotic herbivores, organisms often found in disturbed forests.
2. We excavated whole‐root systems from eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) individuals experimentally infested with hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA: Adelges tsugae) and elongate hemlock scale (EHS: Fiorina externa) individually, or in combination, for periods of 2 and 4 years. Below‐ground root biomass, functional traits and storage …

College Of Pharmacy Spring 2017 Newsletter, Uri College Of Pharmacy

College of Pharmacy Publications

The Spring 2017 Newsletter for the College of Pharmacy is a periodical focused on department news and research.

Delivering Safer Immunotherapies For Cancer, Lauren Milling, Yuan Zhang, Darrell J. Irvine

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Cancer immunotherapy is now a powerful clinical reality, with a steady progression of new drug approvals and a massive pipeline of additional treatments in clinical and preclinical development. However, modulation of the immune system can be a double-edged sword: Drugs that activate immune effectors are prone to serious non-specific systemic inflammation and autoimmune side effects. Drug delivery technologies have an important role to play in harnessing the power of immune therapeutics while avoiding on-target/off-tumor toxicities. Here we review mechanisms of toxicity for clinically-relevant immunotherapeutics, and discuss approaches based in drug delivery technology to enhance the safety and potency of these …

Hepatic Lipid Accumulation And Nrf2 Expression Following Perinatal And Peripubertal Exposure To Bisphenol A In A Mouse Model Of Nonalcoholic Liver Disease, Prajakta C. Shimpi, Vijay R. More, Maneesha Paranjpe, Ajay C. Donepudi, Jaclyn M. Goodrich, Dana C. Dolinoy, Beverly Rubin, Angela L. Slitt

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Exposure to chemicals during critical windows of development may re-program liver for increased risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Bisphenol A (BPA), a plastics component, has been described to impart adverse effects during gestational and lactational exposure. Our work has pointed to nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) being a modulator of hepatic lipid accumulation in models of NAFLD.

Objectives: To determine if chemical exposure can prime liver for steatosis via modulation of NRF2 and epigenetic mechanisms.

Methods: Utilizing BPA as a model exposure, pregnant CD-1 mice were administered 25μg/kg/day" role="presentation">25μg/kg/day BPA via osmotic …

Proteolysis-Dependent Remodeling Of The Tubulin Homolog Ftsz At The Division Septum In Escherichia Coli, Marissa G. Viola, Christopher J. Labreck, Joseph Conti, Jodi L. Camberg

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

During bacterial cell division a dynamic protein structure called the Z-ring assembles at the septum. The major protein in the Z-ring in Escherichia coli is FtsZ, a tubulin homolog that polymerizes with GTP. FtsZ is degraded by the two-component ATP-dependent protease ClpXP. Two regions of FtsZ, located outside of the polymerization domain in the unstructured linker and at the C-terminus, are important for specific recognition and degradation by ClpXP. We engineered a synthetic substrate containing green fluorescent protein (Gfp) fused to an extended FtsZ C-terminal tail (residues 317–383), including the unstructured linker and the C-terminal conserved region, but not the …

Composition And Function Of Mutant Swi/Snf Complexes, Arnob Dutta, Mihaela Sardiu, Madelaine Gogol, Joshua Gilmore, Daoyong Zhang, Laurence Florens, Susan M. Abmayr, Michael P. Washburn, Jerry L. Workman

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

See PDF for graphical abstract.

Selectable Marker Independent Transformation Of Recalcitrant Maize Inbred B73 And Sorghum P898012 Mediated By Morphogenic Regulators Baby Boom And Wuschel2, Muruganatham Mookkan, Kimberly Nelson-Vasilchik, Joel Hague, Zhanyuan J. Zhang, Albert P. Kausch

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

The use of morphogenic regulators to overcome barriers in plant transformation is a revolutionary breakthrough for basic plant science and crop applications. Current standard plant transformation systems are bottlenecks for genetic, genomic, and crop improvement studies. We investigated the differential use of co-expression of maize transcription factors BABY BOOM and WUSCHEL2 coupled with a desiccation inducible CRE/lox excision system to enable regeneration of stable transgenic recalcitrant maize inbred B73 and sorghum P898012 without a chemical selectable marker. The PHP78891 expression cassette contains CRE driven by the drought inducible maize RAB17_M promoter with lox P sites which bracket …

Ecosystem Functions At The Island Scale: A Contribution To The Design Of Ecological Structure, Marta Vergílio, Pete V. August, Helena Calado, Catarina Fonseca

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

The concept of ecological structure (ESt), as implemented through spatial planning, has been recently used to protect ecosystem functions (EFs) and services and their contribution to human well-being. This study intends to provide an exploratory analysis to operationalize the inclusion of EFs in the design of ESt in territories lacking detailed individual studies on EFs. The objective is to advance this concept in small island ecosystems and use Pico Island (Portugal) as case study. The proposed methodology identifies EFs contributing to the objectives of ESt. It uses (i) geographic data available from studies on individual EFs and (ii) definition of …

T‐Cell Epitope Content Comparison (Epicc) Of Swine H1 Influenza A Virus Hemagglutinin, Andres H. Gutiérrez, Vicki J. Rapp-Gabrielson, Frances E. Terry, Crystal L. Loving, Leonard Moise, William D. Martin, Anne S. De Groot

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Background: Predicting vaccine efficacy against emerging pathogen strains is a significant problem in human and animal vaccine design. T‐cell epitope cross‐conservation may play an important role in cross‐strain vaccine efficacy. While influenza A virus (IAV) hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody titers are widely used to predict protective efficacy of 1 IAV vaccine against new strains, no similar correlate of protection has been identified for T‐cell epitopes.

Objective: We developed a computational method (EpiCC) that facilitates pairwise comparison of protein sequences based on an immunological property—T‐cell epitope content—rather than sequence identity, and evaluated its ability to classify swine IAV strain relatedness to …

Anti-Glycation And Anti-Oxidative Effects Of A Phenolic-Enriched Maple Syrup Extract And Its Protective Effects On Normal Human Colon Cells, Weixi Liu, Zhengxi Wei, Hang Ma, Ang Cai, Yongqiang Liu, Jiadong Sun, Nicholas A. Dasilva, Shelby L. Johnson, Louis J. Kirschenbaum, Bongsup P. Cho, Joel A. Dain, David C. Rowley, Zahir A. Shaikh, Navindra P. Seeram

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Oxidative stress and free radical generation accelerate the formation of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) which are linked to several chronic diseases. Published data suggest that phenolic-rich plant foods, show promise as natural anti-AGEs agents due to their anti-oxidation capacities. A phenolic-enriched maple syrup extract (MSX) has previously been reported to show anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects but its anti-AGE effects remain unknown. Therefore, herein, we investigated the anti-glycation and anti-oxidation effects of MSX using biochemical and biophysical methods. MSX (500 μg mL⁻¹) reduced the formation of AGEs by 40% in the bovine serum albumin (BSA)–fructose assay and by 30% …

University Manual 2016-2017, Uri Faculty Senate

University Manual Archive

No abstract provided.

A Human Gut Commensal Ferments Cranberry Carbohydrates To Produce Formate, Ezgi Özcan, Jiadong Sun, David C. Rowley, David A. Sela

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Commensal bifidobacteria colonize the human gastrointestinal tract and catabolize glycans that are impervious to host digestion. Accordingly, Bifidobacterium longum typically secretes acetate and lactate as fermentative end products. This study tested the hypothesis that B. longum utilizes cranberry-derived xyloglucans in a strain-dependent manner. Interestingly, the B. longum strain that efficiently utilizes cranberry xyloglucans secretes 2.0 to 2.5 mol of acetate-lactate. The 1.5 acetate:lactate ratio theoretical yield obtained in hexose fermentations shifts during xyloglucan metabolism. Accordingly, this metabolic shift is characterized by increased acetate and formate production at the expense of lactate. α-l-Arabinofuranosidase, an arabinan endo-1,5-α-l-arabinosidase, and a β-xylosidase with a …

The Interactions Of Single-Wall Carbon Nanohorns With Polar Epithelium, Yujie Shi, Zujin Shi, Suxin Li, Yuan Zhang, Bing He, Dong Peng, Jie Tian, Ming Zhao, Xueqing Wang, Qiang Zhang

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Single-wall carbon nanohorns (SWCNHs), which have multitudes of horn interstices, an extensive surface area, and a spherical aggregate structure, offer many advantages over other carbon nanomaterials being used as a drug nanovector. The previous studies on the interaction between SWCNHs and cells have mostly emphasized on cellular uptake and intracellular trafficking, but seldom on epithelial cells. Polar epithelium as a typical biological barrier constitutes the prime obstacle for the transport of therapeutic agents to target site. This work tried to explore the permeability of SWCNHs through polar epithelium and their abilities to modulate transcellular transport, and evaluate the potential of …

Urinformed Spring 2017, Urinformed

URInformed: The URI Employees' Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Urinformed Fall 2017, Urinformed

URInformed: The URI Employees' Newsletter

No abstract provided.

On Faculty Development Of Stem Inclusive Teaching Practices, Bryan Dewsbury

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Faculty development of inclusive teaching practices has become more common in response to significant differences in STEM student retention between underrepresented minorities in the USA and students from other ethnic groups. Approaches to solve this have shifted from focusing on student deficits to changing campus culture, including the mindsets of instructors who teach STEM courses. In this article, I argue that based on the literature informing the conceptual frameworks used for faculty development in inclusive teaching, faculty developers should reframe the message of their workshops to focus participants more on the scope of the journey, and shift the direction of …

Plant Defense Negates Pathogen Manipulation Of Vector Behavior, Baiming Liu, Evan L. Preisser, Xiaobin Shi, Huaitong Wu, Chuanyou Li, Wen Xie, Shaoli Wang, Qingjun Wu, Youjun Zhang

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

1. Although many vector‐borne plant pathogens can alter vector behaviour to the pathogen's benefit, how plants might counter such manipulation is unknown.

2. In the Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (‘TYLCV’)–Bemisia tabaci–tomato interaction, TYLCV‐mediated changes in Bemisia feeding improves viral uptake and transmission. We tested how jasmonic acid (‘JA’), a central regulator of plant antiherbivore defences, affected the ability of TYLCV to (A) manipulate Bemisia behaviour; and (B) infect plants.

3. Viruliferous Bemisia fed much more than virus‐free whiteflies on JA‐deficient plants, more than virus‐free whiteflies on controls, and similarly on high‐JA plants.

4. When TYLCV was transmitted …

Red Algal Mitochondrial Genomes Are More Complete Than Previously Reported, Eric D. Salomaki, Christopher E. Lane

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The enslavement of an alpha-proteobacterial endosymbiont by the last common eukaryotic ancestor resulted in large-scale gene transfer of endosymbiont genes to the host nucleus as the endosymbiont transitioned into the mitochondrion. Mitochondrial genomes have experienced widespread gene loss and genome reduction within eukaryotes and DNA sequencing has revealed that most of these gene losses occurred early in eukaryotic lineage diversification. On a broad scale, more recent modifications to organelle genomes appear to be conserved and phylogenetically informative. The first red algal mitochondrial genome was sequenced more than 20 years ago, and an additional 29 Florideophyceae mitochondria have been added over …

Seasonal Variation In Effects Of Herbivory On Foliar Nitrogen Of A Threatened Conifer, Robert N. Schaeffer, Nicole E. Soltis, Jennifer L. Martin, Aden L. Brown, Sara Gómez, Evan L. Preisser, Colins M. Orians

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Invasive herbivores can dramatically impact the nitrogen (N) economy of native hosts. In deciduous species, most N is stored in stem tissues, while in evergreen conifer species N is stored in needles, making them potentially more vulnerable to herbivory. In eastern forests of the USA, the long-lived, foundational conifer eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is under the threat of extirpation by the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA: Adelges tsugae). We assessed the impact of HWA infestation on the patterns of seasonal foliar N availability in hemlock planted in a deciduous forest understory. Over the course of a year, …

Proteomic Responses To Elevated Ocean Temperature In Ovaries Of The Ascidian Ciona Intestinalis, Chelsea E. Lopez, Hannah C. Sheehan, David A. Vierra, Paul A. Azzinaro, Thomas H. Meedel, Niall G. Howlett, Steven Q. Irvine

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ciona intestinalis, a common sea squirt, exhibits lower reproductive success at the upper extreme of the water temperatures it experiences in coastal New England. In order to understand the changes in protein expression associated with elevated temperatures, and possible response to global temperature change, we reared C. intestinalis from embryos to adults at 18°C (a temperature at which they reproduce normally at our collection site in Rhode Island) and 22°C (the upper end of the local temperature range). We then dissected ovaries from animals at each temperature, extracted protein, and measured proteomic levels using shotgun mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). 1532 …

Social Buffering In A Eusocial Invertebrate: Termite Soldiers Reduce The Lethal Impact Of Competitor Cues On Workers, Li Tian, Evan L. Preisser, Kenneth F. Haynes, Xuguo Zhou

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

While the impact of predator‐induced stress on prey has received considerable attention, there has been far less research into the effect of competitors. Cues from aggressive competitors should be particularly likely to evoke behavioral and/or physiological responses, since they may be indicative of both direct (interference) and indirect (exploitative) threats. The danger posed by such competitors, and the “fear” they evoke, should be reduced at lower competitor densities and by the presence of individual conspecifics specialized for defense. We assessed how Reticulitermes flavipes termite workers and soldiers were affected by cues from conspecific nestmates, conspecific non‐nestmates, and the heterospecific competitor …

Inbreeding Produces Trade-Offs Between Maternal Fecundity And Offspring Survival In A Monandrous Spider, Zhanqi Chen, Evan L. Preisser, Rong Xiao, Jian Chen, Daiqin Li, Xiaoguo Jiao

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Offspring born to related parents often have lower fitness than those born to unrelated parents, a phenomenon termed inbreeding depression. While many species have been shown to rely on pre- and/or postcopulatory mate choice to avoid inbreeding, such research has focused largely on polyandrous rather than monandrous species. The absence of postcopulatory mate choice in monandrous species suggests that precopulatory mate choice should play a more important role in inbreeding avoidance. We used a monandrous wolf spider, Pardosa astrigera, as a model system to investigate whether (1) male spiders respond differently to sibling and nonsibling females; (2) female spiders respond …

An Incipient Invasion Of Brown Anole Lizards (Anolis Sagrei) Into Their Own Native Range In The Cayman Islands: A Case Of Cryptic Back-Introduction, Jason J. Kolbe, Johanna E. Wegener, Yoel E. Stuart, Ushuaia Milstead, Katherine E. Boronow, Alexis S. Harrison, Jonathan B. Losos

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Human-mediated dispersal has reshaped distribution patterns and biogeographic relationships for many taxa. Long-distance and over-water dispersal were historically rare events for most species, but now human activities can move organisms quickly over long distances to new places. A potential consequence of human-mediated dispersal is the eventual reintroduction of individuals from an invasive population back into their native range; a dimension of biological invasion termed “cryptic back-introduction.” We investigated whether this phenomenon was occurring in the Cayman Islands where brown anole lizards (Anolis sagrei) with red dewlaps (i.e., throat fans), either native to Little Cayman or invasive on Grand …

Does Forest Extent Affect Salamander Survival? Evidence From A Long‐Term Demographic Study Of A Tropical Newt, Anthony Lau, Nancy E. Karraker, David Dudgeon

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Forest loss has been associated with reduced survival in many vertebrates, and previous research on amphibians has mostly focused on effects at early life stages. Paramesotriton hongkongensis is a tropical newt that breeds in streams but spends up to 10 months per year in terrestrial habitats. Populations are threatened by habitat degradation and collection for the pet trade, but the cryptic terrestrial lifestyle of this newt has limited our understanding of its population ecology, which inhibits development of a species‐specific conservation plan. We conducted an eight‐year (2007–2014) mark–recapture study on four P. hongkongensis populations in Hong Kong and used these …

Geographic Variation In Apparent Competition Between Native And Invasive Phragmites Australis, Ganesh P. Bhattarai, Laura A. Meyerson, James T. Cronin

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Apparent competition, the negative interaction between species mediated by shared natural enemies, is thought to play an important role in shaping the structure and dynamics of natural communities. However, its importance in driving species invasions, and whether the strength of this indirect interaction varies across the latitudinal range of the invasion, has not been fully explored. We performed replicated field experiments at four sites spanning 900 km along the Atlantic Coast of the United States to assess the presence and strength of apparent competition between sympatric native and invasive lineages of Phragmites australis. Four herbivore guilds were considered: stem‐feeders, …

Evolutionary Response To Global Change: Climate And Land Use Interact To Shape Color Polymorphism In A Woodland Salamander, Bradley J. Cosentino, Jean-David Moore, Nancy E. Karraker, Martin Ouellet, James P. Gibbs

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Evolutionary change has been demonstrated to occur rapidly in human‐modified systems, yet understanding how multiple components of global change interact to affect adaptive evolution remains a critical knowledge gap. Climate change is predicted to impose directional selection on traits to reduce thermal stress, but the strength of directional selection may be mediated by changes in the thermal environment driven by land use. We examined how regional climatic conditions and land use interact to affect genetically based color polymorphism in the eastern red‐backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus). P. cinereus is a woodland salamander with two primary discrete color morphs (striped, …