Digital Commons Network^™

The Cytoplasmic Terminus Of Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Glycoprotein B Is Not Essential For Virion Egress And Infectivity, R. Subramanian, O. D'Auvergne, Haixia Kong, K. G. Kousoulas

Faculty Publications

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV)-encoded glycoprotein B (gB) is an important determinant of viral infectivity and virion egress. A small interfering RNA (siRNA)-based strategy was devised to inhibit KSHV gB gene expression. Transient cotransfection of plasmids constitutively expressing gB and anti-gB siRNAs in 293 cells substantially inhibited gB mRNA levels and protein production. Similarly, transient expression of siRNAs into the primary effusion lymphoma cell line BCBL-1 caused a substantial reduction of gB transcripts and protein synthesis. TaqMan real-time PCR assays against the lytic KSHV gene ORF59 and infectivity assays on 293 cells were employed to assess the effect of inhibiting gB …

Expressed Cdnas From Embryonic And Larval Stages Of The Horn Fly (Diptera: Muscidae), F. D. Guerrero, S. E. Dowd, V. M. Nene, L. D. Foil

Faculty Publications

We used an expressed sequence tag approach to initiate a study of the genome of the horn fly, Hematobia irritans (L.) (Diptera: Muscidae). Two normalized cDNA libraries were synthesized from RNA isolated from embryos and first instars from a field population of horn flies. Approximately 10,000 clones were sequenced from both the 5′ and 3′ directions. Sequence data from each library was assembled into a database of tentative consensus sequences (TCs) and singletons and used to search public protein databases and annotate the sequences. Additionally, the sequences from both the egg and larval libraries were combined into a single database …

Seminaphthofluorones Are A Family Of Water-Soluble, Low Molecular Weight, Nir-Emitting Fluorophores, Youjun Yang, Mark Lowry, Xiangyang Xu, Jorge O. Escobedo, Martha Sibrian-Vazquez, Lisa Wong, Corin M. Schowalter, Timothy J. Jensen, Frank R. Fronczek, Isiah M. Warner, Robert M. Strongin

Faculty Publications

A readily accessible new class of near infrared (NIR) molecular probes has been synthesized and evaluated. Specific fluorophores in this unique xanthene based regioisomeric seminaphthofluorone dye series exhibit a combination of desirable characteristics including (i) low molecular weight (339 amu), (ii) aqueous solubility, and (iii) dual excitation and emission from their fluorescent neutral and anionic forms. Importantly, systematic changes in the regiochemistry of benzannulation and the ionizable moieties afford (iv) tunable deep-red to NIR emission from anionic species and (v) enhanced Stokes shifts. Anionic SNAFR-6, exhibiting an unusually large Stokes shift of ≈200 nm (5,014 cm-1) in aqueous buffer, embodies …

Dna Protection By Histone-Like Protein Hu From The Hyperthermophilic Eubacterium Thermotoga Maritima, Anirban Mukherjee, Abimbola O. Sokunbi, Anne Grove

Faculty Publications

In mesophilic prokaryotes, the DNA-binding protein HU participates in nucleoid organization as well as in regulation of DNA-dependent processes. Little is known about nucleoid organization in thermophilic eubacteria. We show here that HU from the hyperthermophilic eubacterium Thermotoga maritima HU bends DNA and constrains negative DNA supercoils in the presence of topoisomerase I. However, while binding to a single site occludes ∼35 bp, association of T. maritima HU with DNA of sufficient length to accommodate multiple protomers results in an apparent shorter occluded site size. Such complexes consist of ordered arrays of protomers, as revealed by the periodicity of DNase …

Temperature Sensitivity And Cell Division Defects In An Escherichia Coli Strain With Mutations In Yghb And Yqja, Encoding Related And Conserved Inner Membrane Proteins, Kandi Thompkins, Ballari Chattopadhyay, Ying Xiao, Margaret C. Henk, William T. Doerrler

Faculty Publications

Ludox density gradients were used to enrich for Escherichia coli mutants with conditional growth defects and alterations in membrane composition. A temperature-sensitive mutant named Lud135 was isolated with mutations in two related, nonessential genes: yghB and yqjA. yghB harbors a single missense mutation (G203D) and yqjA contains a nonsense mutation (W92TGA) in Lud135. Both mutations are required for the temperature-sensitive phenotype: targeted deletion of both genes in a wild-type background results in a strain with a similar phenotype and expression of either gene from a plasmid restores growth at elevated temperatures. The mutant has altered membrane phospholipid levels, with elevated …

Botanicals As Epigenetic Modulators For Mechanisms Contributing To Development Of Metabolic Syndrome, Heather Kirk, William T. Cefalu, David Ribnicky, Zhijun Liu, Kenneth J. Eilertsen

Faculty Publications

Epigenetics refers to heritable changes in gene expression that are not attributable to changes in DNA sequence and impacts many areas of applied and basic biology including developmental biology, gene therapy, somatic cell nuclear transfer, somatic cell reprogramming, and stem cell biology. Epigenetic changes are known to contribute to aging in addition to multiple disease states. Epigenetic changes can be influenced by environmental factors that in turn can be inherited by daughter cells during cell division and can also be inherited through the germ line. Thus, it is intriguing to consider that epigenetics, in general, may play a role in …

Satellite Assessment Of Bio-Optical Properties Of Northern Gulf Of Mexico Coastal Waters Following Hurricanes Katrina And Rita, Steven E. Lohrenz, Wei-Jun Cai, Xiaogang Chen, Merritt Tuel

Faculty Publications

The impacts of major tropical storms events on coastal waters include sediment resuspension, intense water column mixing, and increased delivery of terrestrial materials into coastal waters. We examined satellite imagery acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) ocean color sensor aboard the Aqua spacecraft following two major hurricane events: Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on 29 August 2005, and Hurricane Rita, which made landfall on 24 September. MODIS Aqua true color imagery revealed high turbidity levels in shelf waters immediately following the storms indicative of intense resuspension. However, imagery following the landfall of Katrina showed relatively rapid return of …

Book Review: Nanoethics: The Ethical And Social Implications Of Nanotechnology, Kevin Elliott

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Fibroblast Populated Collagen Lattices, J. C. Dallon, Paul H. Ehrlich

Faculty Publications

Bellaes introduction of the fibroblast populated collagen lattice (FPCL) (1) has facilitated the study of collagen-cell interactions. As a result of the numerous modifications of the casting of FPCL's, the in vivo applications of these in vitro findings has been confusing. Here experimental FPCL contraction findings are viewed in regard to three proposed mechanisms responsible for lattice contraction. The cellular mechanisms responsible for generating FPCL contraction are: cell contraction, cell tractional forces related to cell locomotion, and initial cell elongation and spreading.

Securities Fraud, Recidivism, And Deterrence, Jayne W. Barnard

Faculty Publications

Legal scholars have expended considerable energy on the study of high-level securities fraud violators-Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, etc. There has been little attention, however, to the perpetrators of "retail" securities fraud-the con artists who sell bogus stock over the Internet, orchestrate elaborate pump-and-dump schemes, and create a never-ending array of purportedly "risk free" investment opportunities. Collectively, and in a cruel mockery of capitalism, these offenders extract hundreds of millions dollars from investors each year. In this article, Professor Barnard examines this group of offenders, focusing particularly on those who recidivate-often moving from state to state and scheme to …

It's What We're Here For: Nurses Caring For Military Personnel During The Persian Gulf Wars, Patricia Rushton, Lynn Clark Callister, Jared E. Scott

Faculty Publications

Military nursing service during wartime represents significant contributions to a unique type of health care. The purposes of this study were to: (1) generate themes that elucidate combat nursing experiences, (2) honor nurses who served by sharing their stories, and (3) permanently archive accounts of nursing personnel who served during the Persian Gulf Wars during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Eleven military nurses who provided health care to American troops in the Persian Gulf participated in a historical study as part of the ongoing Nurses at War oral history project documenting the experiences of nurses during times of …

The Western Arctic Linkage Experiment (Wale): Overview And Synthesis, A. D. Mcguire, J. E. Walsh, J. S. Kimball, J. S. Clein, S. E. Euskirchen, S. Drobot, U. C. Herzfeld, J. Maslanik, Richard B. Lammers, M. A. Rawlins, J. Maslanik

Faculty Publications

The primary goal of the Western Arctic Linkage Experiment (WALE) was to better understand uncertainties of simulated hydrologic and ecosystem dynamics of the western Arctic in the context of 1) uncertainties in the data available to drive the models and 2) different approaches to simulating regional hydrology and ecosystem dynamics. Analyses of datasets on climate available for driving hydrologic and ecosystem models within the western Arctic during the late twentieth century indicate that there are substantial differences among the mean states of datasets for temperature, precipitation, vapor pressure, and radiation variables. Among the studies that examined temporal trends among the …

The Role Of Upstream Sequences In Selecting The Reading Frame On Tmrna, Allen R. Buskirk, Mickey R. Miller, David W. Healey, Jonathan D. Dewey, Stephen G. Robison

Faculty Publications

tmRNA acts first as a tRNA and then as an mRNA to rescue stalled ribosomes in eubacteria. Two unanswered questions about tmRNA function remain: how does tmRNA, lacking an anticodon, bypass the decoding machinery and enter the ribosome? Secondly, how does the ribosome choose the proper codon to resume translation on tmRNA? According to the -1 triplet hypothesis, the answer to both questions lies in the unique properties of the three nucleotides upstream of the first tmRNA codon. These nucleotides assume an A-form conformation that mimics the codon-anticodon interaction, leading to recognition by the decoding center and choice of the …

Multidimensional Fluorescence Microscopy Of Multiple Organelles In Arabidopsis Seedlings, Naohiro Kato, Dexter Reynolds, Matthew L. Brown, Marietta Boisdore, Yukichi Fujikawa, Andrea Morales, Lee A. Meisel

Faculty Publications

Background. The isolation of green fluorescent protein (GFP) and the development of spectral variants over the past decade have begun to reveal the dynamic nature of protein trafficking and organelle motility. In planta analyses of this dynamic process have typically been limited to only two organelles or proteins at a time in only a few cell types. Results. We generated a transgenic Arabidopsis plant that contains four spectrally different fluorescent proteins. Nuclei, plastids, mitochondria and plasma membranes were genetically tagged with cyan, red, yellow and green fluorescent proteins, respectively. In addition, methods to track nuclei, mitochondria and chloroplasts and quantify …

Global N Removal By Freshwater Aquatic Systems Using A Spatially Distributed, Within‐Basin Approach, Wilfred M. Wollheim, Charles J. Vorosmarty, A. F. Bouwman, Pamela Green, John Harrison, Ernst Linder, Bruce J. Peterson, Sybil P. Seitzinger, James P. M. Syvitski

Faculty Publications

We explored the role of aquatic systems in the global N cycle using a spatially distributed, within‐basin, aquatic nitrogen (N) removal model, implemented within the Framework for Aquatic Modeling in the Earth System (FrAMES‐N). The model predicts mean annual total N (TN) removal by small rivers (with drainage areas from 2.6–1000 km2), large rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, using a 30′ latitude × longitude river network to route and process material from continental source areas to the coastal zone. Mean annual aquatic TN removal (for the mid‐1990s time period) is determined by the distributions of aquatic TN inputs, mean annual hydrological …

Diversity Analysis Of Elite Maize Inbred Lines Adapted To West And Central Africa Using Ssr Markers, V. O. Adetimirin, I. Vroh-Bi, C. The, A. Menkir, S. E. Mitchell, Stephen Kresovich

Faculty Publications

Seventeen elite maize inbred lines of West and Central Africa adaptation with tropical and temperate x tropical origin were investigated for diversity at 18 SSR loci in non-coding regions of the maize genome, alongside two temperate inbred lines (B73 and Mo17), perennial teosinte (Zea diploperennis) and gamagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides). A total of 174 alleles were detected with a range of 5 to 15 alleles per maker and an average of 9.7 alleles per locus. Polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged from 0.29 in umc1226 to 0.92 in bnlg2122 with an average of 0.75. Relationships between heterotic groups …

Constitutive Expressor Of Pathogenesis-Related Genes5 Affects Cell Wall Biogenesis And Trichome Development, Ginger Brininstool, Remmy Kasili, L. Alice Simmons, Viktor Kirik, Martin Hülskamp, John C. Larkin

Faculty Publications

Background. The Arabidopsis thaliana CONSTITUTIVE EXPRESSOR OF PATHOGENESIS-RELATED GENES5 (CPR5) gene has been previously implicated in disease resistance, cell proliferation, cell death, and sugar sensing, and encodes a putative membrane protein of unknown biochemical function. Trichome development is also affected in cpr5 plants, which have leaf trichomes that are reduced in size and branch number. Results. In the work presented here, the role of CPR5 in trichome development was examined. Trichomes on cpr5 mutants had reduced birefringence, suggesting a difference in cell wall structure between cpr5 and wild-type trichomes. Consistent with this, leaf cell walls of cpr5 plants contained significantly …

Mangrove Production And Carbon Sinks: A Revision Of Global Budget Estimates, Steven Bouillon, Alberto V. Borges, Edward Castañeda-Moya, Karen Diele, Thorsten Dittmar, Norman C. Duke, Erik Kristensen, Shing Y. Lee, Cyril Marchand, Jack J. Middelburg, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Thomas J. Smith, Robert R. Twilley

Faculty Publications

Mangrove forests are highly productive but globally threatened coastal ecosystems, whose role in the carbon budget of the coastal zone has long been debated. Here we provide a comprehensive synthesis of the available data on carbon fluxes in mangrove ecosystems. A reassessment of global mangrove primary production from the literature results in a conservative estimate of ∼-218 ± 72 Tg C a^-1. When using the best available estimates of various carbon sinks (organic carbon export, sediment burial, and mineralization), it appears that >50% of the carbon fixed by mangrove vegetation is unaccounted for. This unaccounted carbon sink is …

Evaluation Of Different Insecticides And Fabric Types For Development Of Treated Targets For Stable Fly (Diptera: Muscidae) Control, Jerome A. Hogsette, Alyce Nalli, Lane D. Foil

Faculty Publications

Stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.) (Diptera: Muscidae), once only a pest of pastured cattle, has become a serious pest of range cattle in the United States. Because of the difficulties associated with stable fly management under range conditions, a pesticide-impregnated cloth target is being developed as a management tool. We conducted studies to determine the influence of weather, time, fabric type, insecticide type, and insecticide concentration on the mortality of stable flies from a susceptible laboratory colony exposed for 30 s to treated cloth targets. We found that 100% of the flies exposed to trigger (Trigger-Royal Box, 65% polyester and …

Mitochondria In Energy-Limited States: Mechanisms That Blunt The Signaling Of Cell Death, Steven C. Hand, Michael A. Menze

Faculty Publications

Cellular conditions experienced during energy-limited states - elevated calcium, shifts in cellular adenylate status, compromised mitochondrial membrane potential - are precisely those that trigger, at least in mammals, the mitochondrion to initiate opening of the permeability transition pore, to assemble additional protein release channels, and to release pro-apoptotic factors. These proapototic factors in turn activate initiator and executer caspases. How is activation of mitochondria-based pathways for the signaling of apoptotic and necrotic cell death avoided under conditions of hypoxia, anoxia, diapause, estivation and anhydrobiosis? Functional trade-offs in environmental tolerance may have occurred in parallel with the evolution of diversified pathways …

Preparation Of Botanical Samples For Biomedical Research, Zhijun Liu

Faculty Publications

Plants are chemical storehouses, a fact which has driven countless multidisciplinary quests for bioactive compounds. As the very first step of botanical research, the whole desire is to find "hit" plants with specific bioactivities. It is logical to use some strategies that can maximize the chances of finding these "hits" with limited time and resources. In addition to selecting the right plants for screening, how the plant extracts are prepared can also influence the bioactivity screening outcomes. An extract from the same plant material can be quite different in chemical composition having different preparations. Because of the complex mixture nature …

The Development Of Day-Night Differences In Sleep And Wakefulness In Norway Rats And The Effect Of Bilateral Enucleation, Andrew J. Gall, William D. Todd, Baisali Ray, Cassandra M. Coleman, Mark S. Blumberg

Faculty Publications

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) exhibits circadian rhythmicity in fetal and infant rats, but little is known about the consequences of this rhythmicity for infant behavior. Here, in Experiment 1, we measured sleep and wakefulness in rats during the day and night in postnatal day (P)2, P8, P15 and P21 subjects. As early as P2, day-night differences in sleep-wake activity were detected. Nocturnal wakefulness began to emerge around P15 and was reliably expressed by P21. We hypothesized that the process of photic entrainment over the first postnatal week, which depends upon the development of connectivity between the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT) and …

Necromass Production: Studies In Undisturbed And Logged Amazon Forests, Michael W. Palace, Michael M. Keller, Hudson Silva

Faculty Publications

Necromass stocks account for up to 20% of carbon stored in tropical forests and have been estimated to be 14–19% of the annual aboveground carbon flux. Both stocks and fluxes of necromass are infrequently measured. In this study, we directly measured the production of fallen coarse necromass (≥2 cm diameter) during 4.5 years using repeated surveys in undisturbed forest areas and in forests subjected to reduced‐impact logging at the Tapajos National Forest, Belterra, Brazil (3.08° S, 54.94° W). We also measured fallen coarse necromass and standing dead stocks at two times during our study. The mean (SE) annual flux into …

Extreme Primary And Secondary Protein Structure Variability In The Chimeric Male-Transmitted Cytochrome C Oxidase Subunit Ii Protein In Freshwater Mussels: Evidence For An Elevated Amino Acid Substitution Rate In The Face Of Domain-Specific Purifying Selection, Eric G. Chapman, Helen Piontkivska, Jennifer M. Walker, Donald T. Stewart, Jason P. Curole, Walter R. Hoeh

Faculty Publications

Background

Freshwater unionoidean bivalves, and species representing two marine bivalve orders (Mytiloida and Veneroida), exhibit a mode of mtDNA inheritance involving distinct maternal (F) and paternal (M) transmission routes concomitant with highly divergent gender-associated mtDNA genomes. Additionally, male unionoidean bivalves have a ~550 bp 3' coding extension to the cox2 gene (Mcox2e), that is apparently absent from all other metazoan taxa.

Results

Our molecular sequence analyses of MCOX2e indicate that both the primary and secondary structures of the MCOX2e region are evolving much faster than other regions of the F and M COX2-COX1 gene …

Pan-Arctic Patterns In Black Carbon Sources And Fluvial Discharges Deduced From Radiocarbon And Pah Source Apportionment Markers In Estuarine Surface Sediments, Marie Elmquist, Igor Semiletov, Laodong Guo, Örjan Gustafsson

Faculty Publications

A pan-arctic geospatial picture of black carbon (BC) characteristics was obtained from the seven largest arctic rivers by combining with molecular combustion markers (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and radiocarbon ((14)C) analysis. The results suggested that the contribution from modern biomass burning to BC ranged from low in the Yukon (8%) and Lena (5%) Rivers to high in the Yenisey River (88%). The Mackenzie River contributed almost half of the total arctic fluvial BC export of 202 kton a(-1) (kton = 10(9) g), with the five Russian-Arctic rivers contributing 10-36 kton a(-1) each. The (14)C-based source estimate of fluvially exported BC to …

Neuroprotection Via Matrix-Trophic Coupling Between Cerebral Endothelial Cells And Neurons, Shuzhen Guo, Woo Jean Kim, Josephine Lok, Sun Ryung Lee, Elaine Besancon, Bing Hao Luo, Monique F. Stins, Xiaoying Wang, Shoukat Dedhar, Eng H. Lo

Faculty Publications

The neurovascular unit is an emerging concept that emphasizes homeostatic interactions between endothelium and cerebral parenchyma. Here, we show that cerebral endothelium are not just inert tubes for delivering blood, but they also secrete trophic factors that can be directly neuroprotective. Conditioned media from cerebral endothelial cells broadly protects neurons against oxygen-glucose deprivation, oxidative damage, endoplasmic reticulum stress, hypoxia, and amyloid neurotoxicity. This phenomenon is largely mediated by endothelial-produced brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) because filtering endothelial-conditioned media with TrkB-Fc eliminates the neuroprotective effect. Endothelial production of BDNF is sustained by β-1 integrin and integrin-linked kinase (ILK) signaling. Noncytotoxic levels of …

Controls On Atmospheric Chloroiodomethane (Ch2cli) In Marine Environments, Ruth K. Varner, Yong Zhou, Rachel S. Russo, Oliver W. Wingenter, Elliot Atlas, Craig Stroud, Huiting Mao, Robert W. Talbot, Barkley C. Sive

Faculty Publications

Mixing ratios of chloroiodomethane (CH2ClI) in ambient air were quantified in the coastal North Atlantic region (Thompson Farm, Durham, New Hampshire, and Appledore Island, Maine) and two remote Pacific areas (Christmas Island, Kiribati, and Oahu, Hawaii). Average mixing ratios were 0.15 ± 0.18 and 0.68 ± 0.66 parts per trillion by volume (pptv) at Thompson Farm and Appledore Island, respectively, compared to 0.10 ± 0.05 pptv at Christmas Island and 0.04 ± 0.02 pptv in Hawaii. Photolysis constrained the daytime mixing ratios of CH2ClI at all locations with the minimum occurring at 1600 local time. Daily average fluxes to the …

The Changing Role Of Physicians In Disaster Management And Hospital Incident Command, F. Matthew Mihelic, M. David Stockton, Stephen A. Cole, Gregory H. Blake

Faculty Publications

Recent changes in governmental policy toward disaster medicine and hospital incident command foreshadow a significant change in the role that physicians will play in disaster preparedness and response. The distinct discipline of Disaster Medicine has received authoritative recognition and promotion in the recent Homeland Security Presidential Directive 21, and recently established guidelines for incident command within hospitals have included a new position designated as “Medical/Technical Specialist(s)” that will assist the Incident Commander in disaster-related decision-making. This is a multidisciplinary position, and its functions can be filled by one or more individuals. As physician training and competency in Disaster Medicine increases, …

Genome Analysis Of The Platypus Reveals Unique Signatures Of Evolution, Wesley C. Warren, La Deana W. Hillier, Jennifer A. Marshall Graves, Ewan Birney, Chris P. Ponting, Frank Grützner, Katherine Belov, Webb Miller, Laura Clarke, Asif T. Chinwalla, Shiaw Pyng Yang, Andreas Heger, Devin P. Locke, Pat Miethke, Paul D. Waters, Frédéric Veyrunes, Lucinda Fulton, Bob Fulton, Tina Graves, John Wallis, Xose S. Puente, Carlos López-Otín, Gonzalo R. Ordóñez, Evan E. Eichler, Lin Chen, Ze Cheng, Janine E. Deakin, Amber Alsop, Katherine Thompson, Patrick Kirby, Anthony T. Papenfuss, Matthew J. Wakefield, Tsviya Olender, Doron Lancet

Faculty Publications

We present a draft genome sequence of the platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus. This monotreme exhibits a fascinating combination of reptilian and mammalian characters. For example, platypuses have a coat of fur adapted to an aquatic lifestyle; platypus females lactate, yet lay eggs; and males are equipped with venom similar to that of reptiles. Analysis of the first monotreme genome aligned these features with genetic innovations. We find that reptile and platypus venom proteins have been co-opted independently from the same gene families; milk protein genes are conserved despite platypuses laying eggs; and immune gene family expansions are directly related to platypus …

Can Megavoltage Computed Tomography Reduce Proton Range Uncertainties In Treatment Plans For Patients With Large Metal Implants?, Wayne D. Newhauser, Annelise Giebeler, Katja M. Langen, Dragan Mirkovic, Radhe Mohan

Faculty Publications

Treatment planning calculations for proton therapy require an accurate knowledge of radiological path length, or range, to the distal edge of the target volume. In most cases, the range may be calculated with sufficient accuracy using kilovoltage (kV) computed tomography (CT) images. However, metal implants such as hip prostheses can cause severe streak artifacts that lead to large uncertainties in proton range. The purposes of this study were to quantify streak-related range errors and to determine if they could be avoided by using artifact-free megavoltage (MV) CT images in treatment planning. Proton treatment plans were prepared for a rigid, heterogeneous …