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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Ubiquitous Microplastics In The Upper Gastrointestinal Tracts Of Florida Coastal Seabirds, Jonathan J. Clark, Dorothy-Ellen A. Renegar, Dave Kerstetter Jan 2022

Ubiquitous Microplastics In The Upper Gastrointestinal Tracts Of Florida Coastal Seabirds, Jonathan J. Clark, Dorothy-Ellen A. Renegar, Dave Kerstetter

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Plastic pollution is increasingly recognized as a global problem. In particular, plastic pieces <5 mm in size (‘microplastics’) are of interest due to their prevalence and association with harmful, persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Very little is known about the prevalence of microplastics in coastal birds. Yet, these water-associated birds are at a high risk of ingesting microplastics that accumulate near the water’s surface. This study describes the microplastics found in the proventriculus and ventriculus of four species of coastal birds regarding quantity, size, type (fiber or fragment), and color (light, mid, or dark). A total of 643 microplastic particles were identified, with 43 of the 44 study specimens containing microplastics (97.7% frequency). The ‘fiber’ type and the ‘mid’ color were the most common microplastics. There were no significant differences between species for particle sizes, but Brown Pelicans contained significantly more particles than the other three species. These results highlight the prevalence of plastic pollution in medium-sized seabirds, but more work is needed to determine microplastic patterns between taxa and foraging environments.

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Coral Reef Restoration Methods In The Caribbean And Florida Keys, Melissa Wagner Jan 2022

Coral Reef Restoration Methods In The Caribbean And Florida Keys, Melissa Wagner

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

There has been a massive decline in coral population worldwide, but the Caribbean Sea has been particularly impacted. The Caribbean was once the home to millions of branching coral, Acropora, but has seen severe degradation in the past few decades due to climate change, pollution, coral disease, bleaching events, overfishing, coastal development and other disturbances. Coral reef restoration has since expanded rapidly with thousands of coral nurseries in the Caribbean alone and has become an important process in maintaining coral reefs in our oceans today. Corals help protect our shorelines, maintain biodiversity in our oceans, provide jobs for fisheries …

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Beef Quality Following Prolonged Aging After Supplementing High Levels Of Vitamin E, Nicolas J. Herrera, Joseph A. Sonderman, David M. Velazco, Chris Calkins Jan 2022

Beef Quality Following Prolonged Aging After Supplementing High Levels Of Vitamin E, Nicolas J. Herrera, Joseph A. Sonderman, David M. Velazco, Chris Calkins

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

Increased postmortem aging of beef can accelerate discoloration, shortening retail display time, inducing oxidation of lipids and proteins, and generating negative flavor attributes. This study was conducted to evaluate supplementation of high levels (2,200 International Units/head/day for 100 d) of Vitamin E (α-tocopherol) when feeding cattle as a strategy to sustain meat color quality in beef strip loins after prolonged aging. Results showed significantly less discoloration in loins from animals fed high levels of Vitamin E across 3, 6, and 9 weeks of aging. In addition, loins from cattle fed high levels of Vitamin E exhibited significantly greater redness (a*) …

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Endogenous Neurosteroid Hormone Production And Early Oligodendricyte Development, Paige Winokur Jan 2022

Endogenous Neurosteroid Hormone Production And Early Oligodendricyte Development, Paige Winokur

Student Theses and Dissertations

The field of neuroendocrinology grew immensely with the realization that steroid hormone production is not confined to the adrenal and reproductive glands but also occurs in the central nervous system (CNS). Steroids synthesized de novo in the brain and spinal cord are referred to as neurosteroid or neuroactive hormones and encompass estrogens, androgens, glucocorticoids, and mineralocorticoids. Though all substrates and enzymes required for neurosteroid biosynthesis exhibit CNS expression, a thorough comprehension of their functionality is lacking. In addition to mediating stress responses, neurosteroids influence CNS-specific processes known to regulate neural development and pathology. Multiple sclerosis (MS), a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder …

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The Genetic And Neural Basis Of Sexual Dimorphism In Mosquito Behavior, Nipun Basrur Jan 2022

The Genetic And Neural Basis Of Sexual Dimorphism In Mosquito Behavior, Nipun Basrur

Student Theses and Dissertations

Only female mosquitoes of the species Aedes aegypti have evolved to hunt humans in order to feed on their blood. In striking contrast, male mosquitoes have no drive to seek hosts or drink their blood. Through the act of blood-feeding, only female mosquitoes can transmit pathogens that cause deadly diseases like dengue, chikungunya, and Zika. The genetic and neural circuit basis of this striking sex difference in behavior, one that is of critical importance to global public health, remain poorly characterized. Across the insects, sex-specific alternative splicing is known to control sex-specific morphological and behavioral traits. We took advantage of …

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Integration Sites In The Persistence Of Latent Hiv-1, Amy S. Huang Jan 2022

Integration Sites In The Persistence Of Latent Hiv-1, Amy S. Huang

Student Theses and Dissertations

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), the pathogen that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), remains one of the world's most pressing health issues. Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, over 32M people have succumbed to AIDS-related illnesses. Despite remarkable advances in HIV-1 biology, neither a vaccine or cure have been achieved. While antiretroviral therapy (ART) has significantly improved disease outcomes for people with HIV-1 and reduced transmission, treatment is often accompanied by long-term side effects or stigma, or impeded by limited access to health care. Furthermore, because viral load quickly rebounds upon treatment interruption, ART is required to be a …

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Structure And Mechanism Of Pcat1, A Polypeptide Processing And Secretion Transporter, Virapat Kieuvongngam Jan 2022

Structure And Mechanism Of Pcat1, A Polypeptide Processing And Secretion Transporter, Virapat Kieuvongngam

Student Theses and Dissertations

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters utilize the energy from ATP to transport substrates across biological membranes. Various ABC transporters perform diverse biological functions across all forms of life ranging from importing essential nutrients to exporting toxic drugs (Ford and Beis 2019; ter Beek, Guskov, and Slotboom 2014). Bacterial cells utilize a class of ABC transporters for exporting proteins or peptides. Unlike the Sec translocon machinery, the ABC peptide exporters are dedicated to specific peptides (Fath and Kolter 1993). These peptides function as quorum sensing peptides, biofilms, or antimicrobial peptides. Among these ABC peptide exporters are Peptidase Containing ABC Transporters (PCATs) that …

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Reproductive Resilience Of Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes, Krithika Venkataraman Jan 2022

Reproductive Resilience Of Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes, Krithika Venkataraman

Student Theses and Dissertations

Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes impose a severe global public health burden as vectors of viruses that cause dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika, and parasites that cause lymphatic filariasis. Under optimal environmental conditions, Aedes aegypti females have access to human hosts that provide blood proteins required for egg development, conspecific males that provide sperm required for fertilization, and freshwater in natural or manmade containers that serves as an egg-laying substrate suitable for offspring survival during larval and pupal stages. As global temperatures rise, Aedes aegypti females are faced with climate challenges like intense droughts and intermittent bouts of precipitation, which …

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Non-Canonical Odor Coding Ensures Robust Mosquito Attraction To Humans, Margaret Herre Jan 2022

Non-Canonical Odor Coding Ensures Robust Mosquito Attraction To Humans, Margaret Herre

Student Theses and Dissertations

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes spread deadly diseases, including dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya. Only female mosquitoes bite, and they do so because they require a blood-meal for reproduction. Aedes aegypti prefer to bite human hosts, which contributes to their effectiveness as a deadly disease vector. Mosquitoes rely heavily on chemosensory cues, including carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from breath and human body odor, which is a mixture of more than 200 different individual odorants. Although the exact odor profile of people varies considerably, Aedes aegypti are incredibly reliable in finding humans to bite, despite widespread efforts to by humans to mask …

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B Cell Receptor Signalng In Germinal Centers, Spencer T. Chen Jan 2022

B Cell Receptor Signalng In Germinal Centers, Spencer T. Chen

Student Theses and Dissertations

Germinal centers (GC) are sites of B cell clonal expansion, diversification, and antibody affinity selection. This process is limited and directed by T follicular helper cells that provide helper signals to B cells that endocytose, process, and present cognate antigens in proportion to receptor affinity. GCs play a crucial role in immunity by generating an evolving B cell pool that serves as the origin of protective memory B and plasma cells. Therefore, understanding how the GC reaction is controlled and how high-affinity clones are selected within the GC is fundamental to our understanding of adaptive immunity and of crucial importance …

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Modulation Of Prefrontal Cortex Activity And Sociability By Local Interneurons Expressing Corticotropi-Releasing Hormone, Michael Riad Jan 2022

Modulation Of Prefrontal Cortex Activity And Sociability By Local Interneurons Expressing Corticotropi-Releasing Hormone, Michael Riad

Student Theses and Dissertations

The cerebral cortex is composed primarily of two neuronal cell types: excitatory pyramidal cells and inhibitory interneurons. Their neurochemical diversity and complex organization into interconnected laminar and columnar circuits imbues the cortex with countless computational and functional possibilities. At the behavioral level, changes in the molecular profile and electrophysiological activity of cortical neurons produce noticeable changes in perception, learning and memory, motor skills, and executive cognitive functions. In the initial chapter of this thesis, I briefly cover the history and progress of cell type studies in cerebral cortex and provide frameworks for understanding and interrogating interneuron diversity. We next apply …

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Transcriptomic And Proteomic Studies Of Intercellular Communication Between Melanocytes And Keratinocytes In Human Skin, Gabriella Stephanne Spitz-Becker Jan 2022

Transcriptomic And Proteomic Studies Of Intercellular Communication Between Melanocytes And Keratinocytes In Human Skin, Gabriella Stephanne Spitz-Becker

Student Theses and Dissertations

The epidermis is a stratified epithelium composed of multiple cell types. Keratinocytes are the most prevalent cells in the epidermis and provide the barrier function of the skin. Interspersed amongst the keratinocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis are melanocytes, the pigment producing cells of the epidermis. Melanocytes produce melanin pigment which resides in melanosomes, organelles that are transferred to keratinocytes. In my thesis work, I focused on identifying downstream results of intercellular communication between melanocytes and keratinocytes for each of these cell types. I characterized the transcriptomes of human melanocytes and keratinocytes that were freshly derived from human …

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Characterization Of A Novel Sensing Mechanism Governing Antigenic Variation In P. Falciparum, Victoria M. Schneider Jan 2022

Characterization Of A Novel Sensing Mechanism Governing Antigenic Variation In P. Falciparum, Victoria M. Schneider

Student Theses and Dissertations

Plasmodium falciparum expresses a multi-copy gene family called var in the intraerythroyctic stages of its life cycle in a mutually exclusive manner. var genes encode the chief antigenic and virulence determinant of P. falciparum, PfEMP1, and switching between active genes results in antigenic variation, allowing the parasite to evade the human immune system and cause chronic infections. The molecular mechanisms that control activation and silencing of individual var genes, as well as coordination of the switching process, presently remain incompletely defined. P. falciparum contains only ~60 var gene family members in its genome. Consequently, the question remains as to how …

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New Roles For The Integrated Stress Response In Cancer And Proteostasis, Brian Hurwitz Jan 2022

New Roles For The Integrated Stress Response In Cancer And Proteostasis, Brian Hurwitz

Student Theses and Dissertations

The integrated stress response (ISR) is a highly conserved pathway that senses diverse stresses and responds by limiting total protein synthesis and redirecting translation to stress response transcripts. The ISR has the potential to modify a broad range of processes in cancer, but the major cancer-relevant functions of the pathway have remained elusive due to the complex and redundant nature of the upstream kinases that sense stress and activate the pathway. To overcome this challenge, we genetically targeted the central, regulatory node of the pathway, eIF2α-serine 51, directly, in primary squamous cell carcinoma cells to generate "ISR-null" SCCs. We surprisingly …

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Ultra-Fast And Multi-Dimensional Face Processing In A New Face Area, Zetian Yang Jan 2022

Ultra-Fast And Multi-Dimensional Face Processing In A New Face Area, Zetian Yang

Student Theses and Dissertations

Faces contain a plethora of information crucial for social interactions. Facial information could be transmitted either through facial shape or motion. The last two decades have established that a network of face-selective areas in the temporal lobe of macaque monkeys supports the visual processing of faces. Most of these studies focused on the processing of static facial shape. They found that each area within the face network contains a large fraction of face-selective cells. And each area encodes facial identity and head orientation differently. A recent brain imaging study discovered a new face area outside of this classic network, the …

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Uncovering Regulators Of Whole-Body Metabolism By Chemoproteomic Profiling Of The Adipocyte Secretome, Chan Hee J. Choi Jan 2022

Uncovering Regulators Of Whole-Body Metabolism By Chemoproteomic Profiling Of The Adipocyte Secretome, Chan Hee J. Choi

Student Theses and Dissertations

A major threat to human health, obesity is associated with increased risk of cardiometabolic complications such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and many types of cancers. Whereas white adipocytes efficiently store energy in the form of triglycerides, thermogenic brown and beige adipocytes can dissipate energy into heat. Adipose tissue is now considered an important endocrine organ, and increasing evidence suggests that divergent metabolic effects of different types of adipocytes are in part mediated by their secretory function. In addition, dysregulation of adipose tissue's secretory function in the setting of chronic positive energy balance plays a central role in …

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Multi-Modal Regualtion Of Actin Networks, Lin Mei Jan 2022

Multi-Modal Regualtion Of Actin Networks, Lin Mei

Student Theses and Dissertations

Eukaryotic cells employ the actin cytoskeleton to maintain cell shape, support motility, and sense and respond to external mechanical stimuli. An intricate network of actin filaments constitutes the foundation of tissue architecture by forming key cellular structures including the muscle fiber, the filopodium, the lamellipodium, and the cell cortex. Cellular and tissue level studies have shown that more than 150 actin-binding proteins regulate almost every single aspect of actin physiology, such as actin polymerization, actin severing, and actin crosslinking, but at the molecular level, the structural mechanisms by which different actin binding proteins bind, assemble, and regulate different actin networks …

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Biased Constitutive Activity In The Uveal Melanoma Oncogene Cysltr2 Is Unique In Cysltr2 Germline And Pan-Cancer Human Variome, Mizuho Horioka-Duplix Jan 2022

Biased Constitutive Activity In The Uveal Melanoma Oncogene Cysltr2 Is Unique In Cysltr2 Germline And Pan-Cancer Human Variome, Mizuho Horioka-Duplix

Student Theses and Dissertations

Uveal melanoma is the most common eye cancer in adults and is clinically and genetically distinct from skin cutaneous melanoma. In a subset of cases, the oncogenic driver is an activating mutation in CYSLTR2, the gene encoding the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) cysteinylleukotriene receptor 2. The mutant CYSLTR2 encodes for CysLTR2-L129Q receptor, with the substitution of Leu to Gln at position 129 (3.43). The ability of CysLTR2-L129Q to cause malignant transformation has been hypothesized to result from constitutive activity, but how the receptor could escape desensitization is unknown. In this work, we characterized the functional properties of CysLTR2-L129Q. CysLTR2 signals …

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The Effect Of Early Dietary Intervention On Alzheimer's Disease-Related Pathology And Cognitive Function In Mice, Anna Amelianchik Jan 2022

The Effect Of Early Dietary Intervention On Alzheimer's Disease-Related Pathology And Cognitive Function In Mice, Anna Amelianchik

Student Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a fatal cognitive disorder with proteinaceous brain deposits, neuroinflammation, cerebrovascular dysfunction, and extensive neuronal loss. AD is a multifactorial disease, and lifestyle factors, including diet, are likely associated with the development of AD pathology. Since obesity and diabetes are recognized as risk factors for AD, it might be predicted that a high fat diet (HFD) would worsen AD pathology. However, modeling HFD-induced obesity in animal models of AD has yielded inconclusive results. Some studies report a deleterious effect of HFD on Aβ accumulation, neuroinflammation, and cognitive function, while others report that HFD worsens memory without affecting …

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Sensory And Neuromodulatory Entrainment Of Foraging States In C. Elegans, Elias Scheer Jan 2022

Sensory And Neuromodulatory Entrainment Of Foraging States In C. Elegans, Elias Scheer

Student Theses and Dissertations

Foraging animals dynamically adjust their behavioral patterns over time to optimize feeding in their environment. In the nematode Caenorhabditis. elegans, foraging animals alternate between states of locomotory arousal. I observed that animals in low activity states remain nearby food patches, whereas highly aroused animals often exit patches to explore the external environment. Using different methods of behavioral state classification reveals different aspects of foraging behavior: previously described high arousal roaming and low arousal dwelling states reflect long-term changes in locomotory patterns, whereas an Autoregressive Hidden Markov model that classifies behavior on shorter time scales effectively segments food leaving behaviors. Adaptive …

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53bp1/Shieldin Counteract Dsb Resection Through Fill-In Synthesis, Zachary Kenneth Mirman Jan 2022

53bp1/Shieldin Counteract Dsb Resection Through Fill-In Synthesis, Zachary Kenneth Mirman

Student Theses and Dissertations

53BP1 is a DNA damage response (DDR) factor that gained notoriety because it determines the efficacy of PARP1 inhibitors (PARPi) in BRCA1-deficient cancers. Additionally, 53BP1 promotes end-to-end fusions of telomeres lacking end protection from the shelterin component TRF2, and facilitates end-joining at programmed breaks generated during class switch recombination in the immune system. The role of 53BP1 in double strand break (DSB) repair outside of these three well-studied contexts is less clear, though it has been proposed that 53BP1 acts as a master regulator of so-called "DSB repair pathway choice," promoting classical non-homologous end-joining (cNHEJ) at the expense of homology-directed …

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Dna Methylation And Dna Methyltransferases In The Clonal Raider Ant, Ooceraea Biroi, Ivasyk Iryna Jan 2022

Dna Methylation And Dna Methyltransferases In The Clonal Raider Ant, Ooceraea Biroi, Ivasyk Iryna

Student Theses and Dissertations

DNA methylation and DNA methyltransferase enzymes (DNMTs) are ubiquitous and predate the origin of eukaryotes. In animals, DNA methylation primarily is carried out by DNMT1, which targets hemi – methylated DNA and maintains methylation patterns through cycles of cell replication, and DNMT3, the de novo methyltransferase. These genes are essential to mammalian development, and mutations lead to embryonic (DNMT1 and DNMT3b) or post – natal (DNMT3a) lethality. Studies of DNA methylation and DNMTs in invertebrates have been limited to non – traditional model organisms because Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster lack the DNMT enzymes, and their DNA has no detectable …

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Intestinal Cd4+T Cell Responses To Food, Ainsley Lockhart Jan 2022

Intestinal Cd4+T Cell Responses To Food, Ainsley Lockhart

Student Theses and Dissertations

During routine digestion and absorption of food, massive quantities of diet-derived polypeptides pass through the intestine. The intestinal immune system must maintain tolerance to these dietary antigens while still protecting against pathogens and noxious agents. Oral tolerance, a robust mechanism whereby oral administration of antigen results in both local and systemic tolerance to that antigen, is a key component of this critical homeostasis. Oral tolerance requires CD4+ T cells including specifically regulatory T cells (Tregs), however the role of intestinal CD4+ T cells and the T cell repertoire in a physiological response to food protein remains largely unexplored. …

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Mechanistic Understanding Of The Role Of Trf1 In Telomere Replication, Zhe Yang Jan 2022

Mechanistic Understanding Of The Role Of Trf1 In Telomere Replication, Zhe Yang

Student Theses and Dissertations

Mammalian telomeres are hard to replicate, and the shelterin subunit TRF1 is important for facilitating the replication of telomeric DNA. Deletion of TRF1 results in several phenotypes that are thought to be associated with telomere replication stress, including ATR signaling, fork stalling, sister telomere associations, and fragile telomeres. Fragile telomeres are structures that resemble common fragile sites (CFSs), but how they are formed is not known. TRF1 functions in part by recruiting the BLM helicase, which can resolve G-quadruplexes on the lagging-strand template. Deletion of BLM leads to lagging strand specific fragile telomere formation. In this thesis, I report that …

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Tumor Suppression By A Trna Synthetase, Maria Passarelli Jan 2022

Tumor Suppression By A Trna Synthetase, Maria Passarelli

Student Theses and Dissertations

Despite substantial progress in treatment, breast cancer remains a leading cause of cancer mortality among women. During malignant transformation, healthy mammary cells must bypass tumor suppressive checkpoints and activate pro-growth pathways. Enhanced protein translation is one such hallmark of tumor transformation and cancer progression; many oncogenes promote translation by driving synthesis and activity of translational machinery. In the first part of this thesis, we report the surprising finding that leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LARS), a tRNA synthetase responsible for ligating leucine to corresponding leucyl-tRNAs, becomes strongly repressed during mammary cell transformation and in breast cancer. Monoallelic genetic inactivation of LARS in mouse …

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Ras Drives Malignancy Through Stem Cell Crosstalk With The Microenvironment, Shaopeng Yuan Jan 2022

Ras Drives Malignancy Through Stem Cell Crosstalk With The Microenvironment, Shaopeng Yuan

Student Theses and Dissertations

Squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) are triggered by marked elevation of RAS/MAPK signaling and progression from benign papilloma to invasive malignancy. A subset of tumor-initiating basal progenitors, the cancer stem cells, obtain increased resistance to chemo and immunotherapy along this path. However, the distribution and changes in cancer stem cells during progression from a benign state to an invasive SCC remain elusive. Here we show that following HRASG12V activation, cancer stem cells rewire their gene expression program and trigger self-propelling, aberrant signaling crosstalk with their tissue microenvironment that drives their malignant progression. Surprisingly, the non-genetic, dynamic cascade of crosstalk involves pathways …

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Restriction-Modification And Crispr-Cas Systems: Cooperation Between Innate And Adaptive Immunity In Prokaryotes, Pascal Maguin Jan 2022

Restriction-Modification And Crispr-Cas Systems: Cooperation Between Innate And Adaptive Immunity In Prokaryotes, Pascal Maguin

Student Theses and Dissertations

Bacteria have evolved numerous mechanisms to resist the constant assault of viruses (called bacteriophages, or simply phages) that can infect and kill them. Restriction-modification (RM) systems represent one such strategy. Generally, these systems provide defense by coordinating the activities of two distinct enzymes: a restriction endonuclease and a methyltransferase. Both enzymes recognize the same short DNA sequences. The methyltransferase modifies these target sites in the host chromosome, which prevents the restriction endonuclease from cleaving the host's own DNA. In contrast, foreign phage DNA is usually not methylated at these sequences. Consequently, upon injection into the host, the viral DNA is …

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Novel Optical Tools To Investigate Presenilin Control Of Neurotransmission, Ryan J. Farrell Jan 2022

Novel Optical Tools To Investigate Presenilin Control Of Neurotransmission, Ryan J. Farrell

Student Theses and Dissertations

Neurotransmission is a critical function for neurons that underlies the complex processes of the brain. Deficits in synaptic function often manifest in neurodegenerative diseases, motivating the study of control points of neurotransmission. The Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) has recently been described as one such control point, as ER Ca2+ levels can regulate the magnitude of synaptic vesicle exocytosis. Here we investigate the controversial hypothesis that Presenilins are ER Ca2+ leak channels to determine if a role in ER Ca2+ leak can explain the previously described regulation of neurotransmission by Presenilins. While Presenilins are best known for their involvement …

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Structural Studies Of The Nucleolar Stages Of Ribosome Biogenesis In Yeast, Linamarie Miller Jan 2022

Structural Studies Of The Nucleolar Stages Of Ribosome Biogenesis In Yeast, Linamarie Miller

Student Theses and Dissertations

The ribosome is the RNA-protein machine responsible for the essential task of translating mRNA into proteins. Ribosomes are heterodimers made up of a small subunit (SSU, 40S) and a large subunit (LSU, 60S). At the interface of these subunits, the mRNA is decoded by the small subunit and peptide bond formation is catalyzed by the rRNA of the large subunit. The cell therefore requires the timely and accurate assembly of functional ribosomal subunits, a complex process termed ribosome biogenesis. In addition to the ribosomal RNAs and ribosomal proteins that make up the mature subunits, eukaryotic cells require over 200 trans-acting …

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Sign-Inverting Vectors Underlie A Coordinate Transformation In The Drosophila Central Brain, Itzel Gonzalez Ishida Jan 2022

Sign-Inverting Vectors Underlie A Coordinate Transformation In The Drosophila Central Brain, Itzel Gonzalez Ishida

Student Theses and Dissertations

Our coherent sense of orientation is built from combining sensory experiences across different modalities. How animal brains compute and remember the directions of motion of the body, limbs, objects or landmarks in a shared reference frame is only now becoming clear.This dissertation focuses on a system of neurons that signals wind direction in the Drosophila central brain. We found that the activity of these neurons, called PFNa, can be thought of as a set of vectors whose summed activity yields the direction of wind in an allocentric reference frame — that is, relative to external landmarks like the sun, as …

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