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Full-Text Articles in Biology

A Comprehensive Benchmarking Study Of Protocols And Sequencing Platforms For 16s Rrna Community Profiling, Rosalinda D’Amore, Umer Zeeshan Ijaz, Melanie Schirmer, John G. Kenny, Richard Gregory, Alistair C. Darby, Migun Shakya Jan 2016

A Comprehensive Benchmarking Study Of Protocols And Sequencing Platforms For 16s Rrna Community Profiling, Rosalinda D’Amore, Umer Zeeshan Ijaz, Melanie Schirmer, John G. Kenny, Richard Gregory, Alistair C. Darby, Migun Shakya

Dartmouth Scholarship

In the last 5 years, the rapid pace of innovations and improvements in sequencing technologies has completely changed the landscape of metagenomic and metagenetic experiments. Therefore, it is critical to benchmark the various methodologies for interrogating the composition of microbial communities, so that we can assess their strengths and limitations. The most common phylogenetic marker for microbial community diversity studies is the 16S ribosomal RNA gene and in the last 10 years the field has moved from sequencing a small number of amplicons and samples to more complex studies where thousands of samples and multiple different gene regions are interrogated. …


Polyq-Dependent Rna–Protein Assemblies Control Symmetry Breaking, Changhwan Lee, Patricia Occhipinti, Amy S. Gladfelter Jul 2015

Polyq-Dependent Rna–Protein Assemblies Control Symmetry Breaking, Changhwan Lee, Patricia Occhipinti, Amy S. Gladfelter

Dartmouth Scholarship

Dendritic growth in fungi and neurons requires that multiple axes of polarity are established and maintained within the same cytoplasm. We have discovered that transcripts encoding key polarity factors including a formin, Bni1, and a polarisome scaffold, Spa2, are nonrandomly clustered in the cytosol to initiate and maintain sites of polarized growth in the fungus Ashbya gossypii. This asymmetric distribution requires the mRNAs to interact with a polyQ-containing protein, Whi3, and a Pumilio protein with a low-complexity sequence, Puf2. Cells lacking Whi3 or Puf2 had severe defects in establishing new sites of polarity and failed to localize Bni1 protein. Interaction …


Gene Expression Studies For The Analysis Of Domoic Acid Production In The Marine Diatom Pseudo-Nitzschia Multiseries, Katie Boissonneault, Brooks M. Henningsen, Stephen S. Bates, Deborah L. Robertson, Sean Milton, Jerry Pelletier, Deborah A. Hogan, David E. Housman Nov 2013

Gene Expression Studies For The Analysis Of Domoic Acid Production In The Marine Diatom Pseudo-Nitzschia Multiseries, Katie Boissonneault, Brooks M. Henningsen, Stephen S. Bates, Deborah L. Robertson, Sean Milton, Jerry Pelletier, Deborah A. Hogan, David E. Housman

Dartmouth Scholarship

Pseudo-nitzschia multiseries Hasle (Hasle) (Ps-n) is distinctive among the ecologically important marine diatoms because it produces the neurotoxin domoic acid. Although the biology of Ps-n has been investigated intensely, the characterization of the genes and biochemical pathways leading to domoic acid biosynthesis has been limited. To identify transcripts whose levels correlate with domoic acid production, we analyzed Ps-n under conditions of high and low domoic acid production by cDNA microarray technology and reverse-transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) methods. Our goals included identifying and validating robust reference genes for Ps-n RNA expression analysis under these conditions.


Mir319a Targeting Of Tcp4 Is Critical For Petal Growth And Development In Arabidopsis, Anwesha Nag, Stacey King, Thomas Jack Dec 2009

Mir319a Targeting Of Tcp4 Is Critical For Petal Growth And Development In Arabidopsis, Anwesha Nag, Stacey King, Thomas Jack

Dartmouth Scholarship

In a genetic screen in a drnl-2 background, we isolated a loss-of-function allele in miR319a (miR319a129). Previously, miR319a has been postulated to play a role in leaf development based on the dramatic curled-leaf phenotype of plants that ectopically express miR319a (jaw-D). miR319a129 mutants exhibit defects in petal and stamen development; petals are narrow and short, and stamens exhibit defects in anther development. The miR319a129 loss-of-function allele contains a single-base change in the middle of the encoded miRNA, which reduces the ability of miR319a to recognize targets. Analysis of the expression patterns of the …


Overexpression Of Mazfsa In Staphylococcus Aureus Induces Bacteriostasis By Selectively Targeting Mrnas For Cleavage, Zhibiao Fu, Sandeep Tamber, Guido Memmi, Niles P. Donegan, Ambrose L. Cheung Jan 2009

Overexpression Of Mazfsa In Staphylococcus Aureus Induces Bacteriostasis By Selectively Targeting Mrnas For Cleavage, Zhibiao Fu, Sandeep Tamber, Guido Memmi, Niles P. Donegan, Ambrose L. Cheung

Dartmouth Scholarship

The role of chromosomally encoded toxin-antitoxin (TA) loci in bacterial physiology has been under debate, with the toxin proposed as either an inducer of bacteriostasis or a mediator of programmed cell death (PCD). We report here that ectopic expression of MazFSa, a toxin of the TA module from Staphylococcus aureus, led to a rapid decrease in CFU counts but most cells remained viable as determined by differential Syto 9 and propidium iodide staining after MazFSa induction. This finding suggested that the toxin MazFSa induced cell stasis rather than cell death. We also showed that MazFSa selectively cleaves cellular mRNAs in …


Systems Approach Identifies An Organic Nitrogen-Responsive Gene Network That Is Regulated By The Master Clock Control Gene Cca1, Rodrigo A. Gutierrez, Trevor L. Stokes, Karen Thum, Xiaodong Xu, Mariana Obertello, Manpreet S. Katari, Milos Tanurdzic, Alexis Dean, Damion C. Nero, C Robertson Mcclung, Gloria M. Coruzzi Mar 2008

Systems Approach Identifies An Organic Nitrogen-Responsive Gene Network That Is Regulated By The Master Clock Control Gene Cca1, Rodrigo A. Gutierrez, Trevor L. Stokes, Karen Thum, Xiaodong Xu, Mariana Obertello, Manpreet S. Katari, Milos Tanurdzic, Alexis Dean, Damion C. Nero, C Robertson Mcclung, Gloria M. Coruzzi

Dartmouth Scholarship

Understanding how nutrients affect gene expression will help us to understand the mechanisms controlling plant growth and development as a function of nutrient availability. Nitrate has been shown to serve as a signal for the control of gene expression in Arabidopsis. There is also evidence, on a gene-by-gene basis, that downstream products of nitrogen (N) assimilation such as glutamate (Glu) or glutamine (Gln) might serve as signals of organic N status that in turn regulate gene expression. To identify genome-wide responses to such organic N signals, Arabidopsis seedlings were transiently treated with ammonium nitrate in the presence or absence of …


The Relationship Between Frq-Protein Stability And Temperature Compensation In The Neurospora Circadian Clock, Peter Ruoff, Jennifer J. Loros, Jay C. Dunlap Dec 2005

The Relationship Between Frq-Protein Stability And Temperature Compensation In The Neurospora Circadian Clock, Peter Ruoff, Jennifer J. Loros, Jay C. Dunlap

Dartmouth Scholarship

Temperature compensation is an important property of all biological clocks. In Neurospora crassa, negative-feedback regulation on the frequency (frq) gene's transcription by the FRQ protein plays a central role in the organism's circadian pacemaker. Earlier model calculations predicted that the stability of FRQ should determine the period length of Neurospora's circadian rhythm as well as the rhythm's temperature compensation. Here, we report experimental FRQ protein stabilities in frq mutants at 20 degrees C and 25 degrees C, and estimates of overall activation energies for mutant FRQ protein degradation. The results are consistent with earlier model predictions, i.e., temperature compensation of …


Isolation Of A Collagenase Cdna Clone And Measurement Of Changing Collagenase Mrna Levels During Induction In Rabbit Synovial Fibroblasts., Robert H. Gross, Lynn A. Sheldon, Colin F. Fletcher, Constance E. Brinckerhoff Apr 1984

Isolation Of A Collagenase Cdna Clone And Measurement Of Changing Collagenase Mrna Levels During Induction In Rabbit Synovial Fibroblasts., Robert H. Gross, Lynn A. Sheldon, Colin F. Fletcher, Constance E. Brinckerhoff

Dartmouth Scholarship

To facilitate our studies on the mechanisms controlling collagenase production at a molecular level in rabbit synovial fibroblasts, we have constructed a cDNA library using mRNAs isolated from cells induced with crystals of monosodium urate monohydrate. We have screened this library with cDNA probes made from induced and control mRNA populations. From among 30 clones that hybridized preferentially to the induced-cell probe, 4 contained collagenase sequences. The largest, a clone of 650 base pairs, was identified by its ability to hybrid select a mRNA that could be translated in a cell-free system into a product that was precipitable with monospecific …


Synthesis Of Low Molecular Weight Heat Shock Peptides Stimulated By Ecdysterone In A Cultured Drosophila Cell Line., Robert C. Ireland, Edward M. Berger Feb 1982

Synthesis Of Low Molecular Weight Heat Shock Peptides Stimulated By Ecdysterone In A Cultured Drosophila Cell Line., Robert C. Ireland, Edward M. Berger

Dartmouth Scholarship

Treatment of Schneider's line 3 Drosophila cells with the steroid hormone ecdysterone rapidly stimulated the synthesis and accumulation of the polypeptide previously designated p7 [Berger, E. M., Ireland, R. C. & Wyss, C. (1980) Somatic Cell Genet. 6, 119-129]. In this report, p7 is identified as the 23,000-dalton heat shock polypeptide (hsp23). In addition to hsp23, the synthesis of the low molecular weight heat shock polypeptides hsp22, hsp26, and hsp27 was also stimulated by ecdysterone, although to different extents. Hybridization of a nick-translated genomic clone containing the hsp23 gene to a total RNA blot showed that ecdysterone stimulation of hsp23 …