Biotechnology Commons^™

Field Evaluation Of Tobacco Engineered For High Leaf-Oil Accumulation, James Perry

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

The biofuel market is dominated by ethanol and biodiesel derived from cellulosic and lipid-based biomass crops. This is largely due to the relatively low costs and reliability of production. At present, production of non-food plant-derived oils for biofuel production in the U.S. is minimal. A research team from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), an independent Australian federal government research institution, has developed an efficient transgenic system to engineer oil production in tobacco leaves. This novel system is comprised of multiple transgenes that direct the endogenous metabolic flux of oil precursors towards triacylglycerol (TAG) production. Additional genes were …

Nanomaterials For Double-Stranded Rna Delivery, Stuart Lichtenberg

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

RNA interference has enormous potential as a potent, specific, and environmentally friendly alternative to small molecule pesticides for crop protection. The use of exogenous double-stranded RNA offers flexibility in targeting and use in crops in which transgenic manipulation is not an option. The combination of RNAi with nanotechnology offers further advantages that are not available with dsRNA alone. In this work, I have evaluated several different combinations of nanomaterials and polymers for use in RNAi-based pest control systems. First, I have characterized the use of chitosan/dsRNA polyplex nanoparticles for gene knockdown using the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Though chitosan/dsRNA …

Mechanisms Of Microglia Mediated Apolipoprotien E Neurotoxicity, Pardeep Singh

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Detection Of Sickle Cell Disease-Associated Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Using A Graphene Field Effect Transistor, Kandace Fung

CMC Senior Theses

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a hereditary monogenic disorder that affects millions of people worldwide and is associated with symptoms such as stroke, lethargy, chronic anemia, and increased mortality. SCD can be quickly detected and diagnosed using a simple blood test as an infant, but as of now, there is currently limited treatment to cure an individual of sickle cell disease. Recently, there have been several promising developments in CRISPR-Cas-associated gene-editing therapeutics; however, there have been limitations in gene-editing efficiency monitoring, which if improved, could be beneficial to advancing CRISPR-based therapy, especially in SCD. The CRISPR-Chip, a three-terminal graphene-based field …

Determining Differential Effects Of Interleukin-2 On Innate And Adaptive Immune Cells In Lymphoid Organs And The Gastrointestinal Tract, Ayushi Singh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is a pleiotropic cytokine demonstrated to be effective in treating cancer. However, the clinical use of IL-2 can be associated with severe side effects including gastrointestinal toxicity (GT). Similar GT symptoms are observed in inflammatory diseases such as CD (CD). Interestingly mounting evidence indicates a role for IL-2 in CD, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Indeed, studies on the in-vivo activities of IL-2 have mostly focused on secondary lymphoid organs and immune cells associated with them. Very few studies have addressed how IL-2 signals impact populations of immune cells in the gut. Here, we aim to identify …

Atp Induced Molecular Disassembly Of Cytolethal Distending Toxin's B/C Heterodimer, George Huhn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) is a virulence factor produced by many Gram-negative bacteria, including Haemophilus ducreyi. This fastidious pathogen is the causative agent of genital cancroid. CDT is a heterotrimeric toxin with an AB2 structure consisting of a cell-binding "B" domain (CdtA + CdtC) and a catalytic "A" domain (CdtB) that has DNase activity. This toxin assembles in the bacterial periplasm that lacks ATP and is secreted into the extracellular environment. After cell binding, CDT is internalized by endocytosis and travels through the endosomes and Golgi before arriving in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). CdtA is lost from the holotoxin before …

Biochemical Characterization Of Rv2633c From Mycobacterium Tuberculosis And The Effects Of Mutagenesis On Iron Binding, Kyle Strickland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is a pathogenic bacterium that is the causative agent of the disease Tuberculosis (TB). TB kills an estimated 1.8 million people annually and roughly one third of the world's population carries Mtb in a dormant state. Drug resistant Mtb strains are on the rise, thus a new method of combating this disease is paramount. Mtb survival inside of macrophages requires overcoming various stressors such as; iron restriction, reactive oxygen species, and hypoxic conditions. Mtb employs the use of catalases, nitric oxide reductase, superoxide dismutase, and siderophores to aid in survival. These functions have also been found in …

Phenogeneranker: A Tool For Gene Prioritization Using Complete Multiplex Heterogeneous Networks, Cagatay Dursun, Naoki Shimoyama, Mary Shimoyama, Michael Schläppi, Serdar Bozdag

Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Uncovering genotype-phenotype relationships is a fundamental challenge in genomics. Gene prioritization is an important step for this endeavor to make a short manageable list from a list of thousands of genes coming from high-throughput studies. Network propagation methods are promising and state of the art methods for gene prioritization based on the premise that functionally-related genes tend to be close to each other in the biological networks.

In this study, we present PhenoGeneRanker, an improved version of a recently developed network propagation method called Random Walk with Restart on Multiplex Heterogeneous Networks (RWR-MH). PhenoGeneRanker allows multi-layer gene and disease networks. …

Looking For Maize Genes Involved In Cold Response: Producing Knockouts For Arabidopsis Homologs Of Maize Candidate Genes Using A Crispr/Cas9 Approach, Katie Hillmann

Departmental Honors Projects

Most of today’s maize is cultivated outside its original climate zone, where yields are constrained by the changes in climate. Maize is especially vulnerable to high temperatures and drought stress, both of which negatively affect corn yields. An important strategy to combat this is early sowing, which avoids the effects of summer droughts and high temperatures in many places around the globe. However, maize is a cold sensitive species (Sanghera et al., 2011), making improvement to cold stress crucial for its adaption. The relatively new system CRISPR (Clustered regularly-interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas9 offers the potential to study cold-stress related …

Antioxidant And Antibacterial Agents From Parmotrema Dilatatum (Vainio) Hale, Knema Angustifolia (Roxb.) Warb. And Persicaria Odorata Lour, Asshaima Paramita Devi

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

In the search of antioxidant and antibacterial agents, the extracts and isolated compounds from lichen Parmotrema dilatatum, Knema angustifolia full name, Persicaria odorata and Mansonia gagei. were examined. Nine compounds were isolated from lichen P. dilatatum including (E)-2,4-dihydroxy-6-methyl-3-(3-oxobut-1-en-1-yl)benzoate (PD.1), hopane-16ß,22-diol (PD.2), methyl orsellinate (PD.3), methyl haemmatomate (PD.4), methyl ß-orcinolcarboxylate (PD.5), 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-3,6-dimethylbenzoic acid (PD.6), atranol (PD.7), atranorin (PD.8) and lecanorin (PD.9). The dichloromethane and acetone fractions, and atranol (PD.7) gave excellent activities as antioxidants. While in tyrosinase activity the dichloromethane fraction and atranorin (PD.8) showed the highest inhibition. For α-glucosidase inhibition activity, the methanol fraction and methyl haemmatommate (PD.4) revealed the …

Enhancement Of Biofuel Production In Microalgae By Genetic And Physiological Modification, Napisa Pattharaprachayakul

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms, which could be used as potential microbial cell factories by directly converting CO2 into valuable bioproducts and biofuels. This study aims to improve the target biofuel feedstocks from the isolated green alga Chlorella sp. and the engineered cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 in terms of the improvement on lipids (as precursors of FAMEs) and terpene (α-farnesene), respectively. The first part is concerned with the enhancement of lipids and the determination of FAMEs and biodiesel properties in Chlorella sp. under the phosphorus (P) limitation (0-50%) alone or in combination with heavy metals (Fe, Co, Pb) supplementation. The …

Binding Kinetics Of Monoclonal Antibodies And Fluoroquinolone Derivatives, Patamalai Boonserm

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Fluoroquinolones (FQs) are a group of antibiotics which have been extensively used against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Some of FQs antibiotics commonly used in livestock and fishery include norfloxacin, enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, and ofloxacin. However, misuse of these antibiotics may cause drug residues in food products. Therefore, to prevent consumers from getting residual antibiotics in food and the drug resistance of pathogens in humans. As a result, surveillance detection program of these drug residues must be in practice to ensure safety of the consumers in many countries. In general, detections based on immunological method include enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has …

Screening And Identification Of Probiotic Lactic Acid Bacteria From Plant Samplesd, Ratthanatda Nuhwa

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Seventy lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated from flowers (17 strains), 3 tree barks (7 strains), one fruit (2 strains), ten fermented tea leaves (31 strains) and two silage (13 strains). They were identified as Lactobacillus pentosus (12 strains), L. plantarum subsp. plantarum (9 strains), L. paracasei subsp. tolerans (5 strains), L. brevis (1 strain), L. silagincola (1 strain), L. kunkeei (1 strain), and L. formosensis (1 strain), Enterococcus durans (3 strains), E. lactis (2 strains), E. faecalis (1 strain), E. faecium (1 strain), E. gallinarum (1 strain) and E. gilvus (1 strain), Pediococcus acidilactici (1 strain) and P. pentosaceus …

Development Of Oxidase Enzyme And Non-Enzyme Based Biosensors For Lactate And Creatinine Detection, Siraprapa Boobphahom

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This dissertation focused on the development of electrochemical sensors based on metal oxides and graphene modified electrodes for clinical applications, which is divided into two parts. The first part is development of a biosensor based on lactate oxidase (LOx) immobilized on titanium dioxide sol (TiO2 sol)/graphene nanocomposite modified nickel (Ni) foam electrode for enzymatic electrochemical detection of lactate via hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) detection. A TiO2/graphene nanocomposite was simply synthesized by hydrolysis and coated on Ni foam electrode to develop a novel electrode in biosensor. The results showed that the well intercalation of TiO2 sol within graphene film covered on the …

Role Of Enzymes In Glyoxylate Cycle In Transgenic 'Kdml 105' Rice Oryza Sativa L. Overexpressing Oscam1-1 Under Salt Stress, Tanaporn Ausaha

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The previous study reported that the transcriptome profiling of the KDML 105 rice overexpressing OsCam1-1 widely affected the expression of genes involved in several cellular processes including the genes associated with the glyoxylate cycle, which exhibited up-regulation in KDML 105 overexpressing OsCam1-1 under salt stress. In this study, we focused on the role of the glyoxylate cycle in transgenic KDML 105 rice under salt stress. The phenotypes as follows: fresh weight and dry weight of shoot & root, SPAD value, activities of isocitrate lyase, and malate synthase; sugar, and starch contents, and total lipid content were investigated at 0, 2, …

การตรวจสอบเอนไซม์ลิงค์อิมมูโนซอร์เบนต์แอสเสย์สำหรับการตรวจวัดสารตกค้างกลุ่มแรคโตพามีนและการประยุกต์, พลอยขวัญ พรหมพิทยายุทธ

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

แรคโตพามีน (Ractopamine) เป็นสารในกลุ่มเบต้าอะโกนิสต์ (Beta-Agonist) ที่ถูกห้ามใช้ในประเทศไทย ดังนั้นงานวิจัยนี้จึงต้องการที่จะพัฒนาและทดสอบความใช้ได้ของวิธี Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) สำหรับตรวจวัดแรคโตพามีนตกค้างในเนื้อสัตว์ เครื่องในสัตว์และอาหารสัตว์ โดยได้เริ่มจากการพัฒนา ELISA 2 รูปแบบคือ indirect competitive ELISA และ direct competitive ELISA จากการทดสอบได้เลือก ELISA รูปแบบ direct competitive ELISA เนื่องจากมีค่าความไวที่สูงกว่าอีกรูปแบบ ค่า IC50 LOQ และ LOD เท่ากับ 0.57, 0.06 และ 0.02 นาโนกรัมต่อมิลลิลิตรตามลำดับ ทำการทดสอบความใช้ได้ของ direct competitive ELISA สำหรับนำไปตรวจวัดปริมาณแรคโตพามีนตกค้างในตัวอย่างกลุ่มเนื้อสัตว์ (เนื้อหมูและเนื้อโค) กลุ่มเครื่องในสัตว์ (ตับหมู ตับโคและไตหมู) และกลุ่มอาหารสัตว์ (อาหารหมูและอาหารโค) ทดสอบความไวของวิธี ELISA ในสารสกัดตัวอย่างต่างๆ พบว่า LOQ ของตัวอย่างอยู่ในช่วง 0.56-1.90 นาโนกรัมต่อกรัม และค่า LOD ของตัวอย่างอยู่ในช่วง 0.32-0.97 นาโนกรัมต่อกรัม ช่วงของการการตรวจวัดแรคโตพามีนในเนื้อหมูและไตหมูอยู่ที่ 0.4-6.25 นาโนกรัมต่อกรัม ในขณะที่ตัวอย่างอื่น ๆ มีช่วงของการตรวจวัดอยู่ที่ 0.8-12.5 นาโนกรัมต่อกรัม นอกจากนี้ได้ทดสอบการเกิดปฏิกิริยาข้ามพบว่าไม่เกิดปฏิกิริยาข้ามกับสารในกลุ่มเบต้าอะโกนิสต์ ความถูกต้อง (% recovery) และความแม่นยำ (%CV) มีค่าอยู่ในช่วง 64.06-109.80 % และ 6.26-28.87 % ตามลำดับ ค่าความสามารถในการตรวจวัด (CCβ) มีค่าอยู่ที่ 2 นาโนกรัมต่อกรัมสำหรับเนื้อหมูและไตหมู และ 3 นาโนกรัมต่อกรัมในตัวอย่างอื่นๆ โดยมีค่าความผิดพลาดผิดพลาดจากการตรวจวัดน้อยกว่าหรือเท่ากับ 5 % จากผลการทดสอบดังกล่าวพบว่าวิธี direct …

Cyclophilin A As A Molecular Switch Regulating Prolactin Receptor Mediated Signaling, Mammary Tumorigenesis And Metastasis, Shawn Hakim

Theses and Dissertations

Prolactin (PRL) and its receptor (PRLr) have been implicated in the development and progression of human breast cancer. PRL activates its receptor and induces activation of proximal Janus kinase 2 (Jak2) for signal transduction. Here, we sought to determine the role of PRLr-associated peptidyl-prolyl isomerase, cyclophilin A (CypA), in modulating structure/function relationships of the PRLr. It was demonstrated that CypA mediated PRL-induced conformational change of the CFP- and -YFP tagged forms of the PRLr cytoplasmic-tail, whereas CypA inhibition by NIM811 (N-methyl-4-isoleucine cyclosporin) or knockdown blocked the conformational change of the PRLr assessed by Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) signal or …

Preconditioning Of The Tumor Microenvironment By Means Of Low Dose Chemotherapies For An Effective Immunotherapy Of Breast Cancer, Hussein F. Aqbi

Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer mortality is mainly due to distant recurrence of the disease arising from dormant tumor cells established by cancer therapies. Patients who initially respond to cancer therapies often succumb to distant recurrence of the disease. It is not clear why people with the same type of breast cancer respond to treatments differently; some escape from dormancy and relapse earlier than others. In addition, some tumor clones respond to immunotherapy while others do not. We investigated how autophagy plays a role in accelerating or delaying recurrence of neu overexpressing mouse mammary carcinoma (MMC) following adriamycin (ADR) treatment, and in affecting …

First Record Of White Stork In A Birdstrike In South Africa Above 3,300 M Agl, Desire Dalton, Marli De Bruyn, Monica Mwale, Kim Labuschagne, Melissa Hofmann, Albert Froneman, Hanneline A. Smit-Robinson, Antoinette Kotze

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Birdstrikes to aircrafts are increasing on an annual basis and pose significant aviation safety risks. Identification of the birds involved is key to developing mitigation strategies. Often the only information available to make identifications are feather and/or tissue samples. Relying on feathers alone to identify the bird species requires special expertise and access to museum collections for specimen comparisons. In 2017, feathers and tissue samples were recovered from the engine cowling of an airplane that had just landed at the Oliver Reginald (O. R.) Tambo international airport in South Africa after striking a bird at 3,353 m. To confirm the …

Evaluation Of Brewer's Spent Grain Hydrolysate As A Substrate For Production Of Thermostable Α-Amylase By Bacillus Stearothermophilus, Rajeev Ravindran, Gwilym A. Williams, Amit Jaiswal

Articles

In the present study, BSG was hydrolysed using cellulolytic enzymes and used as a growth medium supplement for cultivation of the thermophilic bacterium, Bacillus stearothermophilus in the production of α-amylase. A central composite design involving five parameters and four levels viz. starch, peptone, KCl, and MgSO4 along with BSG hydrolysate was used to derive the optimal media composition. The fermentation was conducted using shake flasks for 36 h at a temperature of 50 °C and pH 7.0 at 220 rpm. Optimization trials revealed that maximal amylase production (198.09 U/ml) occurred with a medium composition of starch (0.2% w/v), peptone (0.2% …

Enhancing Water Stress Tolerance In Floriculture Crops, Suejin Park

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Water deficit is one of the major constraints on plant growth and development, causing reduction of crop productivity. To minimize water loss, among many adaptation strategies, plants close their stomata to reduce transpiration. The stomatal closure is regulated by light, internal CO2 concentration, and plant hormones, mainly abscisic acid. Plants’ response mechanisms to water deficit are complex processes involving numerous genes and various signaling pathways. Floriculture crops are often exposed to water deficit during shipping and retailing, and these periods often result in damaged crops and profit loss. Understanding of plant responses to water deficit stress will provide us an …