Microbiology Commons^™

Contrasting Roles Rna Binding Proteins G3bp1 And Hur Influence Zika Virus And A Proposed Mechanism By Which Zika Virus Induces Neurological Complications, Gaston Bonenfant

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Globalization and climate change have contributed to the rampant spread of mosquitos from tropical and subtropical climates into more moderate climates, and thus also the spread of a number of vector-borne viruses. As of 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that of all human infections world-wide, 16% result from vectors such as flies, ticks, and mosquitos. The spread of such viruses has encouraged expedient evolutionary pressures resulting in more pathogenic viruses that continually pose a serious threat to public health. First discovered in 1947, Zika virus (ZIKV) has only recently presented as a detriment to public health. The importance …

Comparative Characteristics Of Antibacterial Activity Of Plants Growing In The Central Part Of The Republic Of Tajikistan., Saidbeg Satorov, F. Mirzoeva, Sh. Satorov, M. Vakhidova, Vyacheslav Dushenkov

Publications and Research

Objective: To evaluate the spectrum of antibacterial activity of plants growing in the central part of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Methods: The antibacterial properties of 18 plant species from the 14 families were studied. The extract samples on dry filter discs were prepared according to the method developed at Rutgers University. Screens-to-Nature (STN) and disc diffusion (DD) methods were used to assess antimicrobial properties of the extracts. The antimicrobial activity of plant extracts was determined against four types of pathogenic standard museum strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, as well as …

Development Of A Biosafety Level-2 Facility For Irradiation Of Biological Cells Using Mev Ions, Jay D. Diaz, Naresh T. Deoli, Deborah Rogers, Armin De Vera, Karen M. Smith, Robin Schmeider-Broussard, Harry J. Whitlow

Louisiana Accelerator Center

The development of a facility for irradiation of murice and primate tissue presents several challenges. First, extremely low fluences (10⁶-10¹¹ ions cm⁻²) are required to deliver doses of 1 mGy - 50 Gy using MeV proton. Second,the tissues, particularly from non-human primate, may be infectious to humans. Third, protection of irradiated tissue samples from contamination by mold and bacteria is critical. Here we present an ultra-low flux irradiation facility and associated fluence control for biological cell and tissue irradiation under sterile biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) conditions suitable for use with low energy (1-3.4 MeV) protons. The operation is demonstrated using …

Bovine Cellular And Innate Immune Response To Hemostatic Polysaccharides, Brian Kobylkevich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chronic wounds are longstanding dermal wounds that do not heal in a normal amount of time and can commonly last for over a year. These wounds plague humans and farm animals alike. Wounds are characterized by chronic inflammation and are often painful, difficult to heal, have a high recurrence rate, and are potentially debilitating. Long term wounds that do not fully heal are distressing for both humans and animals, but understandably more resources have been directed towards humans. Some treatment options for humans may be suitable for adaptation into the field of animal care. Chronic lesions such as bovine digital …

Interactions Of Arbuscular Mychorrhizal Fungi And Bacterial Endophytes On Disease Resistance Of Common Root Pathogens In Wheat, Janice L. Eibensteiner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Arbuscular mycorrhiza, a symbiosis between plants and fungi, help plants to capture nutrients such as phosphorus (P), nitrogen (N) and other micronutrients from the aggre in exchange for up to 20% of the fixed carbon (C) from the plant. In addition, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi can improve the resistance against abiotic (drought, salinity), and also biotic (pathogen) stresses. Bacterial endophytes promote plant growth and yield by fixing N2 from the atmosphere, assimilating N and transfer it to the plant. Bacterial endophytes can also solubilize phosphate and stimulate plant defense responses, suppressing pathogens. The host plant provides sucrose and a favorable …

Development Of Computational Techniques For Identification Of Regulatory Dna Motif, Cankun Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifying precise transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) or regulatory DNA motif (motif) plays a fundamental role in researching transcriptional regulatory mechanism in cells and helping construct regulatory networks for biological investigation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with sequencing (ChIP-seq) and lambda exonuclease digestion followed by high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-exo) enables researchers to identify TFBS on a genome-scale with improved resolution. Several algorithms have been developed to perform motif identification, employing widely different methods and often giving divergent results. In addition, these existing methods still suffer from prediction accuracy. Thesis focuses on the development of improved regulatory DNA motif identification techniques. We designed an …

Increasing Accumulation Of Glyceollins In Soybeans Via Optimization Of The Fungal Incubation Process, Stephanie Wootton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Continual use of antibiotics in the feed of food animals was viewed a solution to the problem of disease outbreaks in livestock produced in confinement operations. This practice also improved animal performance, likely due to the reduction in sub-clinical infections. Unfortunately, this practice led to a new problem, the development of antibiotic resistant microbes. This increase in antibiotic resistance reduced the direct benefits of antibiotics in animal production. Moreover, as antibiotic resistance spread from animal to human pathogens, this practice created a major public health concern. This led the FDA to enact the Veterinary Feed Directive in 2017 that greatly …

Nurse Practitioner Attitudes, Perceptions And Knowledge About Antimicrobial Stewardship, Evelyn C. Fabian

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Resistance to antibiotics has increased dramatically in the United States, with serious associated medical, social, and economic consequences. The purpose of this project was to assess nurse practitioners' attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge about antimicrobial stewardship and knowledge in the management of anaerobic infections as well as resistant gram-negative bacteremia. Data were collected using a web-based survey in a hospital facility. The practice question explored whether nurse practitioners' attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge about antimicrobial stewardship significantly increased after an education program on antimicrobial stewardship. The project was framed by Knowles's adult learning theory. A 16-item survey was administered before and after …

Comparative Optic Nerve Head Physiology: Glaucoma Induced Retinal Ganglion Cell Apoptosis By Disruption Of The Translaminar Pressure Gradient And Reduced Neurotrophic Signaling, Cassidy Christopherson

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness, and the second leading vision loss neurodegenerative disease affecting millions worldwide. Glaucoma is characterized as a group of eye disorders which are initially asymptomatic but may progress to significant optic nerve head damage and vision loss with time. Early stages of glaucoma often go undetected, leading to irreversible damage to the optic nerve head prior to patients seeking medical care. Glaucoma leads to vision loss via death of retinal ganglion cells. Retinal ganglion cell apoptosis is thought to begin due to interference with the normal transmission of neurotrophic signals that arrive by …

Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Constipation (Ibs-C) Treatment Efficacy And The Emerging Importance Of Serotonin, Meghan Schenk

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

Irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) affects a large proportion of the population. It decreases quality of life for the patient both physically and mentally. Patients report higher levels of mental health issues and other gastrointestinal maladies compared to the normal population, in addition to an IBS diagnosis. Patients have increased healthcare visits and costs, raising insurance rates for all, and also results in more missed time from work. There are limited treatments available for IBS-C, and medicinal and non-medicinal modalities are differentially prescribed to patients throughout the country. Recently, serotonin has emerged as a key mediator of normal gut …

A Review: The Association Of Asthma And The Microbiome, Kathleen Olson

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

The microbiome gut-lung axis has been associated with asthma. Asthma is a respiratory disease that presents itself in many different ways. The microbiome is the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses found in a particular environment. The association of the microbiome gutlung axis in an asthmatic individual compared to a healthy individual has shown that different types and/or concentrations of bacterial genera are present in an asthmatic individual compared to a healthy individual. A causal relationship between the microbiome and asthma has not yet been identified. The aim of this review is to present the association of asthma and the microbiome …

Pathogenesis Of Cte: A Review Of Ptau, Lewy Bodies, And Cytokine Involvement In Cte, Karter Keefer

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neuropathological disease that develops years after experiencing repetitive traumatic brain injuries. In recent years, this disease has been gaining recognition from professional, college, and high school teams that participate in contact sports. The purpose of this paper is to review available information about this neurodegenerative disease. Only limited published experiments are available on this disease. Research on CTE has been limited by the fact that patients can only be diagnosed with the disease by a post mortem autopsy. Many experiments were analyzed regarding different CTE pathologies, symptoms, and treatments. Articles used in this paper …

High Resolution Modeling Of Tick Density And Detection Of Rickettsia Spp. In Dermacentor Spp. Ticks At Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, Wa, Justin L. Donahue

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

The tick species Dermacentor andersoni and Dermacentor variabilis are known vectors of pathogens. One such pathogen is the bacteria Rickettsia rickettsii, which causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The detection of this bacterium in ticks at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge (TNWR) indicates a potential risk to human health. In order to follow up on this discovery, we had two separate objectives. First we developed a high resolution predictive map for Dermacentor spp. distribution across the public use area of TNWR. To do so, 50m transects (27 in total) were established across the public use area. Ticks were collected weekly within the …

The Effects Of Warming On Carbon And Microbial Community Wetland Dynamics At Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, Washington, Marissa A. Medina

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Wetlands are biodiverse ecosystems that play a key role in the biogeochemical cycling of carbon. In the face of global warming, wetland hydroperiods could shift causing changes in their functionality. My field experiment surveyed 3 plots within 12 wetlands of each hydroperiod class (i.e. 12 permanent, 12 semi-permanent, 12 ephemeral). This survey was paired with a warming experiment by placing open top warming chambers on half of each wetland type. In chapter one, I compared carbon dynamics across hydroperiods and treatment by measuring soil organic carbon (in Summer 2018) and effluxes of carbon dioxide and methane (in Summer 2018, Fall …

Structural Investigation Of Bcsc: Insight Into Periplasmic Transport During Cellulose Export, William Scott, Joel T. Weadge

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A biofilm can be defined by a community of microbes coexisting within a self-produced protective polymeric matrix. Exopolysaccharide (EPS) is a key component in biofilms and a contributor to their virulence and pathogenicity. The cellulose bacterial synthesis complex is one such EPS system that is found in many Enterobacteriaceae,including Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp., and is responsible for the production and secretion of the EPS cellulose. BcsC is the periplasmic protein responsible for the export of the exopolysaccharide cellulose and was the focus of this research. Sequence homology comparisons and structural predictions between BcsC, and the previously characterized alginate …

Context Is Everything: An Investigation Of Spanish River Carbonatite And Its Effects On Soil-Plant-Microorganism Systems, James Mc Jones

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

With growing concerns about agricultural sustainability and food security, the use of rock fertilizers and agrominerals is receiving renewed interest. A wide variety of geological resources have been proposed as crop nutrient sources, with silicate rocks the predominant focus. Carbonatite rocks are known to weather more readily than silicate rocks; yet, they have received relatively little attention as it is thought their high Ca and Mg contents hinder effective nutrient release. However, there is strong evidence that the nutrients within carbonatite rocks are easily accessible to plants, and that these rocks have noticable effects on crop plant growth. Here I …

Aerococcus Urinae: Establishing The Pathogenesis Of An Emerging Uropathogen, Evann E. Hilt

Dissertations

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the world's most common bacterial infection. Much is known about the infectious process (pathogenesis) of a few of the bacteria that cause these infections, especially E. coli. Unfortunately, the pathogenesis of E. coli and other uropathogenic bacteria was explored almost exclusively in the belief that the bladder is supposed to be sterile. Our recent evidence, however, debunks this dogma. We used modern methods to reveal diverse bacterial communities in the bladders of adult women. These communities differ in women with and without lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), including UTI and urinary incontinence (UI). Many bacteria …

Regulation Of Acetyl Phosphate-Dependent Acetylation And Identification Of Novel Lysine Acetyltransferases In Escherichia Coli, David George Christensen

Dissertations

Over billions of years, organisms have organized chemical reactions into metabolic pathways to sustain life. However, metabolic substrates can undergo many uncatalyzed, extra-metabolic reactions. Acetyl phosphate (AcP), an intermediate of the acetate fermentation pathway in E. coli, is one such metabolite that has been shown to non-enzymatically acetylate hundreds of proteins. This diverse set of targets suggests that acetylation could be a way for the cell to sense its nutritional status and regulate protein activity accordingly. However, how E. coli regulates acetylation, if at all, is unknown.Previous work showed that acetylation becomes pronounced in stationary phase cells. I determined that …

The Role Of Polyamines In Enteroviral Attachment, Thomas Mckenzie Kicmal

Master's Theses

Polyamines are small polycationic molecules with flexible carbon chains that are found in all eukaryotic cells. Polyamines are involved in the regulation of many host processes and have been shown to be implicated in viral replication. Depletion of polyamine pools in cells with FDA approved drugs restricts replication of diverse RNA viruses. Viruses can exploit host polyamines to facilitate packaging, transcription, translation, and protease activity but other mechanisms remain largely unknown. Picornaviruses, including Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), are sensitive to depletion of polyamines and remain a significant public health threat. We employed CVB3 as a model system to investigate a potential …

A Possible Role Of Clostridium Difficile Association With The Gi Tract In Relapsing Clostridium Difficile Infection, Asiyya Ashraf

Master's Theses

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), caused by the anaerobic spore-former C. difficile, is a major cause of health-care associated morbidity. CDI occurs in individuals that have a disrupted GI tract microbiota, typically in patients who are on antibiotic therapy. After recovery from an episode of CDI, approximately, 15-30% of patients experience relapse of disease. The mechanism of relapse is not well understood. It is plausible for relapse to occur if C. difficile cells and spores associate with the GI tract mucosa during infection and persist after infection. However, little is known about the association of cells and spores with the GI …

Assessing The Role Of A Putative Peptidase In The Processing And Transport Of Aip In The Agr Quorum Sensing System Of Staphylococcus Aureus, Chance Joseph Cosgriff

Master's Theses

Staphylococcus aureus infections are a global burden on human health. The wide rangeof infectious diseases caused by S. aureus stem from the production of myriad virulence factors that manipulate host immune responses and promote bacterial survival. These virulence traits, coupled with the rise in antibiotic resistance, demonstrate a need for novel therapeutics to control infection. Many current therapeutic initiatives focus on targeting the virulence factors produced by S. aureus or the regulatory systems that control their expression such as the Accessory gene regulatory system, Agr.Initial characterization of a putative S. aureus peptidase MroQ indicates a major role in regulation of …

Longitudinal Urinary Microbiome Studies: A Need To Transition To Voided Urine, Baylie Hochstedler

Master's Theses

It is now established that the bladder is not sterile; it contains communities of microbes (microbiota). While the healthy bladder microbiota have been defined using expanded quantitative urine culture (EQUC) and urines obtained by transurethral catheterization (TUC), longitudinal and population studies have not previously been possible. These studies cannot be done using TUC urines, as it would be impractical to catheterize participants daily. Instead, we must transition to using voided urines.In order to make this switch, we have addressed three main issues raised by using voided urine. First, we showed that EQUC out performs standard urine culture on voided urines …

Bacterioplankton Biogeography Of The Mississippi River Basin, Jason Taylor Payne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bacterioplankton are important structural and functional components of river networks yet their biogeographical patterns in these systems are largely unknown. Using Illumina sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene we characterized variation in bacterioplankton community alpha diversity (within-sample richness of operational taxonomic units OTUs) and beta diversity (between-sample differences in composition) (1) along a 1 300-km downstream reach of the Mississippi River (2) over a range of temporal scales in the Lower Mississippi River (LMR) and (3) along cross-sectional transects repeated monthly for six months across the LMR floodplain. Particle-associated assemblages were richer in bacterial OTUs and more productive than free-living …

Pyocyanin, A Virulence Factor Produced By Sepsis-Causing Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Promotes Adipose Wasting And Cachexia, Nika Larian

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences

Sepsis is a leading cause of death among critically ill patients that results in metabolic alterations including hypercatabolism, lipoatrophy, and muscle wasting, contributing to the development of cachexia. Septic cachexia is associated with loss of body weight, fat mass, and lean mass and dysregulated immune function. There are currently no efficacious treatment strategies for septic cachexia, and nutritional interventions have limited success in preventing hypercatabolic wasting. Pyocyanin is a virulence factor produced by sepsis-causing Pseudomonas aeruginosa that has been shown to activate the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), increase inflammation, and produce reactive oxygen species. Thus, pyocyanin represents a novel mechanistic …

Development And Evaluation Of Nonradioactive Methods For Monitoring T Lymphocyte Response To Equine Arteritis Virus (Eav) In Horses, Annet Kyomuhangi

Theses and Dissertations--Veterinary Science

Target cell lysis is the hallmark of immune effector responses of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), natural killer (NK) cells, and monocytes. The most commonly used assay to measure target cell lysis is the 51Cr release assay and is considered the ‘gold standard’. However, this assay has many disadvantages that limit its use by most laboratories. Thus, several alternative assays have been developed. Some of these alternative assays are more sensitive, easy to perform and do not use radioactive elements.

In this study, four of these assays were evaluated for their ability to detect antigen- specific CTL responses in equine blood. …

Modulation Of Inflammatory Cytokine, Chemokine, And Toll-Like Receptor Genes And Transcriptome Analysis Of Equine Endothelial Cells Following Infection With Equid Herpesvirus-1, And Equine Arteritis Virus., Saranajith Wangisa Dunuwille

Theses and Dissertations--Veterinary Science

EHV-1 is a double-stranded DNA virus whereas EAV is a positive sense, single-stranded RNA virus. Therefore, genetically, they are very different from one another. However, both these viruses are endotheliotropic and thus, infect and replicates in equine endothelial cells resulting in vasculitis. Vasculitis is central to the pathogenesis of these two viruses. Thus, the main objective of this thesis was to investigate the inflammatory and innate immune responses of EECs that contribute towards the development of vasculitis following infection with EHV-1 and EAV in-vitro. Since proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines produced by endothelial cells play a significant role in the …

Mechanisms Of Type-I Ifn Inhibition: Equine Herpesvirus-1 Escape From The Antiviral Effect Of Type-1 Interferon Response In Host Cell, Fatai S. Oladunni

Theses and Dissertations--Veterinary Science

Equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) is one of the most important and prevalent viral pathogens of horses causing a major threat to the equine industry throughout most of the world. EHV-1 primarily causes respiratory disease but viral spread to distant organs enables the development of more severe sequelae; abortion and neurologic disease. In order to produce disease, EHV-1 has to overcome the innate barrier of the type-I interferon (IFN) system in host cells. However, the underlying mechanisms employed by EHV-1 to circumvent the type-I IFN response in host cells are not well understood. In this project study, using molecular techniques, we explored …

A Novel Sparse Compositional Technique Reveals Microbial Perturbations, Cameron Martino, James T. Morton, Clarisse A. Martoz, Luke R. Thompson, Anupriya Tripathi, Rob Knight, Karsten Zengler

Faculty Publications

The central aims of many host or environmental microbiome studies are to elucidate factors associated with microbial community compositions and to relate microbial features to outcomes. However, these aims are often complicated by difficulties stemming from high-dimensionality, non-normality, sparsity, and the compositional nature of microbiome data sets. A key tool in microbiome analysis is beta diversity, defined by the distances between microbial samples. Many different distance metrics have been proposed, all with varying discriminatory power on data with differing characteristics. Here, we propose a compositional beta diversity metric rooted in a centered log-ratio transformation and matrix completion called robust Aitchison …

The Role Of Cody In Hydrogen Peroxide Tolerance And Biofilm Formation Of Streptococcus Mutans, Kaitlin M. Rioux, Brandaliz Santiago-Narvaez

Honors Program Theses

Streptococcus mutans is the major cariogenic bacterium in the oral cavity. S. mutans causes disease by three main virulence factors: acid production, acid tolerance, and biofilm formation. S. mutans outcompetes various other species in the oral cavity, however it is affected by hydrogen peroxide production by these species. Based on previous findings and this research, hydrogen peroxide is shown to extend the lag phase of S. mutans but does not kill it unless present in extremely high amounts that are generally not produced by commensal species like S. sanguinis and S. gordonii in the oral cavity. CodY is a global …

Assessing The Temporal Dynamics Of The Lower Urinary Tract Microbiota And The Effects Of Lifestyle, Travis Kyle Price

Dissertations

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections in humans, accounting for $3.5 billion in health care expenditures yearly in the United States alone. Yet, treatments for UTI have seen little innovation over the past decade. As demonstrated in other body sites, such as the vagina and gastrointestinal (GI) tract, acute and infectious diseases often have indirect microbial contributions which serve as intriguing new targets for therapies. The recent discovery of the existence of a resident community of bacteria (i.e., microbiota) in the bladders of both women and men, represents a novel avenue for targeting UTIs. However, …