Bioinformatics Commons^™

Characterizing Drought Adaptations, Phenotypic Plasticity, And Fixed Gene Expression Patterns Within Quercus, James K. Rauschendorfer

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation was written on topics related to the genus Quercus with a primary focus on Quercus ellipsoidalis (northern pin oak) and Quercus rubra (northern red oak). Within this dissertation are chapters related to the setup of experimental common gardens within the Ford and Kellogg experimental forest, a literature review describing drought adaptations of Quercus sect. Lobatae (red oak group), identification of transcription factors within the Q. robur (English oak) and Q. rubra genomes, a study comparing leaf trait phenotypic plasticity of Q. ellipsoidalis and Q. rubra, and an RNA-seq experiment studying ecological speciation between Q. ellipsoidalis and Q. …

Differential Gene Expression Analysis Of Zebrafish Embryos Exposed To Simulated Microgravity And Insights Into Cellular Effects, Nicholas Lien

Master's Projects

Spaceflight consists of many dangers which adversely affects the health of astronauts through hazards such as microgravity and cosmic radiation. One area that is still poorly understood is how spaceflight impacts human reproductive health. This study aims to shed insight into how microgravity may impact the development of embryos. Differential gene expression analysis was performed via Jupyter Notebook and SLURM scripts and run on SJSU’s HPC server as a method of implementing NASA GeneLab’s RNA-Seq Consensus Pipeline. Data for this project utilized RNA-Seq files for early-stage embryonic zebrafish (Danio rerio), stored under GLDS-373. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis was performed to …

Understanding How The Relative Abundance Of Candida Species Impacts Transcriptional Regulation In Coculture Biofilms, Diksha Kool

Master's Projects

ABSTRACT Candida albicans and Candida glabrata are common fungal species that can change from commensal to pathogen due to their ability to form robust biofilms. Candida species are the leading cause of life-threatening conditions like Candidemia, and the existing treatments for biofilm-related infections are suboptimal. Research shows that the relative abundance of the two Candida species promotes biofilm formation, enhances pathogenicity, and increases antibiotic resistance. Thus, focusing on the importance of coculture, this paper utilizes RNA sequencing to investigate the gene expression leading to biofilm development in coculture through a time-series study.

Mirna-Seq Analysis Pipeline And R Shiny App, Alexis Torres

Master's Projects

ABSTRACT Thrombosis in the internal jugular vein (IJV) has been identified as a risk factor for astronauts undergoing spaceflight, following a 2019 study in which one astronaut developed a thrombus, and several others experienced stagnant or retrograde blood flow. To better understand this phenomenon, a model that simulates the effects of microgravity on blood flow in the IJV is being developed. mRNA and microRNA NGS sequencing will be used to study the transcriptome of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in simulated microgravity conditions. A microRNA sequencing (miRNA-seq) pipeline has been developed to quantify the miRNA sequencing results. A graphical …

Conservation And Prevalence Of Sequence Paired Sites In Humans, Punit Sundar

Master's Projects

The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 made it possible to leverage the power of computers to quicken biological discoveries. The human genome contains rich information relevant to the proper functions of cells that is computationally arduous and costly to investigate in a laboratory setting. Specifically, gene expression levels in cells can be impacted when functionally relevant motifs in the DNA are mutated preventing proper transcription factor binding. To study the consequences of such mutations, it is necessary to first identify such functionally relevant regions of the genome using computational approaches. A signaling pathway that is of particular …

Comparison Of An Oxford Nanopore Technologies Sequencing Platform To Existing Sequencing Methods For Differential Expression Studies, Nikola Klier

Master's Projects

As the genomics revolution continues, there is constant pressure to make sequencing technology more accessible and practical for a growing series of applications. Existing sequencing technologies are often prohibitively expensive, limiting their use for novel diagnostic and research applications. Additionally, existing technologies are often limited by short read lengths, which may present problems to certain quantitative sequencing applications. One such application is Differential Expression Analysis, in which RNA-Seq is performed in paired samples under different experimental conditions to identify differences in gene expression. In this study, an Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing platform was used to conduct a differential expression study …

Metagenomic Analysis Of Microbial 18s Eukaryotes Communities And Environmental Factors In The Western Antarctic Peninsula Waters During Austral Summers, Idan Siman-Tov

Master's Projects

Little is known about the environmental factors that impact eukaryotic microbial populations in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Metagenomic and environmental data have been collected over the course of three consecutive austral summers in the Western Antarctic Peninsula off Palmer Station. More than 13 million 18S rRNA eukaryotic sequences have been taxonomically identified and categorized from the Antarctic water samples collected. Here we will investigate the environmental factors that affect eukaryotic organism populations, as well as possible indicator species that could provide insight as to the status of other eukaryotic species. Due to climate change, understanding these factors and identifying status …

Mrna-Sequencing Pipeline And Pathway Analysis To Determine The Effects Of Bisphenol A On Fragile X Syndrome In Drosophila Melanogaster, Rashi Raghulan

Master's Projects

Neurological disorders (NDDs), like Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), are becoming more prevalent. One outstanding question in the field is how genetic risk factors for NDDs, like Fmr1, converge with environmental risk factors like bisphenol A (BPA). Our research compares and contrasts the different molecular impacts of BPA exposure in wild-type and FXS flies using mRNA-sequencing analysis. This analysis identifies the mutation in the Fmr1 gene is shown to have a stronger effect on the Drosophila than the presence of BPA, resulting in significant differential gene expression that perturbed several neurological pathways. Moreover, numerous genes responsible for genetic human diseases have …

The Impact Of Bisphenol A And Its Analogues On Neurodevelopmental Transcriptomes In Drosophila Melanogaster, An Nguyen

Master's Projects

No abstract provided.

A Lims-Less System For Genotyping Data In Marker-Assisted Selection, Alex Rios

Master's Projects

Climate change and feeding the growing human population are two tightly intertwined problems we face now. Innovations across several agricultural sectors are needed to meet these challenges as we proceed into the future. Seed companies and plant breeders are at the forefront of producing new plant varieties that must survive under the unique stresses of extreme weather patterns caused by changing climates. This project aims to provide breeders with faster marker results by streamlining the data process of marker-assisted selection (MAS). Manually managing genotyping data in MAS can take several hours or days to compile results for breeders. Although some …

An Investigation Of Segmental Duplications Across Topologically Associating Domains, Sara Bell

Master's Projects

High-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) reveals organization within genomes. Topologically associating domains (TADs) make up one level of organization and are identified by applying algorithms to Hi-C data. TADs have boundaries disrupted by structural variants (SVs), hypothesized to form due to recombination that occurs between segmental duplications (SDs). Little research is available about the effects of SDs at TAD boundaries. This project aimed to understand the distribution of SDs near TADs and determine any overlap between the two features. We analyzed public data and found SDs to have low breakpoint frequency and coverage at TAD boundaries. We then processed a …

Radiation Exposure Determination In A Secure, Cloudbased Online Environment, Ben C. Shirley, Eliseos J. Mucaki, Joan H.M. Knoll, Peter Rogan

Biochemistry Publications

Rapid sample processing and interpretation of estimated exposures will be critical for triaging exposed individuals after a major radiation incident. The dicentric chromosome (DC) assay assesses absorbed radiation using metaphase cells from blood. The Automated Dicentric Chromosome Identifier and Dose Estimator System (ADCI) identifies DCs and determines radiation doses. This study aimed to broaden accessibility and speed of this system, while protecting data and software integrity. ADCI Online is a secure web-streaming platform accessible worldwide from local servers. Cloud-based systems containing data and software are separated until they are linked for radiation exposure estimation. Dose estimates are identical to ADCI …

Capsaicinoids From Capsicum Annuum As An Alternative Fabh Inhibitor Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis: In Silico Study, Gabriella Chandrakirana Krisnamurti, Dewi Ratih Tirto Sari, Yohanes Bare

Makara Journal of Science

The number of tuberculosis (TB) cases worldwide reached 1.5 million in 2018; thus, TB is considered a deadly disease. TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and involves lipid synthesis. Considering the importance of lipid metabolism in bacteria, FabH may be an essential protein target for repressing lipid synthesis. Capsaicinoids from Capsicum annuum demonstrate potent antibacterial activity. This study predicted the ability of capsaicinoid compounds to inhibit FabH. In silico analysis was performed by retrieving the structure of FabH from PDB and those of selected capsaicinoid derivatives from PubChem. The compounds were docked using AutoDock Vina in PyRx 0.8 software. The …

Antimicrobial Activity Of Ferulic Acid In Indonesian Purple Rice Through Toll-Like Receptor Signaling, Ernanin Dyah Wijayanti, Anna Safitri, Dian Siswanto, Lidwina Faraline Triprisila, Fatchiyah Fatchiyah

Makara Journal of Science

Purple rice is a potential source of ferulic acid, which has antimicrobial properties. However, the inhibitory mechanism of ferulic acid on the growth of bacteria, particularly Salmonella and Listeria, has not been elucidated. This study aimed to determine the bioactivity of ferulic acid from purple rice as an antimicrobial agent against Salmonella typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes using in vitro and in silico analyses. The antimicrobial activity of a purple rice ferulic acid extract was tested using the agar well diffusion method. Its effect on bacterial cells was observed using scanning electron microscopy. Ferulic acid was confirmed to have antimicrobial …

Genetic Contributors Of Incident Stroke In 10,700 African Americans With Hypertension: A Meta-Analysis From The Genetics Of Hypertension Associated Treatments And Reasons For Geographic And Racial Differences In Stroke Studies, Nicole D. Armstrong, Vinodh Srinivasasainagendra, Amit Patki, Rikki M. Tanner, Bertha A. Hidalgo, Hemant K. Tiwari, Nita A. Limdi, Ethan M. Lange, Leslie A. Lange, Donna K. Arnett, Marguerite R. Irvin

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: African Americans (AAs) suffer a higher stroke burden due to hypertension. Identifying genetic contributors to stroke among AAs with hypertension is critical to understanding the genetic basis of the disease, as well as detecting at-risk individuals.

Methods: In a population comprising over 10,700 AAs treated for hypertension from the Genetics of Hypertension Associated Treatments (GenHAT) and Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) studies, we performed an inverse variance-weighted meta-analysis of incident stroke. Additionally, we tested the predictive accuracy of a polygenic risk score (PRS) derived from a European ancestral population in both GenHAT and REGARDS AAs …

Deep Learning For Human Microrna Precursor Prediction: A Systematic Literature Review, Martina Ojonah

Master of Science in Information Technology Theses

The discovery of MicroRNA (miRNA) sparked medical breakthroughs, leading to the development of drugs/vaccines and biomarkers for some terminal diseases such as cancer. Due to the relatively short length of microRNAs, research has shown that discovering them on their own is a difficult task; thus, the focus has shifted to predicting precursor miRNAs, which are longer than miRNAs. Computational techniques evolve because of flaws discovered in existing designs, discoveries, and the desire to make the process as seamless as possible. Most researchers in recent studies indicated that the use of few input features and a lack of domain understanding of …

Spaceflight And Differential Gene Expression Analysis Of Mice Quadriceps Exposed To Microgravity, Tommy Nguyen

Master's Projects

he trip to Mars and back is planned for the next 20 years. Improvement in technology and research has allowed data analysis, at a larger scale, on spaceflight specimen. However, research involving spaceflight is decentralized, as research is spread across laboratories with different methodologies. NASA’S GeneLab is a public repository for spaceflight-related omics data and promotes centralizing spaceflight RNA-Seq studies using NASA’s RNA-Seq pipeline. Jonathan Oribello, a SJSU’s Bioinformatics graduate and now an employee at GeneLab, has implemented Nextflow to NASA’s RNA-Seq pipeline. The Nextflow RNA-Seq pipeline was ran on San Jose State University’s College of Science High Performance Computing …

An Examination Of Bone Loss During Space Travel With Differential Gene Expression Analysis, Claudia Vo

Master's Projects

Spaceflight poses many risks to human health due to the harsh conditions of microgravity, cosmic radiation, and confinement. One of the impacts that spaceflight entails is bone loss, which is a risk to astronauts as future space missions will require long travel durations. To elucidate the role of genetics in spaceflight bone loss, in this study differential gene expression analysis was performed using Nextflow-RCP, an adaptation of NASA Genelab’s RNA-Seq Consensus pipeline. The dataset for this project was GLDS-241, which contained samples from mice femoral skin. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the genes involved in bone loss, the results …

Integrative Analysis Of Multi-Omics Kinome Data And Virtual Screening Of Identified Targets With Pan-Cancer Application, Siddesh Southekal

Theses & Dissertations

Cancer is a heterogeneous disease characterized by the uncontrolled growth and dissemination of abnormal cells. Unfortunately, it is also challenging to treat due to the heterogeneous nature of the tumors and the lack of known drugs that are effective against all tumor subpopulations.

The human protein kinases represent an essential and diverse family of enzymes and are often dysregulated in cancer. The human kinome comprises only around 2% of all coding genes of the human genome but phosphorylates about 30% of cellular proteins critical for regulating various biological processes such as cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, apoptosis, motility, growth, differentiation, …

Mrna-Sequencing Pipeline For Differential Gene Expression Analysis, Crystal Han

Master's Projects

Endothelial cells (ECs) line the insides of blood vessels and play a key role in the coagulation and vascular repair system. Under normal circumstances, ECs are constantly expressing anticoagulants to prevent clots and maintain healthy blood flow. But when there is an injury to the vessel, endothelial cells become centrally involved in orchestrating the complex series of events that would lead to the clotting of the wound. Thus, ECs are dynamic and respond accordingly based on changes in their local environment. Unfortunately, endothelial cells can sometimes misinterpret cues from the environment and initiate coagulation when there is no vessel damage …