Development And Characterization Of Histidine-Tagged Hpv16 L2 And Ms2-Arginine-Tagged Recombinant Proteins For Downstream Processes,
2017
Michigan Technological University
Development And Characterization Of Histidine-Tagged Hpv16 L2 And Ms2-Arginine-Tagged Recombinant Proteins For Downstream Processes, Tahiyat Alothaim
Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports
Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the most common sexually transmitted infections. Persistent infection with HPV can lead to anogenital cancers including head and neck cancers. Three prophylactic vaccines have been approved to prevent against some types of HPV infection. However, the vaccines are HPV-type specific and protect mostly against the HPV types included in the vaccines. To offer broader protection against more HPV types, studies in the field are developing candidate vaccines targeting a conserved minor capsid protein, L2. Nevertheless, reagents for developing and assessing L2 vaccines are limited. For example, antibodies to assess the antigenicity of some L2 epitopes are …
Contributions Of Gene Copy Number Variation To Genome Evolution And Local Adaptation Of The Cyanobacterium Acaryochloris,
2017
University of Montana, Missoula
Contributions Of Gene Copy Number Variation To Genome Evolution And Local Adaptation Of The Cyanobacterium Acaryochloris, Amy L. Gallagher
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Acaryochloris is a recently discovered genus of cyanobacteria, unique in its use of an uncommon chlorophyll as its major photosynthetic pigment, and in its peculiar genome dynamics. Members of this genus exhibit increased genic copy number variation (CNV), which is thought to be primarily derived from gene duplications and horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Acaryochloris provides an ideal system to explore mechanisms behind maintenance of gene duplicates and the influence of CNV in local adaptation. Here, I propose a mechanism for retention of gene duplicates of the bacterial recombinase, RecA, in Acaryochloris genomes and provide preliminary evidence that these paralogs are …
Characterization Of A Putative Hemolysin Expressed By Sneathia Amnii, A Preterm Birth-Associated Pathogen,
2017
Virginia Commonwealth University
Characterization Of A Putative Hemolysin Expressed By Sneathia Amnii, A Preterm Birth-Associated Pathogen, Lizette Carrasco, Kimberly Jefferson
Undergraduate Research Posters
The gram-negative bacteria Sneathia amnii is a poorly-characterized commensal of the female urogenital tract frequently associated with adverse clinical outcomes such as bacterial vaginosis (BV), amnionitis, and preterm labor. To investigate its potential role in virulence, we sought to identify and characterize virulence determinants produced by S. amnii in an effort to better understand the pathogenesis of infectious preterm birth. Through sequencing of the Sn35 genome (type strain of S. amnii), we identified two genes with amino acid sequence similarity and structural similarity to the filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) protein of Bordetella pertussis and its Type Vb transporter. Because S. amnii …
Influence Of Maternal Breast Milk Ingestion On Acquisition Of The Intestinal Microbiome In Preterm Infants,
2016
Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
Influence Of Maternal Breast Milk Ingestion On Acquisition Of The Intestinal Microbiome In Preterm Infants, Katherine E Gregory, Buck S Samuel, Pearl Houghteling, Guru Shan, Frederick M Ausubel, Ruslan I Sadreyev, W Allan Walker
Faculty, Staff and Students Publications
BACKGROUND: The initial acquisition and early development of the intestinal microbiome during infancy are important to human health across the lifespan. Mode of birth, antibiotic administration, environment of care, and nutrition have all been shown to play a role in the assembly of the intestinal microbiome during early life. For preterm infants, who are disproportionately at risk of inflammatory intestinal disease (i.e., necrotizing enterocolitis), a unique set of clinical factors influence the establishment of the microbiome. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of nutritional exposures on the intestinal microbiome in a cohort of preterm infants early …
Cullin-4 Regulates Wingless And Jnk Signaling-Mediated Cell Death In The Drosophila Eye.,
2016
University of Dayton
Cullin-4 Regulates Wingless And Jnk Signaling-Mediated Cell Death In The Drosophila Eye., Meghana Tare, Ankita Sarkar, Shimpi Bedi, Madhuri Kango-Singh, Amit Singh
Biology Faculty Publications
In all multicellular organisms, the fundamental processes of cell proliferation and cell death are crucial for growth regulation during organogenesis. Strict regulation of cell death is important to maintain tissue homeostasis by affecting processes like regulation of cell number, and elimination of unwanted/unfit cells. The developing Drosophila eye is a versatile model to study patterning and growth, where complex signaling pathways regulate growth and cell survival. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying regulation of these processes is not fully understood. In a gain-of-function screen, we found that misexpression of cullin-4 (cul-4), an ubiquitin ligase, can rescue reduced eye mutant phenotypes. Previously, …
Comparative Genomic Analysis Of Two Serotype 1/2b Listeria Monocytogenes Isolates From Analogous Environmental Niches Demonstrates The Influence Of Hypervariable Hotspots In Defining Pathogenesis,
2016
Teagasc Food Research Centre, Fermoy, Ireland and Department of Biological Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Bishopstown, Ireland
Comparative Genomic Analysis Of Two Serotype 1/2b Listeria Monocytogenes Isolates From Analogous Environmental Niches Demonstrates The Influence Of Hypervariable Hotspots In Defining Pathogenesis, Aidan Casey, Kieran Jordan, Aidan Coffey, Edward M. Fox, Olivia Mcauliffe
Department of Biological Sciences Publications
The vast majority of clinical human listeriosis cases are caused by serotype 1/2a, 1/2b, 1/2c, and 4b isolates of Listeria monocytogenes. The ability of L. monocytogenes to establish a systemic listeriosis infection within a host organism relies on a combination of genes that are involved in cell recognition, internalization, evasion of host defenses, and in vitro survival and growth. Recently, whole genome sequencing and comparative genomic analysis have proven to be powerful tools for the identification of these virulence-associated genes in L. monocytogenes. In this study, two serotype 1/2b strains of L. monocytogenes with analogous isolation sources, but …
The Vibrio Cholerae Minor Pilin Tcpb Initiates Assembly And Retraction Of The Toxin-Coregulated Pilus,
2016
Simon Fraser University
The Vibrio Cholerae Minor Pilin Tcpb Initiates Assembly And Retraction Of The Toxin-Coregulated Pilus, Dixon Ng, Tony Harn, Tuba Altindal, Subramania Kolappan, Jarrad Marles, Rajan Lala, Ingrid Spielman, Yang Gao, Caitlyn Hauke, Gabriela Kovacikova
Dartmouth Scholarship
Type IV pilus (T4P) systems are complex molecular machines that polymerize major pilin proteins into thin filaments displayed on bacterial surfaces. Pilus functions require rapid extension and depolymerization of the pilus, powered by the assembly and retraction ATPases, respectively. A set of low abundance minor pilins influences pilus dynamics by unknown mechanisms. The Vibrio cholerae toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP) is among the simplest of the T4P systems, having a single minor pilin TcpB and lacking a retraction ATPase. Here we show that TcpB, like its homolog CofB, initiates pilus assembly. TcpB co-localizes with the pili but at extremely low levels, equivalent …
Occurrence, Antibiotic Resistance, And Survival Of Fecal Enterococci In Turkey Litter,
2016
James Madison University
Occurrence, Antibiotic Resistance, And Survival Of Fecal Enterococci In Turkey Litter, Steven Glynn Mcbride Ii
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s National Water Quality Inventory and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Integrated Report show fecal bacteria to be the most common cause of impairment for both streams and estuaries. Human and animal sources have both been identified as significant contributors of pathogenic bacteria to surface waters. In this study, turkey litter from a farm in Shenandoah County, VA was surveyed for total culturable bacteria and total culturable enterococci before and after a transition to organic rearing practices. The enterococci were identified to species phenotypically using the Biolog Microbial Identification System and resistance …
Amino Acid Catabolism In Staphylococcus Aureus,
2016
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Amino Acid Catabolism In Staphylococcus Aureus, Cortney Halsey
Theses & Dissertations
Staphylococcus aureus must rapidly adapt to a variety of carbon and nitrogen sources during invasion of a host. Within a staphylococcal abscess, preferred carbon sources such as glucose are limiting, suggesting S. aureus survives through the catabolism of secondary carbon sources. S. aureus encodes pathways to catabolize multiple amino acids including those that generate pyruvate, 2-oxoglutarate, and oxaloacetate. To assess amino acid catabolism, S. aureus JE2 and mutants were grown in complete defined medium containing 18 amino acids but lacking glucose (CDM). A mutation in glutamate dehydrogenase (gudB), which generates 2-oxoglutarate from glutamate, abrogated growth in CDM suggesting …
The Influence Of The Invasive Chinese Tallow (Triadica Sebifera) Leaf Litter On Aquatic Chemistry And Microbial Community Composition,
2016
Stephen F Austin State University
The Influence Of The Invasive Chinese Tallow (Triadica Sebifera) Leaf Litter On Aquatic Chemistry And Microbial Community Composition, Raymond D. Montez
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Global climate change and anthropogenic activity have facilitated the movement and invasive potential of nonnative plants in native environments. These invasions can have negative effects on ecosystem diversity and function. The nonnative and invasive plant, Chinese Tallow (Triadica sebifera), has already invaded much of the south eastern US where it is outcompeting native tree species and changing ecosystem diversity in a variety of habitats. Leaf litter from the Chinese tallow has been shown cause changes in dissolved oxygen and pH in the aquatic environment. Turbidity is also affected when Chinese tallow litter is present in water. A series of …
Review Of The Cultivation Program Within The National Alliance For Advanced Biofuels And Bioproducts,
2016
New Mexico State University
Review Of The Cultivation Program Within The National Alliance For Advanced Biofuels And Bioproducts, Peter J. Lammers, Michael Huesemann, Wiebke Boeing, Daniel B. Anderson, Robert G. Arnold, Xuemei Bai, Manish Bhole, Yalini Brhanavan, Louis Brown, Jola Brown, Judith K. Brown, Stephen Chisholm, C. Meghan Downes, Scott Fulbright, Yufeng Ge, Jonathan E. Holladay, Balachandran Ketheesan, Avinash Khopkar, Ambica Koushik, Paul Laur, Babetta L. Marrone, John B. Mott, Nagamany Nirmalakhandan, Kimberly L. Ogden, Ronald L. Parsons, Juergen Polle, Randy D. Ryan, Tzachi Samocha, Richard T. Sayre, Mark Seger, Thinesh Selvaratnam, Ruixiu Sui, Alex Thomasson, Adrian Unc, Wayne Van Vorrhies, Peter Waller, Yao Yao, José A. Olivares
Publications and Research
The cultivation efforts within the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB)were developed to provide four major goals for the consortium, which included biomass production for downstream experimentation, development of new assessment tools for cultivation, development of new cultivation reactor technologies, and development of methods for robust cultivation. The NAABB consortium test beds produced over 1500 kg of biomass for downstream processing. The biomass production included a number of model production strains, but also took into production some of the more promising strains found through the prospecting efforts of the consortium. Cultivation efforts at large scale are intensive and …
Genomic Description And Annotation Of A New Colivirus; Kb1,
2016
Bowling Green State University
Genomic Description And Annotation Of A New Colivirus; Kb1, Maggie Caswell
Honors Projects
KB1 is a bacteriophage with relatively few established characteristics. However, it is thought to be similar to the novel environmental isolate bacteriophage, JK5. The aim of this study was to describe and annotate the genome of this new colivirus, relative to the genome of JK5. This comparison confirms the hypothesis that these are similar, but distinct viruses, and provides a foundation for the further understanding of both of these novel environmental isolates.
Erratum To: Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia In Infants With G6pd C.563c>T Variant,
2016
Aga Khan University
Erratum To: Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia In Infants With G6pd C.563c>T Variant, Bushra Moiz, Amna Nasir, Sarosh Ahmed Khan, Saleema Amin Kherani, Maqbool Qadir
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
No abstract provided.
Epidemiology Of White Spot Syndrome Virus In The Daggerblade Grass Shrimp (Palaemonetes Pugio) And The Gulf Sand Fiddler Crab (Uca Panacea),
2016
University of Southern Mississippi
Epidemiology Of White Spot Syndrome Virus In The Daggerblade Grass Shrimp (Palaemonetes Pugio) And The Gulf Sand Fiddler Crab (Uca Panacea), Muhammad
Dissertations
Ever since the first outbreaks of White spot syndrome virus (WSSV), which causes White Spot Disease (WSD), in Asia in the early 1990s, the pathogen has been a major constraint to the profitability of the shrimp aquaculture industry across the globe. WSSV has a broad host range and is routinely detected in wild decapod crustaceans. In the present study, two common species in the tidal salt marsh along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the daggerblade grass shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio) and the Gulf sand fiddler crab (Uca panacea), were investigated for their role as …
A Microbiomic Approach To The Characterization Of The Impacts And Influences Of Viral, Bacterial, And Harmful Algal Bloom Toxins On The Bottlenose Dolphin,
2016
University of Southern Mississippi
A Microbiomic Approach To The Characterization Of The Impacts And Influences Of Viral, Bacterial, And Harmful Algal Bloom Toxins On The Bottlenose Dolphin, Corey David Russo
Dissertations
As apex predators that display high site fidelity Tursiops truncatus (bottlenose dolphin) are indicators of marine ecosystem health. Bottlenose dolphins, additionally, display pathogenesis and immune response similar to that of humans. Humans and coastal bottlenose dolphins, in particular, are constantly exposed to the same industrial, agricultural and domestic toxins and pathogens, contaminants and pollutants. Thus, studies on the bottlenose dolphin are also valuable in bridging the gap between ocean and human health. Bottlenose dolphins are susceptible to viral bacterial and toxin infection. Infection in the bottlenose dolphin manifests itself in the form of mass stranding events, unusual mortality events, chronic …
The Elasmobranch-Microbe Relationship: Trimethylamine N-Oxide Synthesis, Urea Hydrolysis, And Microbe-Osmolyte Interactions In The Atlantic Stingray, Dasyatis Sabina,
2016
University of Southern Mississippi
The Elasmobranch-Microbe Relationship: Trimethylamine N-Oxide Synthesis, Urea Hydrolysis, And Microbe-Osmolyte Interactions In The Atlantic Stingray, Dasyatis Sabina, Kaitlin Kelly Doucette
Master's Theses
The elasmobranch osmoregulatory strategy is predicated on the accumulation of nitrogenous compounds, primarily urea and trimethylamine n¬-oxide (TMAO). Despite the abundance of these plasma osmolytes, it is notable that elasmobranchs appear to lack urease and TMA oxidase (Tmase), enzymes that scavenge urea-nitrogen and synthesize TMAO, respectively. However, urease and Tmase are found in many species of bacteria. Therefore, I hypothesized that intestinal bacteria are responsible for urease and Tmase activity in elasmobranchs. Absent dietary nitrogen sources, I evaluated the effects of reduced intestinal microbiota on osmoregulation in Atlantic stingray (Dasyatis sabina) in vivo. D. sabina were given …
Complex Glycan Utilization Preferences Of Human Gut Bacteria,
2016
Purdue University
Complex Glycan Utilization Preferences Of Human Gut Bacteria, Yunus Emre Tuncil
Open Access Dissertations
Complex glycans, making up dietary fiber, have gained significance in recent years as they are the main energy source for the colonic microbiota which are physiologically important for the host health. Understanding glycan utilization strategies of the members of this community is essential to maximize beneficial health outcomes obtained from them. In order to investigate how the members of our gut microbiota utilize glycans and activate their respective polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs), we performed a series of time-course assays in which two model organisms, Bacteroides thetaiotamicron (Bt) and B. ovatus (Bo), were individually grown in a medium containing carbohydrates utilized …
Xpert Mtb/Rif Assay Shows Faster Clearance Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Dna With Higher Levels Of Rifapentine Exposure.,
2016
George Washington University
Xpert Mtb/Rif Assay Shows Faster Clearance Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Dna With Higher Levels Of Rifapentine Exposure., A Jayakumar, R M Savic, C K Everett, Debra Benator, D Alland, C M Heilig, M Weiner, S O Friedrich, N A Martinson, A Kerrigan, C Zamudio, S V Goldberg, W C Whitworth, J L Davis, P Nahid
Medicine Faculty Publications
The Xpert MTB/RIF assay is both sensitive and specific as a diagnostic test. Xpert also reports quantitative output in cycle threshold (CT) values, which may provide a dynamic measure of sputum bacillary burden when used longitudinally. We evaluated the relationship between Xpert CT trajectory and drug exposure during tuberculosis (TB) treatment to assess the potential utility of Xpert CT for treatment monitoring. We obtained serial sputum samples from patients with smear-positive pulmonary TB who were consecutively enrolled at 10 international clinical trial sites participating in study 29X, a CDC-sponsored Tuberculosis Trials Consortium study evaluating the tolerability, safety, and antimicrobial activity …
Heterodimers As The Structural Unit Of The T=1 Capsid Of The Fungal Double-Stranded Rna Rosellinia Necatrix Quadrivirus 1,
2016
Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB-CSIC), Spain
Heterodimers As The Structural Unit Of The T=1 Capsid Of The Fungal Double-Stranded Rna Rosellinia Necatrix Quadrivirus 1, Daniel Luque, Carlos P. Mata, Fernando González-Camacho, José M. González, Josué Gómez-Blanco, Carlos Alfonso, Germán Rivas, Wendy M. Havens, Satoko Kanematsu, Nobuhiro Suzuki, Said A. Ghabrial, Benes L. Trus, José R Castón
Plant Pathology Faculty Publications
Most double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) viruses are transcribed and replicated in a specialized icosahedral capsid with a T=1 lattice consisting of 60 asymmetric capsid protein (CP) dimers. These capsids help to organize the viral genome and replicative complex(es). They also act as molecular sieves that isolate the virus genome from host defense mechanisms and allow the passage of nucleotides and viral transcripts. Rosellinia necatrix quadrivirus 1 (RnQV1), the type species of the family Quadriviridae, is a dsRNA fungal virus with a multipartite genome consisting of four monocistronic segments (segments 1 to 4). dsRNA-2 and dsRNA-4 encode two CPs (P2 and …
A Novel Codon-Optimized Siv Gag-Pol Immunogen For Gene-Based Vaccination,
2016
Mayo Clinic, Rochester
A Novel Codon-Optimized Siv Gag-Pol Immunogen For Gene-Based Vaccination, Catherine M. Crosby, Eric A. Weaver, Reeti Khare, Michael A. Barry
Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications
Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is a robust pathogen used in non-human primates to model HIV vaccines. SIV encodes a number of potential vaccine targets. By far the largest and most conserved protein target in SIV is its gag-pol protein that bears many epitopes to drive multivalent immune T cell responses. While gag-pol is an attractive antigen, it is only translated after a frame shift between gag and pol with the effect that gag and pol are expressed at an approximate 10/1 ratio. The codon bias of native lentiviral genes are also mismatched with the abundance of tRNAs in mammalian cells …
