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Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
The mammalian olfactory bulb (OB) has a vast population of dopamine (DA) neurons, whose function is to increase odor discrimination through mostly inhibitory synaptic mechanisms. However, it is not well understood whether there is more...
Nucleosome distributions are critically important in regulating access to the eukaryotic genome. Cells with different physiologies have strikingly similar nucleosome distributions. Few studies in human cells have measured genome-wide...
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a re-emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus that has been linked to severe neurological disorders such as microcephaly in newborns as well as Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults. It is closely related to other flaviviruses...
The linker of the nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton (LINC) protein complex bridges the inner and outer nuclear membranes and regulates a range of nuclear activities that include telomere tethering and chromosome movement. The canonical...
Cells sense the mechanical properties of their environment through physical engagement and spreading, with high stiffness driving nuclear translocation of the mechanosensitive transcription factor YAP. Restriction of cell spread area or...
Eukaryotic genomes are organized into the nucleoprotein complex, chromatin. The fundamental subunit of chromatin is the nucleosome: 150 base pairs (bps) of DNA wrapped around a "spool" of histone proteins. Chromatin structure depends...
The neuroendocrine system presents a diversity of patterns in hormone secretion across a large range of temporal scales. These patterns of secretion are crucial to many aspects of animal survival and behavior. This offers a wealth of...
During the past 30 years, there have been several Flaviviridae threats. Among them, Hepatatis C virus (HCV) emerged in the Western hemisphere as the previously unidentified etiological agent of non-A non-B hepatitis in transfusion...
Epithelial tissues rely on the activity of stem cells to sustain their structure and proper functioning. These stem cells are responsible for generating various types of cells, that are essential for the tissue's normal homeostasis, ...
Nanoparticle based cellular therapies hold great promise for clinical applications and medicinal use in human patients by allowing for targeted delivery of a personalized medicine payload to specific cells and tissues in a variety of...
Oxidoreductase enzyme complexes are one of the known biomolecular machines, which play a crucial role in cellular biochemistry including metabolic, signaling, and electron transport pathways. In these complexes, individual subunits can...
The Zika virus (ZIKV) presents a threat to the health of pregnant women and developing fetuses as it is associated with microcephaly. There is a current gap in the understanding of how ZIKV affects the host’s chromatin architecture....
The follicular epithelium (FE) of the Drosophila egg chamber is an excellent model system to study cell-cycle regulation, cell differentiation and cell migration in development. During oogenesis, follicle cells sequentially undergo three...
To improve the design of prostheses surfaces, our research group investigates how biocompatible polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMUs) can be constructed to serve as coatings for biomedical implants, providing a versatile, inexpensive, and...
The temporal order in which segments of the genome are duplicated is referred to as the replication timing (RT) program. RT is established in each cell cycle coincident with the repositioning and anchorage of chromosomes in early G1. In...
Ecophysiological Responses of Phytoplankton to Environmental Cues - A Laboratory Approach: Effects of Growth Light Quality on Phytoplankton and an Assessment of Carbon Utilization in Karenia Brevis
Phytoplankton are primary producers in the marine food web, providing energy and matter for higher trophic levels by fixing CO2 and inorganic nutrients into biomass. This production of particulate organic matter by marine phytoplankton, ...
Accurate chromosome segregation during meiosis is critical for generating genetic diversity and for producing gametes with the correct number of chromosomes. After meiotic S-phase, homologs pair, recombine, and then separate in meiosis I...
Plants are often subjected to extreme environmental conditions and must adapt rapidly. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) accumulates under abiotic stress conditions, signaling transcriptional changes that trigger physiological...
Karenia brevis is a marine dinoflagellate commonly found in the Gulf of Mexico and important both ecologically and economically due to its production of the neurotoxin brevetoxin, which can cause respiratory illness in humans and...
The eukaryotic genome is encased by a double membrane structure, the nuclear envelope (NE), forming the outer structure of the nucleus. The NE is highly dynamic and separates the nucleoplasm from the cytoplasm. The NE is involved in...
Accurate chromosome segregation is vital to maintain genomic integrity. Chromosome missegregation, or aneuploidy, contributes to cancer development and conditions like down syndrome (Trisomy 21). Chromosomes are attached to microtubules...
Identification and Characterization of Linker of Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton (Linc) Complex Components in Maize (Zea mays L.) Meiosis and Development
The LINC (Linker of Nucleoskeleton to Cytoskeleton) complex is an essential multi-protein structure spanning the nuclear envelope in all eukaryotic organisms. The core of the LINC complex is comprised of SUN (Sad1/Unc-84) domain proteins...
To ensure accurate chromosome segregation, sister chromatid cohesion must be properly established at S-phase when DNA is replicated. The protein Eco1/Ctf7 is responsible for establishing this cohesion, and is the focus of this Thesis...
ORF45 of Kaposi's sarcoma–associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a gamma herpesvirus-specific, immediate-early, and tegument protein. Our previous studies have revealed its crucial roles in both early and late stages of KSHV infection. In this...
Many proteins in the nucleus are involved in the regulation of DNA-templated events. Numerous studies have linked changes in the chromatin structure and the transcriptional program of a cell in response to a stimulus or during...
Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus (KSHV) is an oncogenic virus that has adapted unique mechanisms to modulate the cellular microenvironment of its human host. The pathogenesis of KSHV is intimately linked to its manipulation of...
Many diseases such as DiGeorge syndrome, leukemia and likely all cancers display abnormal replication timing, the temporal order in which segments of chromosomes are replicated. However, the elements that regulate normal replication...
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a re-emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus of significant public health concern closely related to other highly pathogenic flaviviruses, such as dengue virus (DENV) and West Nile virus (WNV). With the rise of ZIKV in...
Chromatin profiling in single cells has been extremely challenging and almost exclusively limited to histone proteins. In cases where single cell methods have shown promise, many require highly specialized equipment or cell type specific...
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane enclosed vesicles released from cells that act as mediators of intercellular communication and are involved in normal physiological processes as well as pathological conditions. EVs can transfer...
Accurate replication of DNA once and only once per cell cycle is an essential process for all living organisms. Despite many studies aimed at understanding this phenomenon, no mechanism describing where and when replication initiates in...
Human mesenchymal stem cells are a class of adult multipotent cells that are of interest to researchers for their clinical potential. While this cell type has been intensely investigated, there is still a significant amount to be learned...
D4Z4 is a subtelomeric macrosatellite repeat on chromosome 4q that codes for DUX4, a gene that is causal to the muscle wasting disease Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). DUX4 expression is influenced by a number of genetic...
Mitochondria, important energy centers in the cell, also control sperm cell morphogenesis.Drosophila spermatids have a remarkably large mitochondrial formation called the nebenkern. Immediately following meiosis during sperm development, ...
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) include exosomes and microvesicles, and are important mediators of cell-to-cell communication in healthy and pathological environments. Packed with biological information and present in a variety of...
Microfluidic devices are widely used for cell-based analysis. There are always needs to develop simpler, more effective and/or less costly devices than the existing ones for this application. A simple microfluidic device has been...
XCI is a form of dosage compensation that is established in early development of female mammals where one X chromosome is randomly silenced, thus balancing expression of X-linked genes. XCI is achieved by many cis- and trans- elements...
Cellular signaling pathways constitute series of genes widely used in a multitude of molecular processes within an organism. Generally, the activation of these pathways is relatively upstream in the sequence of developmental events...
Insect flight muscle (IFM) is the preferred model system for visualizing actin-myosin interactions due to its highly ordered lattice of actin and myosin filaments. Electron tomography (ET) of fast-frozen, actively contracting Lethocerus...
Type 2 diabetes, the more prevalent form of diabetes mellitus, is caused by insulin resistance in peripheral tissues due to a post-receptor defect in the insulin-signaling pathway. Binding of insulin to its receptor in the cell membrane...
One of the events leading to a cell's commitment to a new cell cycle resulting in cell division is upregulation of the replication-dependent histone gene family. Our laboratory has previously identified a coding region activating...
Collagen XIV is a fibril-associated collagen with an interrupted triple helix (FACIT). Previous studies have shown that this collagen type regulates early stages of fibrillogenesis in connective tissues of high mechanical demand. Mice...
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have a wide variety of promising clinical applications including the treatment of brain disorders and injury, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. To fully exploit their potential, we need a better...
The spindle pole body (SPB) is the functional equivalent of the mammalian centrosome in budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and is important for chromosome segregation and cell division. Paralleling how chromosome duplication and...
Zika virus (ZIKV) became a global health concern in 2016 due to its links to congenital microcephaly and other birth defects. ZIKV is part of the genus flavivirus, a class of positive(+)- sense single-stranded RNA viruses. Flavivirus...
In the United States, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, except for skin cancers. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 268, 600 new cases in 2019 alone. It is also the second leading cause of...
Flaviviruses are positive sense single-stranded enveloped RNA viruses, most are mosquito-transmitted viruses that cause systemic infection as they disseminate through the bloodstream in vertebrate hosts. The members of the flavivirus...
Molecular photophysics and metal coordination chemistry are the two fundamental pillars that support the development of fluorescent cation indicators. In this article, we describe how Zn(II)-coordination alters various ligand-centered...
A Tale of Two Drosophila Centrosome Proteins: The Regulation of Cilium Functions by Rootletin, and the Conversion of Sperm Mitochondria into Microtubule-Organizing Centers by CnnT
Using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, this dissertation dissects molecular and biological functions of three proteins: Rootletin (Root), testis-specific Centrosomin (CnnT) and Spermitin (Sprn). Centrosomes are...
Astrocytes are vital components in neuronal circuitry and there is increasing evidence linking the dysfunction of these cells to a number of central nervous system diseases. Studying the role of these cells in human brain function in the...
Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
