scholarly journals Current production as a rapid response expression reporter under micro-oxic and anoxic conditions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cody Madsen ◽  
Noelia Barvo ◽  
Ciara Fromwiller ◽  
Serenity Tyll ◽  
Brian Amburn ◽  
...  

AbstractInducible gene expression is crucial for regulating cellular processes and production of compounds within cellular pathways. Yet, inducing gene expression is only the first step to utilizing cellular processes for an applied purpose such as biosensors. Detecting when gene expression occurs is central to understanding the overall mechanism of the process as well as maximizing the process. Fluorescent proteins have been established as the primary tool for detecting gene expression in inducible systems. This study proposes electricity production as an alternate tool in reporting gene expression. Using a model organism for electricity production, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, current was shown to be an efficient reporter for gene expression and comparable to superfolder green fluorescent protein (GFP). Through regulation of the lac operator and T7 promoter, current production was induced by isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) addition. IPTG addition induced translation of GFP and the MtrB protein, which complemented a ∆mtrB strain of S. oneidensis MR-1 and restored current production. This inducible system generated reproducible current in 18 minutes in both micro-oxic and anoxic conditions. These results show that current is a fast reporter for gene expression.Financial DisclosureThe team was supported by the following departments and colleges at Michigan State University: College of Natural Science, College of Engineering, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department and Plant Research Laboratory. The team also received support from the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (DOE Office of Science BER DE-FC02-07ER64494) and startup funding from the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Michigan State University and support from Michigan State University AgBioResearch (MICL02454) (to B.H.). This work was also supported by NSF CAREER (Award #1254238) to T.A.W. MSU Alpha Chi Sigma also supported the team.Competing InterestsThe authors declare that no competing interests exist.Ethics StatementN/AData AvailabilityAll data will be supplied upon request by the corresponding author.This work was assessed during the iGEM/PLOS Realtime Peer Review Jamboree on 23rd February 2018 and has been revised in response to the reviewers’ comments.

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 955-966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanqiu Shao ◽  
Qiangfeng Cliff Zhang

Abstract RNA is crucial for gene expression and regulation. Recent advances in understanding of RNA biochemistry, structure and molecular biology have revealed the importance of RNA structure in cellular processes and diseases. Various approaches to discovering drug-like small molecules that target RNA structure have been developed. This review provides a brief introduction to RNA structural biology and how RNA structures function as disease regulators. We summarize approaches to targeting RNA with small molecules and highlight their advantages, shortcomings and therapeutic potential.


2021 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 303-310
Author(s):  
Abigail I. Green ◽  
Kristin N. Parent ◽  
Sonia M. Underwood ◽  
Rebecca L. Matz

Core chemistry ideas can be useful tools for explaining biological phenomena, but students often have difficulty understanding these core ideas within general chemistry. Connecting these ideas to biologically relevant situations is even more difficult. These difficulties arise, in part, from a lack of explicit opportunities in relevant courses for students to practice connecting ideas across disciplines. We are developing activities that examine students’ abilities to connect core chemistry ideas with biological phenomena, the overall goal being to develop a set of assessments that ask students to connect their knowledge across introductory chemistry and biology courses. Here, we describe the development and testing of an activity that focuses on concepts about energy in bond breaking, bond forming, and ATP coupling. The activity was completed by 195 students in an introductory cell and molecular biology course at Michigan State University; students were either co-enrolled or previously enrolled in General Chemistry I. Follow-up interviews to assess the validity of the activity (among others) showed that students interpreted the questions as intended and that they valued the activity as an opportunity to connect ideas across courses.


Author(s):  
James C.S. Kim

Bovine respiratory diseases cause serious economic loses and present diagnostic difficulties due to the variety of etiologic agents, predisposing conditions, parasites, viruses, bacteria and mycoplasma, and may be multiple or complicated. Several agents which have been isolated from the abnormal lungs are still the subject of controversy and uncertainty. These include adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, syncytial viruses, herpesviruses, picornaviruses, mycoplasma, chlamydiae and Haemophilus somnus.Previously, we have studied four typical cases of bovine pneumonia obtained from the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory to elucidate this complex syndrome by electron microscopy. More recently, additional cases examined reveal electron opaque immune deposits which were demonstrable on the alveolar capillary walls, laminae of alveolar capillaries, subenthothelium and interstitium in four out of 10 cases. In other tissue collected, unlike other previous studies, bacterial organisms have been found in association with acute suppurative bronchopneumonia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 6054
Author(s):  
Ioanna Kokkinopoulou ◽  
Paraskevi Moutsatsou

Mitochondria are membrane organelles present in almost all eukaryotic cells. In addition to their well-known role in energy production, mitochondria regulate central cellular processes, including calcium homeostasis, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) generation, cell death, thermogenesis, and biosynthesis of lipids, nucleic acids, and steroid hormones. Glucocorticoids (GCs) regulate the mitochondrially encoded oxidative phosphorylation gene expression and mitochondrial energy metabolism. The identification of Glucocorticoid Response Elements (GREs) in mitochondrial sequences and the detection of Glucocorticoid Receptor (GR) in mitochondria of different cell types gave support to hypothesis that mitochondrial GR directly regulates mitochondrial gene expression. Numerous studies have revealed changes in mitochondrial gene expression alongside with GR import/export in mitochondria, confirming the direct effects of GCs on mitochondrial genome. Further evidence has made clear that mitochondrial GR is involved in mitochondrial function and apoptosis-mediated processes, through interacting or altering the distribution of Bcl2 family members. Even though its exact translocation mechanisms remain unknown, data have shown that GR chaperones (Hsp70/90, Bag-1, FKBP51), the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2, the HDAC6- mediated deacetylation and the outer mitochondrial translocation complexes (Tom complexes) co-ordinate GR mitochondrial trafficking. A role of mitochondrial GR in stress and depression as well as in lung and hepatic inflammation has also been demonstrated.


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