2019 Undergraduate Exhibition

We have previously identified a delayed-hatching phenotype in nmrk-1 mutants, which are deficient in NAD+ biosynthesis. Curiously, this phenotype is only observed when the animals are raised under conditions of increased oxidative stress. The connection between NAD+ levels, oxidative stress, and hatching remains unknown. One candidate that may provide the "missing link" for this phenotype is the hexosamine pathway. We use metabolomics and genetics-based approaches to investigate this pathway in relationship to the phenotype.

With the rapid development of antibiotics came an era of pathogenic bacteria that evolved resistance. This is motive for exploration of an alternative protein control pathway that can be targeted for antibiotic development and surmount these multi-drug resistant pathogens. The pathway exploited in this investigation is trans-translation. My research initiates the investigation of the tetrazole class, which inhibit this pathway. Major methodology includes MIC, CFU/mL, endospore germination, cytotoxicity assay, and growth curve.

The xylem vessels are critical to plant water transport and management. They are the main means through which water is transported. Xylem anatomy, including length and area, is closely related to function. Four genotypes of maize with known differences in xylem phenotype were examined under well-watered and drought conditions. The root-shoot junctions were collected from individuals grown for 3 weeks in the greenhouse. Cross-sections of the roots were cut and imaged using laser ablation tomography.

Using traditional methods, antimicrobial resistance testing (AST) may take several days to obtain the results. Faster methods are therefore urgently needed for timely determination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). To validate the results of a novel AST method that is in development, we determined the AMR of 8 Escherichia coli and 10 Salmonella enterica clinical, animal, and food isolates to 23 antibiotics and determined time-kill kinetics of ampicillin on a model strain E. coli K-12.

Mind-body practices may lead to increases in physical activity (PA), but less is known on how they impact dietary habits. Sedentary adults residing in rural Pennsylvania participated in Harmony & Health, an 8-week mind-body intervention. Participants self-reported increases in PA (?=405.7 MET-min/week), which were significantly associated with increased fruit and vegetable consumption post-intervention (v=.286, p=.043). Findings suggest mind-body strategies may help promote a wide range of healthy behaviors to improve health in diverse adults.

A metaphor often applied to code-switching, or using two languages in the same conversation, is language mixing. This study capitalizes on the known prosodic (rhythmic) structure of natural speech to examine recorded conversations from a Spanish-English bilingual community in northern New Mexico. Contrary to the mixing metaphor, bilinguals structure their language switches, utilizing specific types of prosodic boundaries. These results exemplify the systematic complexity of employing two languages in the same speech act.

Past studies of mitochondrial transcription used chimeric templates in which only the transcription-control region of mtDNA was cloned into the plasmid pUC. We discovered sequences outside of the region essential for maximal transcriptional output. We characterized biochemical and biophysical differences between transcription on chimeric and authentic mtDNA templates by using atomic force microscopy and transcription assays. We also began to investigate how nuclear transcription factors interact with these templates.

C.R.E.A.T.E. (1 credit-PSYCH 296 course) is a research study and supplemental course to PSYCH 212, available for undergraduate students currently enrolled in PSYCH 212: Introduction to Developmental Psychology. C.R.E.A.T.E. is a teaching method originally designed by Hoskins et al. (2007), designed to stimulate a research laboratory setting during class wherein students have the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion with the instructor and peers about the analysis of pre-selected primary literature articles.

Wolbachia pipientis is a bacterial endosymbiont found in many insects. Since its introduction into the mosquito species Aedes aegypti, Wolbachia has been found to decrease the replication of dengue virus - thus hampering its transmission to humans. However, the mechanism for this 'viral blocking' is unknown. Here I present data on the transcription of candidate blocking genes in Aedes aegypti cells during infection or co-infection of Wolbachia and dengue virus as measured by qRT-PCR

Neurons must last an entire lifetime, despite facing frequent risk of injury from sources such as traumatic brain injury. The response to soft injury is often modeled in Drosophila by using a laser to sever neurites. However, we recently observed an alternate type of injury, termed explosion injury, which produces immediate, distinct phenotypes such as an increase in cytosolic calcium and microtubule plus-end dynamics. Our goal is to characterize this cellular response to explosive injury.

Antibiotic resistance is an urgent global threat resulting in millions of infections and thousands of deaths in the United States alone. This is a consequence of common drugs becoming ineffective against various bacterial pathogens such as M. tuberculosis. Inhibitors of trans-translation, a novel target pathway, have been identified through a high-throughput screen of a 13,000-compound library. Consequently, the active compound KKL-4669 is the current focus of pre-clinical tests involving various fluorescent and biochemical assays.