All Abstracts

Globotriaosyl ceramide (Gb3 or CD77) is a glycolipid cell surface recognition receptor for Shiga toxin molecules. Shiga toxins are a family of related bacterial toxins that bind to globotriaosylceramide on various human cell types including germinal center stage B cells, endothelial cells and certai...

Amoeboid movement is the crawling like technique that amoebas use to move from place to place. Amoeboid movement in eukaryotes is primarily driven by cytoskeletons including actin and myosin. The debate regarding whether or not microtubules are involved in amoeboid movement among scientists is widel...

  Previous studies have shown that red light can prevent apoptosis in human pigmented retinal cells. Researchers are examining the biological pathways of red light to determine if other substances that are nitric oxide donors can induce the same effects. Methanol is an apoptosis inducer. This exper...

    Cochliopodium species are difficult to identify based on morphological characters due to cryptic diversity. Recent molecular analyses (DNA sequence data) of barcoding markers such as Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) have begun to reveal the true diversity of this genus. Here, we present mo...

  Red light is known to inhibit apoptosis, however the underlying mechanisms are unknown. The ultimate goal of this experiment is to determine if red light can reduce the rate of apoptosis in cells treated with the apoptosis-inducer raptinol. However, the first step in that process is determining t...

The endosperm is one of the two fertilization products inside the seed of most flowering plants. It surrounds and nourishes the embryo by providing nutrients. In most flowering plants such as Arabidopsis, endosperm development is made of a syncytial phase and a cellularized phase. After endosperm ce...

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in American men. PCa begin to form when healthy prostate cells undergo mutations in various genes that regulate the cell cycle. Our lab recently demonstrated that JunD, a transcription factor, c...

Disinfectants are characterized as chemical liquids that kill or inhibit bacteria. They are used on everyday surfaces in order to lower potential infections of humans and cattle. Here, we seek to identify disinfectants and their respective concentrations that inhibit growth of several relatives of E...

Hereditary Nonpolypopsis Colorectal Cancer (HNPCC) is an inherited autosomal dominant genetic condition with an increased risk for colon or endometrial cancer. HNPCC is caused by a mutation in one of the genes associated with Mismatch Repair mechanism (MMR), such as MSH2. MMR repairs the single poin...

The purpose of this project is to examine the effects of the antibiotic kanamycin and the chelator citrate on growth and metal uptake of Arabidopsis plants, especially under low iron availability. Previous studies have indicated that metal uptake in the presence of kanamycin was highly modulated by ...

Promoter fusion with Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) is often used to determine a gene’s transcriptional activity in vivo. To transform Arabidopsis plant with promoter-GFP transgenes, Agrobacterium inserts a transfer DNA (T-DNA) containing promoter-GFP and a kanamycin-resistant gene into the plan...

Invasive species are nonnative species that become established in a new ecosystem. In this new area, they can significantly influence the biodiversity and impact populations of native species and their ecosystem-serving niches. Invasive plant species can cause ecological stress to the area through c...

Plants mine the soil to obtain essential nutrients and in so doing, they can take-up several antibiotics produced in the soil by some microorganisms. One such antibiotic is kanamycin. Plants are sensitive to antibiotics therefore appear to have developed different mechanisms of resistance. For examp...

Lipotoxicity, intracellular lipid metabolites accumulation, has been proposed as an important pathogenic mechanism contributing to kidney dysfunction and disease. This study was aimed to investigate the effect of palmitic acid, the dominant saturated fatty acid, on apoptosis and exosome release by r...

Salmonella enterica is a member of the Enterobacteriaceae family of gram-negative, non-spore forming, rod bacteria that are found in soil, water, and animals. There are 6 subspecies and over 2,600 serotypes. Salmonella species can cause many different diseases with gastroenteritis being the most com...

  Trichosphaerium is a multinucleated marine amoeba known to exhibit different morphotypes. Most eukaryotic amoebas have a defined shape and size at some stages of their life, which is critical for taxonomic and behavioral studies. In some cases, variations in form or size are seen in alternating f...

Climate change is a significant area of study for ecologists. Of particular interest are the relationships between organisms and their environments. This is due to the substantial influence that climate often has on a species’ living environment, behaviors and it’s ability to coexist with other ...

Appropriate seed development in Arabidopsis involves the coordinated growth between embryo and endosperm. After endosperm cellularization, embryo growth accelerates, which suggests that sugar is reallocated from endosperm to embryo. Invertase, an enzyme that breaks down sucrose, has been shown to r...

Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer (HNPCC) or Lynch Syndrome is a genetic condition that is known to increase the risk of colon cancer. HNPCC accounts for about 5% of all colon cancer cases. HNPCC is caused by mutations in DNA mismatch-repair (MMR) genes such as MSH2. The MSH2 protein forms a...

Bacterial biofilms are aggregates of bacteria engulfed in a matrix that display a strong resistance to external insults. Using commensal Neisseria species,  N. elongata, N. cinerea, and N. mucosa, we tested their ability to form biofilms in the presence of physiologically relevant concentrations...

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) is an inherited dominant autosomal disorder caused by defects in the mismatch repair (MMR) mechanism that increases the risk of cancer in the colon and endometrium. The MSH2 gene is part of MMR, and when defective, can terminate its function, leadin...

The flagellum is a lash-like appendage that protrudes from the cell body. The Flagellum functions as a rotary device for cells. In the analysis of the flagella there are many different proteins that make up the flagellar structure. The focus of this study is to see how the inner and outer dynein ar...

  Plants take up essential nutrients from the soil and in the process absorb substances released by soil microorganisms such as antibiotics. It is expected that the natural propensity of organisms to fight off unwanted influences drives plants to develop resistance against these antibiotics. One w...

Georgia has the lowest kidney transplant rates in the United States, and racial disparities in access to early steps in the kidney transplant process exist in the Southeast. The Southeastern Kidney Transplant Coalition developed the randomized, dialysis facility-level Reducing Disparities In Access ...

Sexual reproduction is a tool used to increase genetic diversity amongst species. Trichosphaerium, a genus of amoeba, is understudied compared to other eukaryotic microbes. This genus was described as sexual consisting of two stages, a gamont (gamete-forming) and schizont (spicule-containing) stage...

There are many unanswered questions regarding the effect of antibiotics on plants. Previous results indicated that metal uptake in the model plant Arabidopsis was affected by the antibiotic kanamycin. We have proposed a model of metal uptake that involves three transporters: IREG1, WBC19, and FRD3 i...

Antibiotic resistance is a global public health concern caused by the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. An estimated 23,000 patients die annually in the US. The majority of clinically important antibiotics used today are derived from soil bacteria. With the aid of biochemical and molecular tests, w...

    Kanamycin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic derived from the bacterium Streptomyces kanamyceticus. Previous research indicated that when plants are exposed to kanamycin, their iron uptake is reduced. In addition, when the antibiotic resistance gene WBC19 is mutated, they reduce zinc uptake. This...

Microbes live in diverse natural habitats, ranging from hot hydrothermal vents deep into the ocean, to the insides of our guts. Microbes have not been passive passengers, but active contributors to the transformation of our planet and evolution of its inhabitants. Soil harbors an abundance of microb...

  With the increased growth of cities, more natural habitats are becoming disturbed or fragmented, which leads to an influx of wildlife previously found in rural habitats into urban areas. To successfully inhabit these areas, some of these animals have to adapt or change their behavior. Some change...