East Carolina University : Research and Creative Achievement Week 2012
Impact of Crude Oil Exposure on Caenorhabditis elegans Locomotion Behavior and microRNA Expression, Adrien Ennis, Yanqiong Zhang, Xiaoping Pan, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 In April 2010, the tragic oil spill happened in the Gulf of Mexico. The economic, environmental, and human health impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have been widely concerned by the public and scientists. One of the response actions was injecting tons of chemical dispersant into the flow of raw oil. In this study, we used Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as an animal model to test the effects of exposure to oil and dispersant on locomotion behavior and microRNA (miRNA) expressions. The C. elegans L4 larvae were dosed with raw oil and dispersant at three different concentrations. The locomotion behavior of C. elegans were then analyzed using a worm tracker system. The miRNA gene expression that related to locomotion and stress response were analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR. The mean behavior of each exposure group can then be compared with a control to determine any effects resulting from exposure to oil, dispersant, or both oil and dispersant. Several selected miRNA genes are aberrantly expressed following exposure. This work is useful to analyze miRNAmediated mechanism of behavioral changes under oil exposure.
UP5
HTLV-1-encoded protein, HBZ, stabilizes c-Jun expression, Oppah Kuguyo (Bristol Exchange Student), Nicholas Polakowski, Isabelle Lemasson, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 Human T-cell leukemia Viruses (HTLV) are complex delta-retroviruses that do not contain proto-oncogenes in their genome yet are capable of transforming primary T lymphocytes. HTLV has four known strains: HTLV-1, HTLV-2, HTLV-3, HTLV-4. While most strains do not cause disease, HTLV-1 causes Adult T-cell Leukemia (ATL) and HTLV-1 Associated Myelopathy /Tropical Spastic Paraperesis (HAM/TSP). HTLV-1 basic leucine zipper (HBZ) is a viral protein encoded by the anti-sense mRNA and is expressed in all individuals infected with HTLV-1. HBZ contains three domains: an activation domain, a central region important for nuclear localization and a basic leucine zipper domain (bZIP). HBZ is localized in the nucleus with heterochromatin and euchromatin, hence suggesting a strong association with transcriptional modulation. HBZ interacts with host factors that also contain a bZIP domain such as CREB, CREB2, c-Jun, JunB and JunD. The Jun family proteins function by regulating the expression of a myriad of genes in a variety of tissues and cell types. Interestingly, the level of c-Jun is increased in HTLV-1 infected cells. We found by Western blots that HBZ increases the level of c-Jun. Because HBZ did not increase the levels of c-Jun mRNA, we propose that HBZ stabilizes the c-Jun protein. We are in the process of determining the mechanism by which HBZ stabilizes c-Jun.
192
UP6