Arts and Sciences
Morning Posters
Developmental Characterization of Ectopic Eye Formation as a Function of PAX-6 Gene in Drosophila Eye Biology Honors Thesis, Undergraduate Advisor(s) - Amit Singh Student(s) - Christopher A Johns
11:00 AM-12:30 PM Kennedy Union - Ballroom
Drosophila Eyeless gene (ey) is considered the master regulator of eye. Increasing levels of ey gene expression leads to the production of ectopic eyes on the thorax, wings, orlegs. Ey, required for eye field determination, needs to be degraded when differentiation begins in the eye. However, the exact mechanism involved in this ey protein degradation has not yet been determined. We hypothesize that the ey gene must be phosphorylatedprior to degradation to allow for differentiation to take place. Here we test this hypothesis using a gain-of-function approach where we compare ectopic eye formation capacity of a full-length ey protein to various truncated versions of ey. Our data suggests thatC-terminal domain harboring four putative phosphorylation sites is crucial for ectopic eye formation function of ey. Each phosphorylation site has been tested to understand specificinvolvement in the mechanism responsible for degradation of ey protein prior to eye differentiation.
Effects of chemical and mechanical changes on aquaporin 1 expression in human venous and arterial endothelial cells Biology Honors Thesis, Undergraduate Advisor(s) - Carissa M Krane Student(s) - Ellen M VanDerburgh
11:00 AM-12:30 PM Kennedy Union - Ballroom
Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) is a procedure done for patients suffering from coronary heart disease (CHD). The two most common grafts for CABG surgery are the human saphenous vein (HSV) and the internal mammary artery (IMA). The patency rate for the HSV is lower than the IMA after ten years due to cell proliferation and blood vessel wall thickening, which eventually occludes blood flow. It is thought that the reason the HSV triggers cell proliferation is due to environmental differences in pO2 and shear stress conditions that occur in the venous versus arterial environments. One potential sensor for changes in pO2 and shear stress conditions is a water channel protein, aquaporin 1 (AQP1) expressed in the membrane of endothelial cells. AQP1 expression responds to changes in shear stress and osmotic pressure, therefore studying its expression patterns in venous and arterial endothelium could explain the high HSV graft occlusion rates. It is hypothesized that AQP1 expression, measured under the same shear stress conditions, will significantly differ between arterial and venous endothelium. The proposed experiments are designed the assess the effects of pO2 and shear stress on AQP1 expression in human venous and arterial endothelial cells, as it relates to differences in vein and arterial graft failure in CABG patients. In this experiment, human abdominal aortic and umbilical vein endothelial cells will be grown in culture under static and shear stress conditions. AQP1 expression in the venous and arterial endothelial samples will be quantified by Western blotting and immunocytochemistry. A comparison of AQP1 expression in venous and arterial endothelium under both conditions may provide information important in discerning the reasons for high HSV. Future research could examine ways to control AQP1 expression, so as to possibly increase HSV graft patency.
Functional Characterization of Defective Proventriculus, a new member of the dorsoventral patterning pathway Biology Honors Thesis, Undergraduate Advisor(s) - Amit Singh Student(s) - Michaela A Minichello
11:00 AM-12:30 PM Kennedy Union - Ballroom
Axial patterning is crucial to the formation of organs in many organisms. In Drosophila dorso-ventral (DV) patterning is the earliest patterning event that occurs in the eye. Retinaldetermination (RD) genes are required for the specification and differentiation of the Drosophila eye field. 63