Biology
Kimberly Garcia, Kimberly.Garcia2@my.utsa.edu
The University of Texas at San Antonio, with Dr. Stephen Saville
Molecular Microbiology & Immunology
Exploring the Role of General Amino Acid Permeases in Mediating Candida albicans Sensitivity to the Calcineurin Inhibitor Drug FK506
The limited number of antifungal treatments currently available, and the rising prevalence of drug resistance, necessitates the urgent development of novel therapeutic options. Repurposing existing drugs provides advantages of speed and reduced cost. Calcineurin inhibitors, such as FK506, are currently used as immunosuppressants to prevent transplant rejection and it is already known that blocking calcineurin function impacts the virulence of many fungal pathogens. Calcineurin represents a potential pan-fungal drug target and efforts to develop fungi-specific inhibitors are ongoing. However, not only are fungi known to develop resistance to such inhibitors, the cellular pathways controlled by calcineurin are incompletely characterized. Recent studies in Mucor circinelloides revealed that mutations in a general amino acid permease (GAP) encoding gene conferred resistance to FK506, highlighting its previously unknown function in calcineurin signaling. A similar role for GAPs was also found in Cryptococcus neoformans, suggesting this regulatory circuit exists across diverse fungal pathogens. To that end, we explored the role of GAPs in mediating Candida albicans sensitivity to FK506. Our initial experiments established that none of the six individual gap mutants were resistant. To examine the opposite effect, we overexpressed GAPs, hypothesizing that this should increase sensitivity to FK506. Through analysis of strains overexpressing GAP1 or GAP5 we discovered that Gap5 influences FK506 sensitivity whereas Gap1 does not, indicating partial redundancy of Gap function in C. albicans. We are now confirming commonalities with the pathway in other fungal species and plan to perform a genetic screen to identify as-yet unknown components.
Eric Jaramillo, eric_jaramillo1@baylor.edu
Baylor University, with North Carolina State University SROP Dr. Christie Almeyda-Becerra
Biology
Production of sweet potato clean stock using micropropagation and virus testing
The sweet potato industry in the U.S. is growing and with that growth upkeep of clean stock is necessary. The North Carolina State University (NC State) Micropropagation and Repository Unit (MPRU) acts as a clean center for a variety of crops, one of them being sweet potatoes. The MPRU consists of virus molecular diagnostics on sweet potatoes, micropropagation, improving greenhouse conditions and field work on sweet potatoes. Micropropagation will be used to produce virus-tested sweet potatoes and these cuttings will be assessed. In addition to the previous methods, molecular diagnostics on sweet potato plants will be executed to identify viruses on the plant over various seed generations. Over 30 viruses have been found to infect sweet potatoes worldwide and 6 of them are of interest to the MPRU. There is a lack of clean planting material in the U.S. Therefore, improving techniques of sweet potato cultivation by enhancing a clean seed program is vital to the sustainability of sweet potato production in the U.S.
Hope Ballard, hballard@mail.snu.edu
Southern Nazarene University, with Dr. Shayna Medley
Biology
Exploring Roles of Caveolin-1 in Arterioles of the Murine Heart and Liver
Inspired by the ground-breaking research conducted by the Dean McGee Eye Institute which demonstrates the deficiency of Caveolin-1 can expedite the deterioration of smooth muscle cells in the blood vessels in the retina. Regan et al, (2018), observed the absence of caveolin-1 accelerated the age-related loss of contractile vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in retinal arterioles. This implies that caveolin-1 deficiency exacerbated the decline in these cells that typically occurs with age. We hypothesized that the knockout of Cav-1 specifically in endothelial cells would lead to changes in the morphology of arterioles located in the heart and liver. The purpose of these experiments was to look into the effect of Cav-1 deletion on cardiac and hepatic anatomy, by utilizing a mix of histology and quantitative imaging analysis. Past studies have shown that when Cav-1 is missing, the absence can disturb the blood retinal barrier and lead to alterations in contractility and structural organization like: hyperproliferative and global vascular abnormalities. Tissue samples were obtained from the Dean McGee Institute as prepared paraffin wax blocks. After microtome sectioning, an Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stain was performed to visualize the gross morphology. Microscopic analysis was conducted to investigate arterioles in the cortical, digital images were captured for quantitative analysis. Statistical analysis included a two-tailed t-test to assess the significance of vessel thickness and normalized vascular smooth muscle counts. The results indicated no statistically significant differences between the Cav-1 knockout and wild-type groups for vessel thickness (p = 0.4752) and smooth muscle counts (p = 0.4019). In conclusion, our study found no significant differences in vessel thickness and smooth muscle counts between the Cav-1 knockout and wild-type groups, indicating that Cav-1 deficiency does not lead to observable changes in cardiac and hepatic anatomy.
Session Location
- Foster 124
Session Date/Time
- Thursday, 11:15am - 12:15pm
Session Type
- Oral Student Presentations
- Student Presentations