Graduate Theses & Dissertations

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Characterization of frog virus 3 and its binding partner LITAF
Iridoviruses are large (120-200nm) double stranded DNA viruses that contain an icosahedral capsid. The iridoviridae family is composed of five genera that infect a wide range of poikilothermic vertebrates (Lymphocystivirus, Ranavirus and Megalocyivirus) and invertebrate hosts (Iridovirus, Chloriridovirus). Frog virus 3 (FV3) is a member of the Ranavirus genus, and is commonly used as a model system to study iridoviruses. I was interested in understanding virus-host interaction in FV3. I studied two viral genes, FV3 97R and FV3 75L. Here I demonstrate that 97R localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) at 24 hours post-transfection. However, at 35 hours post-transfection 97R localizes to the ER but also begins to form concentrated pockets, continuous with the nuclear membrane This study found that 97R possess a unique phenotype and that its localization to the ER is mediated through its C-terminus transmembrane domain. FV3 75L encodes an 84 amino acids protein. I showed that FV3 75L localizes to the early endosomes, while its cellular binding partner, LITAF, localizes to late endosome/lysosome. Interestingly, when FV3 75L and LITAF are co-transfected into cells, LITAF can alter the subcellular localization of FV3 75L to late endosome/lysosomes. A physical interaction between LITAF and FV3 75L was demonstrated through a pull-down assay and that a highly conserved domain found in both proteins may mediate the interaction. LITAF has been proposed to function in protein degradation, but there is still uncertainty on LITAF's specific role. I was interested in further characterizing LITAF and its implications in protein degradation and a neurodegenerative disorder. At least 9 mutations of LITAF are associated with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1C (CMT1C), which belongs to the group of most common heritable neuromuscular disorders, affecting approximately one in 2500 people. We show that LITAF mutants G112S and W116G mislocalize from the late endosome/lysosome to the mitochondria while the T49M and P135T mutants show partial mislocalization with a portion of the protein present in the late endosome/lysosome and a portion of the protein localized to the mitochondria. Since LITAF is believed to play a role in protein degradation, it is possible that the specific characteristics of CMT1C may occur though impaired degradation of Schwann cell membrane proteins, such as PMP22. I was able to show that when WT LITAF is present, there is a decrease in the PMP22 intracellular levels, which suggest that LITAF plays an important role in protein degradation, and also in other types of CMT. Insight into how mutations in LITAF cause CMT1C may not only help better understand cellular pathways, but also further elucidate the role LITAF's viral homolog FV3 75L during viral infection. Author Keywords: 75L, Charcot-Marie-Tooth, CMTC1, ER, FV3, LITAF
Cytokinin biosynthesis, signaling and translocation during the formation of tumors in the Ustilago maydis-Zea mays pathosystem
Cytokinins (CKs) are hormones that promote cell division. During the formation of tumors in the Ustilago maydis-Zea mays pathosystem, the levels of CKs are elevated. Although CK levels are increased, the origins of these CKs have not been determined and it is unclear as to whether they promote the formation of tumors. To determine this, we measured the CK levels, identified CK biosynthetic genes as well as CK signaling genes and measured the transcript levels during pathogenesis. By correlating the transcript levels to the CK levels, our results suggest that increased biosynthesis and signaling of CKs occur in both organisms. The increase in CK biosynthesis by the pathosystem could lead to an increase in CK signaling via CK translocation and promote tumor formation. Taken together, these suggest that CK biosynthesis, signaling and translocation play a significant role during the formation of tumors in the Ustilago maydis-Zea mays pathosystem. Author Keywords: Biosynthesis, Cytokinins, Signaling, Translocation, Ustilago maydis, Zea mays
Effect of SP600125 JNK Inhibitor on Cadmium-Treated Mouse Embryo Forelimb Bud Cells In Vitro
This study investigated the role of the JNK signaling pathway in cadmium-treated mouse embryo forelimb bud cells in vitro. Primary cultures of forelimb bud cells harvested at day 11 of gestation were pre-treated with JNK inhibitor SP600125, and incubated with or without CdCl2 for 15, 30, 60, 120 minutes and 24, 48 hours or 5 days. Endpoints of toxicity were measured through cell differentiation by Alcian Blue Assay and phosphorylation of JNK proteins by Western blot. The results demonstrated that, in the cell differentiation assay, inhibiting JNK activation by 20 μM SP600125 causes an enhanced toxic effect in limb cells and inhibits cell differentiation, whereas 2 μM decreases differentiated nodule numbers under both cadmium stress and normal conditions. In conclusion, the JNK pathway has an essential role in the differentiation processes of limb bud cells in normal growth conditions. Author Keywords: Cadmium, Cell Signaling, JNK, Limbs, Mouse Embryo, Teratology
Effects of Recycled Media on Culture Growth and Hormone Profiles in Heterotrophic Euglena gracilis
The rapid expansion of the worldwide population has caused an urgent need for the development of new, more environment-conscious, food sources. In this context, algae, such as Euglena, are of interest thanks to their capacity to naturally produce essential nutrients such as proteins and oils commonly found in animals and plant sources. While these processes are currently being investigated, underlying measures affecting growth of Euglena gracilis like hormonal influences and growth stress like nutrient deprivation are poorly understood. From this vantage point, this thesis seeks to understand the role of phytohormones cytokinin (CKs) and abscisic acid (ABA) in complex mechanisms underlying heterotrophic growth of Euglena gracilis under recycled, organic media conditions with no supplementation. Hormone profiles were quantified by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS and compared to culture growth dynamics of pH, weight accumulation, glucose content, cell count and morphology. It was expected that ABA acted as an inhibitory hormone and this was confirmed by its higher levels when CKs where low and vice versa. Contrastingly, it was expected that CKs stimulated growth, in which this was shown not to be the case. Interestingly, it was revealed that both hormone groups increase with increasing recycling. Other key findings include: E. gracilis synthesizes CKs via the tRNA-degradation pathway and is cZ and iP dominated, recycling E. gracilis medium is viable for growth, however, the percentage (25% or less) is crucial to cell viability and markedly no ABA was detected in E. gracilis pellet fractions from recycled media. Therefore, this data revealed that recycled media has a striking influence on physiological aspects of growth and illustrated unique changes in hormone profiles of which could be manipulated to help the food industry. Author Keywords: cytokinin, endogenous hormones, Euglena gracilis, heterotrophic, large scale microalgae cultivation, recycled medium
Evaluation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and anti-GD2-AgNP antibody-drug conjugates as novel neuroblastoma therapies
Neuroblastoma (NB) has one of the highest mortality rates in pediatric oncology due to relapsed and refractory disease. Current aggressive multi-modal treatments are inhibited by dose-limiting toxicities and are associated with late-effects and secondary malignancies, emphasizing the necessity for novel therapeutics. Uniquely, most NB cells highly express disialoganglioside (GD2) a cell surface glycolipid that can provide a target for tumour-specific delivery. This study demonstrates a comprehensive evaluation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and the first preliminary evaluation of anti-GD2-AgNP antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) against NB in vitro. This present study validates the potential for AgNPs as an anti-cancer agent against NB as AgNPs demonstrated preferential toxicity towards NB cells through metabolic inhibition and indicative morphological alterations, while a less tumorigenic cell line demonstrated resistance to AgNP treatment. Therefore, this work identified an AgNP cell-type-dependent cytotoxicity effect. Low conjugation efficiency of the anti-GD2 monoclonal antibody, 14.G2a, to NHS-activated AgNPs failed to exert greater toxicity than the AgNPs alone. Collectively, this thesis provides novel information regarding the anti-cancer effects of AgNPs against NB with recommendations for anti-GD2-AgNP ADCs. Author Keywords: ADC, Chemotherapy, GD2, Neuroblastoma, Silver nanoparticles
Expression of Giardia intestinalis flavoenzyme GiOR-1 and characterization of its electron transfer properties
Giardia intestinalis possesses four isotypes of cytochrome b5 (gCYTB-I-IV) that differ from their mammalian counterparts, suggesting different functions in this protozoan parasite. Although the recently discovered Giardia flavoenzyme, GiOR-1, reduces these cytochromes, its properties have not been thoroughly studied, owing to the difficulty in its expression. Here I describe successful conditions for expression of GiOR-1 using autoinduction. GiOR-1 is obtained with flavins bound as indicated by its UV-visible spectrum. Its ability to catalyze electron transfer from donors (NADH, NADPH) to acceptors (oxygen, ferricyanide, cytochrome c, gCYTB5-III) were studied in spectrophotometric rate assays. NADPH is the preferred electron donor, while cytochromes are the preferred electron acceptors. Interestingly, the His-tag used to purify gCYTB5-III decreases its reaction rate with GiOR-1, as an untagged version has slightly faster rates. These findings establish the appropriate conditions for further studies on GiOR-1, including the identification of endogenous electron acceptors. Author Keywords: Autoinduction, Cytochrome b5, Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase, Giardia intestinalis, GiOR-1, Polyhistidine tag
Flavohemoglobin expression in Giardia intestinalis exposed to nitrosative stress
The parasitic protist Giardia intestinalis lacks most heme proteins yet encodes a flavohemoglobin (gFlHb) that converts nitric oxide to nitrate and likely protects the cell from nitrosative stress. In this work an antibody raised against gFlHb was used to examine both changes in gFlHb expression levels and intracellular localization in Giardia in response to nitrosative stress. Giardia trophozoites exposed to stressors which either directly release nitric oxide (diethyltriamine NONOate, 1 mM) or are sources of other reactive nitrogen intermediates (sodium nitrite 20 mM or S-nitrosoglutathione, 1 or 5 mM) exhibited a 2 to 9-fold increase of gFlHb after 24 hours. Increased expression levels of gFlHb were detectable by 8 hours in S-nitrosoglutathione and diethyltriamine-NONOate-treated trophozoites, and by 12 hours after sodium nitrite exposure; these differences were likely due to differences in the rates of release of RNS from these compounds. In addition to a band of the expected size for gFlHb (52 kDa), western blots detected a second, higher molecular weight band (72 kDa) with comparable or higher intensity upon treatment with these RNS donors, which is consistent with sumoylation of gFlHb. Immunofluorescence microscopy of Giardia trophozoites detected gFlHb diffused throughout the cytoplasm and more punctuated staining along the cell membrane and between the nuclei. The punctuated staining may be due to the association of gFlHb with either peripheral vacuoles or basal bodies. Author Keywords: Flavohemoglobin, Giardia intestinalis, Nitrosative stress
Functional Investigation of A Ustilago maydis Xylose Metabolism Gene and its Antisense Transcripts
Ustilago maydis is a biotrophic fungal plant pathogen that causes ‘common smut of corn’ disease. During infection, U. maydis develops a metabolic dependency on its host, relying on uptake of the carbon molecules provided within Zea mays tissues. The research presented indicated a requirement for metabolism of the pentose sugar D-xylose through functional investigation of a U. maydis xylitol dehydrogenase (uxm1), an enzyme involved in the bioconversion of D-xylose. This work is the first to outline the importance of pentose metabolism during biotrophic plant pathogenesis, as U. maydis haploid cells lacking this gene were impaired in their ability to cause disease and grow on medium containing only D-xylose. This thesis also explored the possibility that expression of this carbon-related gene is controlled by antisense RNAs (asRNAs), endogenous molecules with complementarity to mRNAs. Previous investigation of U. maydis asRNAs identified some that are exclusively expressed in the dormant teliospore, suggesting they have a functional role within this cell-type. A subset of these asRNAs at the uxm1 locus were investigated, with the purpose of identifying the mechanism(s) by which they influence U. maydis pathogenesis. This investigation involved the creation and functional analysis of a series of U. maydis deletion and expression strains. Together, these findings provided additional knowledge regarding the possible functions of U. maydis asRNAs, and their involvement in controlling important cellular processes, such as carbon metabolism and pathogenesis. Author Keywords: antisense transcripts, fungal carbon metabolism, non-coding RNAs, pathogenesis, Ustilago maydis, xylitol dehydrogenase
Fungal pathogen emergence
The emergence of fungal hybrid pathogens threatens sustainable crop production worldwide. To investigate hybridization, the related smut fungi, Ustilago maydis and Sporisorium reilianum, were selected because they infect a common host (Zea mays), can hybridize, and tools are available for their analysis. Hybrid dikaryons exhibited filamentous growth on plates but reduced virulence and limited colonization in Z. mays. Select virulence genes in the hybrid had similar transcript levels on plates and altered levels during infection of Z. mays relative to each parental dikaryon. Virulence genes were constitutively expressed in the hybrid to determine if its pathogenic development could be influenced. Little impact was observed in hybrids with increased expression of effectors known to modify host response and metabolism. However, increased expression of transcriptional regulators of stage specific pathogenic development increased the hybrid’s capacity to induce symptoms. These results establish a base for investigating molecular aspects of fungal hybrid pathogen emergence. Author Keywords: effectors, hybrid pathogenesis assays, Sporisorium reilianum, transcription factors, Ustilago maydis, virulence factors
Investigating wheat rust virulence evolution through transcriptome analysis of a recently emerged race of Puccinia triticina
Puccinia triticina, wheat leaf rust (WLR), is the most economically damaging fungal rust of wheat on a global scale. This study identified transcriptome changes in a recently emerged race of WLR in Ontario with a new virulence type relative to a possible ancestor race. Also, this study focused on detecting variation in candidate virulence genes and uncovering novel insight into WLR virulence evolution. Various race-by-variety interactions were evaluated using RNA-seq experiments. A list of genes with statistically significant expression changes in each comparison was prepared and predicted effectors were retained for further analysis. Proteins with nonsynonymous substitutions were run through BLASTx to identify potential orthologs. Over 100 candidate effectors with a 2-fold or higher change in transcript level were identified. Seven of these candidate effector genes were recognized to contain single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) which altered the amino acid sequence of the resulting protein. The information gained may aid in targeted breeding programs to combat new WLR races as well as provide the basis for functional analysis of WLR using potential orthologs in a model basidiomycete. Author Keywords: effectors, RNA-seq, rust fungi, SNPs, transcriptome, wheat leaf rust
Mfsd8 regulates growth and multicellular development in Dictyostelium discoideum
The neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs), commonly known as Batten disease, are a family of inherited neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorders. CLN7 disease is a subtype of NCL that is caused by mutations in the MFSD8 gene. MFSD8 encodes a lysosomal transmembrane protein that is predicted to play a role in transporting small substrates across membranes. However, little is known about its role and substrate specificity. Previous work identified an ortholog of human MFSD8 in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum and reported its localization to endocytic compartments. In this study, the effects of mfsd8 loss during Dictyostelium growth and multicellular development were further characterized. Dictyostelium mfsd8- cells displayed increased rates of proliferation and pinocytosis in liquid media. During growth, loss of mfsd8 altered lysosomal enzymatic activities and reduced the intracellular and extracellular levels of autocrine proliferation repressor A. mfsd8- cells grown on a lawn of bacteria formed plaques in a shorter period of time compared to WT cells, providing additional support for the enhanced growth of mfsd8- cells. Upon starvation, the aggregation of mfsd8- cells was delayed, and mfsd8- cells formed more mounds that were smaller in size, which may be attributed to the reduced cell-substrate adhesion and altered lysosomal enzymatic activities observed for mfsd8- cells. Following aggregation, tipped mound formation was delayed, however, loss of mfsd8 did not affect the timing of slug/finger and fruiting body formation. Additionally, slug migration was reduced in mfsd8- cells. These aberrant phenotypes, excluding fruiting body formation, were effectively or partially rescued when Mfsd8-GFP was introduced into mfsd8- cells. Overall, these results show that Mfsd8 plays a role in regulating growth and developmental processes in Dictyostelium via lysosomal-associated functions. Author Keywords: CLN7, Dictyostelium discoideum, Lysosomes, MFSD8, Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses
Studies of the Giardia intestinalis trophozoite cell cycle
To study the Giardia intestinalis cell cycle, counterflow centrifugal elutriation (CCE) was used to separate an asynchronous trophozoite culture into fractions enriched for cells at the different stages of the cell cycle. For my first objective, I characterized the appearance of a third peak (Peak iii) in our flow cytometry analysis of the CCE fractions that initially suggested the presence of 16N cells that are either cysts or the result of endoreplication of Giardia trophozoites. I determined that this third peak consists of doublets of the 8N trophozoites at the G2 stage of the cell cycle that were not removed effectively by gating parameters used in the analysis of the flow cytometry data. In the second objective, I tested the use of a spike with RNA from the GS isolate of Giardia as an external normalizer in RT-qPCR on RNA from CCE fractions and encystation cultures of Giardia from the WB isolate. My results showed that the GS RNA spike is as effective as the use of previously characterized internal normalizer genes for these studies. For the third objective, I prepared two sets of elutriation samples for RNA seq analysis to determine the transcriptome of the Giardia trophozoite cell cycle. I confirmed the results of the cell cycle specific expression of several genes we had previously tested by RT-qPCR. Furthermore, our RNA-seq identified many genes in common with those identified from a microarray analysis of the Giardia cell cycle conducted by a collaborator. Finally, I observed an overall <4 fold change in differentially expressed genes during the G1/S and G2/M phase of the cell cycle. This is a modest change in gene expression compared to 10 - 30 fold changes for orthologous genes in mammalian cell cycles. Author Keywords: Cell cycle, Counterflow Centrifugal Elutriation, Flow Cytometry, RNA-sequencing, RT-qPCR

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