Project description:Jet fuel hydrocarbons is the generic name for aviation fuels used in gas-turbine engine powered aircrafts. Due to the widespread use of jet fuel hydrocarbons, this compound has been recognized as the single largest chemical exposure for military personnel. Previous animal studies have demonstrated the ability of jet fuel (JP-8) exposure to promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease susceptibility in subsequent generations. The diseases observed include late puberty, kidney, obesity and multiple disease pathologies. The current study was designed to identify potential sperm DNA methylation biomarkers for specific transgenerational diseases. Observations identify few disease specific differential DNA methylation regions (DMRs) called epimutations in the transgenerational F3 generation great-grand-offspring rats ancestrally exposed to jet fuel. The potential epigenetic DMRs were identified for late puberty, kidney, obesity, and multiple diseases, and found to be predominantly disease specific. These disease specific DMRs have associated genes previously shown to be linked with each of these specific diseases. Therefore, the germline (i.e. sperm) has environmentally induced ancestrally derived epimutations that have the potential to transgenerationally transmit disease susceptibilities to subsequent generations. Epigenetic biomarkers for specific diseases could be developed as medical diagnostics to facilitate clinical management of disease and allow preventative medicine therapeutics.
Project description:Fuel ethanol is now considered a global energy commodity that is fully competitive with gasoline. We have determined genome copy number differences that are common to five industrially important fuel ethanol yeast strains responsible for the production of billions of gallons of fuel ethanol per year from sugarcane. The fuel strains used were CAT1, BG1, PE2, SA1, and VR1 (note that two independent isolates were analyzed, denoted by "-1" and "-2"). These array-CGH data were compared with array-CGH data from nine other non-fuel industrial yeasts: An ale brewing strain ("Sc-ale"), four wine strains (GSY2A, GSY3A, GSY10A, GSY11B), and 4 bakers' yeast strains (GSY149, GSY150, GSY154, GSY155). Our results reveal significant amplifications of the telomeric SNO and SNZ genes only in the fuel strains, whose protein products are involved in the biosynthesis of vitamins B6 (pyridoxine) and B1 (thiamin). We show that these amplifications allow these yeasts to grow efficiently, especially at high sugar concentrations, regardless of the presence or absence of either of the two vitamins. Our results reveal important genetic adaptations that have been selected for in the industrial environment, which may be required for the efficient fermentation of biomass-derived sugars from other renewable feedstocks. A strain or line experiment design type assays differences between multiple strains, cultivars, serovars, isolates, lines from organisms of a single species. Strain Name: fuel strains used for aCGH Strain_or_line_design
Project description:Geobacter sulfurreducens is a dissimilatory metal-reducing bacterium capable of forming thick electron-conducting biofilms on solid electrodes in the absence of alternative electron acceptors. The remarkable ability of such biofilms to transfer electrons, liberated from soluble organic electron donors, over long distances has attracted scientific interest as to the mechanism for this process, and technological interest for application to microbial fuel and electrolysis cells and sensors. Here, we employ comparative proteomics to identify key metabolic pathways involved in G. sulfurreducens respiration by planktonic cells versus electron-conducting biofilms, in an effort to elucidate long-range electron transfer mechanisms.
Project description:Nosocomial infections resulting from growing biofilms on the surface of indwelling medical devices represent a major therapeutic challenge in an aging population. In this context, current models have so far not addressed the synergy between a developing biofilm and the host’s immune response. Here we employed a mouse model for implant-associated infection from Staphylococcus aureus biofilms and, through functional assays, next generation single cell sequencing and spectral flow cytometry, observed a direct influence of the developing biofilms in the phenotype of tissue infiltrating neutrophils over the course of infection. Our results allowed us to differentiate neutrophil subpopulations, identifying some which may be protective of the biofilm and which could be the target for future therapies.