Project description:Alpha-parvin (PARVA) is known to involve in the linkage of integrins, regulation of actin cytoskeleton dynamics, and cell survival. However, the role of PARVA in cancer progress is still unclear. Here, we identify PARVA as a potential oncogene from a lung cancer invasion cell line model by expression microarrays. Overexpression of PARVA enhances cell invasion, colony formation ability, and endothelial cell tube formation but knockdown of PARVA inhibits invasion and tube formation in vitro. PARVA also promotes tumorigenicity, angiogenesis, metastasis and mortality by in vivo tumorigenesis and metastasis mouse models. To explore the underlying mechanism, the PARVA-regulated signaling pathways were analyzed in PARVA-overexpressing cells compare with mock controls by expression microarrays. We used microarrays to profile the global gene expression of PARVA-overexpressing cells compared with mock control cells and identified the pathways involved in PARVA-induced biofunctional alterations.
Project description:Podocyte specific knockout mice for Parva (Parva-fl/fl*hNPHS2Cre) were generated. Transcriptome profiling (RNA-Seq) and differential gene expression analysis of isolated renal glomeruli from KO and WT mice was performed. Parva KO mice showed transcriptional changes associated with podocyte and glomerular disease.
Project description:The unicellular, free-living, nonphotosynthetic chlorophycean alga Polytomella parva, closely related to Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Volvox carteri, contains colorless, starch-storing plastids. The P. parva plastids lack all light-dependent processes but maintain crucial metabolic pathways. The colorless alga also lacks a plastid genome, meaning no transcription or translation should occur inside the organelle. Here, using an algal fraction enriched in plastids as well as publicly available transcriptome data, we provide a proteomic characterization of the P. parva plastid, ultimately identifying several plastid proteins, both by mass spectrometry and bioinformatic analyses. Altogether these results led us to propose a plastid proteome for P. parva, i.e., a set of proteins that participate in carbohydrate metabolism; in the synthesis and degradation of starch, amino acids and lipids; in the biosynthesis of terpenoids and tetrapyrroles; in solute transport and protein translocation; and in redox homeostasis. This is the first detailed plastid proteome from a unicellular, free-living colorless alga.
Project description:Administration of attenuated autologous Theileria parva infected cells can be used as an alternative to the infection-and-treatment method for inducing immunological protection against East Coast Fever. The mechanism of attenuation however has not been described. Using RNA sequencing, the transcriptomes of both host and parasite in uninfected (control), pathogenic (day 7 post-infection) and attenuated (day 69 post-infection) T. parva infected bovine CD4+ T-cells were characterized and compared. Our findings suggest that three major mechanisms are associated with attenuation of T. parva-infected cells – a decrease in proliferation, a partial restoration of the inflammatory profile, and a shift in metabolism. Several host genes (TRAIL, PD-1, TGF-β and granzymes) were identified as candidates for further exploration. Evaluation of the parasite transcriptomes in these cells also provided first insights into potential candidate T. parva genes involved in attenuation, but subsequent studies are required to further examine these.
