Project description:The aim of the study was to monitor and analyse injured and diseased loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) plasma proteome profiles during their recovery period in rescue centre within different age and recovery period groups, and determine the potential biomarkers that can be used in diagnostics.
Project description:Expression profiling by microarray was used with a murine listeriosis model to better understand increased susceptibility of preterm neonates to infection. We used DNA microarray to identify genes that were differentially expressed in liver of adult and neonatal Balb/c mice after listeriosis infection.
Project description:Mammals and reptiles possess a metanephric kidney as the terminal renal organ for homeostasis of solutes and waste products. The development of the metanephric kidney has primarily been studied in mammalian model systems. Little is known about the conservation of metanephric kidney formation in non-mammalian species such as reptiles. Uniquely, reptiles maintain kidney progenitor cell populations throughout life and continually develop new nephrons, the functional unit of the kidney. The red-eared slider turtle, Trachemys scripta elegans, was utilized to investigate the conservation of reptilian metanephric kidney development. The nephron progenitor cell (NPC) marker, Six2, was detected in whole-mount turtle kidneys in a similar pattern to mammals. However, there were differences in progenitor cell niche morphology where turtle NPC populations formed distinct elongated rows instead of the rosette-like morphology found in the mouse. The pattern of NPC populations in the embryonic turtle kidney was maintained in the adult turtle. Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing was performed on cortical tissue containing the NPC populations from adult turtle kidneys and compared to those of adult mice. Significant conservation of gene methylation was detected in adult cortical tissue between the two species, although unique signatures were detected in turtle samples related to DNA repair and β-catenin signaling. This suggests a high level of conservation of metanephric kidney development at the genetic level.