Colon cancer is a major cause of cancer deaths in Western countries and is associated with diets high in red meat. Heme, the iron-porphyrin pigment of red meat, induces cytotoxicity of gut contents which injures surface cells leading to compensatory hyperproliferation of crypt cells. This hyperproli...
Previously, we showed that dietary heme injured the colonic surface epithelium and induced hyperproliferation by changing the surface to crypt signaling. In this study we investigated whether bacteria play a role in this changed signaling. Dietary heme increased the Bacteroidetes and decreased the F...
In the intracellular pathogen Brucella spp., the activation of the stringent response, a global regulatory network providing rapid adaptation to a variety of growth-affecting stress conditions such as nutrient deficiency, is essential for replication in the host. A single, bi-functional enzyme Rsh c...
Orthologous proteins often harbor numerous substitutions, but whether these differences result from neutral or adaptive processes is usually unclear. To tackle this challenge, we examined the divergent evolution of a model bacterial signaling pathway comprising the kinase PhoR and its cognate substr...
Jatropha curcas L. is a potential biofuel plant. Application of exogenous cytokinin (6-benzyladenine, BA) on its inflorescence buds can significantly increase the number of female flowers, thereby improving seed yield. To investigate which genes and signal pathways are involved in the response to cy...
In obesity an increase in β-cell mass occurs to cope with the rise in insulin demand. This β -cell plasticity is essential to avoid the onset of hyperglycemia, although the molecular mechanisms that regulate this process remain unclear. This study analyzed the role of adipose tissue in the control o...
