Drafts

Methods

    Individually the three of us watched 2 videos of domestic Morgan horses,  Equus-caballus, at the UMass Hadley Farm. Both videos had two mares and two foals of about 6 months old. We individually watched and observed the behaviors of the four horses for 48 minutes and 35 seconds, created a list of behaviors, and recorded the time each behavior occurred. We compared our lists and compiled all the behaviors into one table and categorized them into 6 categories: grooming, locomotion, playing, feeding, comfort, and body positioning. We determined the categories by grouping like behaviors together and establishing certain characteristics of each category. Grooming was categorized by the horse gnawing at himself or licking. Locomotion was categorized by moving locations. Playing included interaction with other horses by nudging, jumping, or gnawing. Feeding was categorized by behaviors that included the horse’s head touching the grass and the ground. Comfort included behaviors that involve just the horse, such as tail waving, or interactions between the foal and the mare. We categorized body positioning as movements to the horse’s posture while they remained stationary. We rewatched the videos and took a screenshot of the behaviors at the time that we observed each behavior. The screenshots were placed into the table and a description of each behavior was formulated. We organized the table by the category and within each category, the behaviors appear chronologically.

To test their hypothesis, the experimenters used mice. Some mice had the ob/ob gene, some were diabetic, and others were wildtype. They also had mice of different ages in which they tested.  The experimenters then injected some mice with OB protein daily, some mice with saline, and some mice with zero injections. They then recorded information from the experiment such as how much the mice ate and their body weight.

The administration of the protein caused a reduction in the mice's body weight and adipose storage.  In addition, the mice also ate less. The body weight of the ob/ob was down 40% after 33 days and significantly different after only four days. The wild-type mice also had a reduction in body weight, body fat, and amount consumed. For the mice with diabetes, the injection did not cause a significant reduction in body weight or amount of food consumed, although they did lose some weight. 

Methods

    Individually the three of us watched 2 videos of domestic Morgan horses,  Equus-caballus, at the UMass Hadley Farm. Both videos had two mares and two foals off about 6 months old. We individually watched and observed the behaviors of the four horses for 48 minutes and 35 seconds and created a list of behaviors and recorded the time each behavior occurred. We compared our lists and compiled all the behaviors into one table and categorized them into 6 categories: grooming, locomotion, playing, feeding, comfort, and body positioning. We determined the categories by grouping like behaviors together and establishing certain characteristics of each category. We rewatched the videos and took a screenshot of each behavior at the time that we observed each behavior. The screenshots were placed into the table and a description of each behavior was created.

Bcr-Abl presented a new challenge to treating cancer because of its newly conformed shaped. After some time, Gleevec was invented that acted as a superior treatment compared to previous attempts, earning it the moniker of “wonder drug”. Gleevec was able to competitively bind to the kinase domain on Bcr-Abl that normally bound with a different substrate that allowed it to be phosphorylated and thereby activated. Once Gleevec was introduced, the substrate was no longer able to bind and could no longer be phosphorylated. This rendered the tumor cell unable to proliferate. Because Gleevec acts as an inhibitor does not mean that Bcr-Abl is incapable of binding to the substrate that causes proliferation. It just means that this occurs less frequently. That leads to the possibility of a mutation in Bcr-Abl that increase the activity and allows for an increase in binding to the non-Gleevec substrate. This is one of the potential factors that could lead to resistance of the drug.

Although the data from both reserves were very similar, I have concluded that Reserve 2 is better for reducing the risk of genetic drift in a population. This is because I believe that maintaining heterozygosity is more important than the loss of alleles when trying to decrease the risk of genetic drift. Preserving genetic variation will ensure that the genes within the population do not drift. On the other hand, losing alleles may influence genetic drift but will be contradicted if genetic diversity is still present within the population.

The lac operon is important in maintaining the breakdown of lactose. When there is no lactose to be metabolized, the Lac genes are "turned off". This is to conserve energy for other vital tasks. Genes are turned off when a lac repressor binds to the promoter region of the lac operon, disabling any ability to metabolize lactose. This inhibitory gene is the default for genes. When there is lactose, however, it must be metabolized. This is accomplished when lactose binds to the repressor, enabling the operon to work. 

The results support the hypothesis that infected monarchs would travel shorter distances, and that among infected individuals shorter distances are correlated with higher parasite loads. The researchers suggest that infected butterflies from more northern locations were not able to reach their wintering grounds in Mexico, thus backing the "migratory culling" idea of reducing parasites among a population by removing infected individuals. Since there was no significant effect of latitude on the odds of infection, the researchers propose that the flight performance of monarch butteflies has a greater effect on the chances of reaching their wintering grounds than the incidence of parasite transmission among populations.

Once the protein was produced, the team began a series of analyses to elucidate some of the features of the newly cloned Solanum dulcamara THP. They did a western blot, a gel shift assay, RNA blot analysis, and analysed the hysteresis activity. Following the completion of these analyses, they identified STHP-64 as the hydrophilic THP protein present in the November sample of Solanum dulcamara. It differed in weight slightly (3 kDa) compared to the original THP used as a template, but they attributed this to the loss of exons from the N-terminus. Functionally and structurally, the protein was extremely similar to the original and they believed that it was derived from the same gene within the plant. They observed thermal hysteresis activity for STHP-64, albeit not much. Citrate was found to increase the thermal hysteresis activity, which confirmed for them that STHP was in fact THP. The low activity was attributed to potential protein-folding issues among other things. Amino acid repeats were identified in the clone and thought to facilitate thermal hysteresis by hydrogen bonding with the ice on the plant, effectively inhibiting the further crystallization of ice. STHP-64 also demonstrated DNA-binding ability and they believed that it could act as a transcription factor for the upregulation of proteins related to pathogenesis. In conclusion, although the THP activity was low in the isolated sample from Solanum dulcamara, the THP protein was only present in the November sample. This suggests that STHP-64 is at least partially responsible for the overwintering capabilities demonstrated by Solanum dulcamara.

Overwintering plants have the ability to survive throughout the winter, and many of them contain thermal hysteresis proteins (THPs), which lower the freezing point and melting point of water. These proteins are present in fish and insects as well, but the mechanism is likely to be different. Unlike insects and fish, plant THPs allow them to survive the freezing of their extracellular water, rather than preventing freezing altogether. Solanum dulcamara is an example of an overwintering plant, and is at the center of this article. The objective of the research was to isolate and characterize a specific THP within Solanum dulcamara that allows it to survive through the winter’s harsh temperature decline.

    Researchers collected and purified samples of Solanum dulcamara RNA from leaves at two separate points in time; one sample in September and the other in November. This was done to compare the RNA present during warmer weather and colder weather; they assumed that the THP would be present in the RNA extracted from the November leaves. The extracted RNA was then used to generate a cDNA expression libraries for both samples. An antibody generated from a previously purified S. dulcamara THP was used to screen the two libraries for the presence of matching THPs. A total of 20,000 recombinants from both the September and November samples were put through the antibody screening. The November sample was found to have eight matches and like the expected, the September sample had zero. Two of these matches were then isolated and prepared for cloning. Using PCR, a clone was generated, duplicated, and integrated into E. coli as a plasmid. Finally, the protein was grown in culture and extracted.