Drafts

Birds are monogamous so to choose a mate must be done carefully. Males and females have their own strategies to attract the mate. Males mostly have physical characteristics that are used for displays. In the red-winged blackbird, males will have a bright red color on the wing. However this is not the part that attract females. The color red is correlated with the food the male eats so if the male has a brighter feather, it means he has more territories. The more territory and resources the male has, the more female will be attracted. It is found that males will fight over territories to display how good quality they have.

The hormones in the gut act with the brown fat to determine “fullness”. Fullness is a feeling when a person’s stomach is bloated and would not be able to consume any more food at that given time. The hormone secretin, causes a change in the intensity and behavior. When secretin is secreted it causes a loss in appetite. The more you eat the more secretin would be secreted, which would cause the person to consume less food. When you are feeling hungry it is due to less secretin being produced, and would cause the individual to feel like eating more.

Intermittent fasting(IF) is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of both eating and fasting. The idea behind this plan is for individuals to essentially lose weight however, partnered with working out you will exceedingly begin to build muscle. IF is aimed for individuals to fast between 12-36 hours essentially lowering the amount of time your gut is actively breaking down molecules for energy. Studies have shown that intermittent fasting is a great way to lose and manage weight while providing a vast amount of health benefits. These benefits include; reduced risk of chronic heart conditions, improved brain health, reduced insulin resistance (which lowers your risk of type 2 diabetes) and reduced oxidative stress within your body. Although you are fasting for a majority of your day, individuals must ensure that they are receiving enough nutrients to nourish ones body. 

Metabolic couping between biochemical pathways is an essential mechanism that concentrates on the transfer of energy that is released from an exergonic pathway to provide energy needed for an endergonic pathway. Metabolic coupling occurs in a series of connected reactions; in which these reactions share products/substrates. A main method of energy transfer in these biochemical processes is the removal of phosphate groups by hydrolysis. Molecules with more negative delta G of hydrolysis can phosphorylate molecules with less delta G of hydrolysis. The energy that is released by hydrolysis is used to power other reactions. ATP is known as the main energy currency molecule. The intermediate delta G of hydrolysis of ATP to ADP + Pi releases enough energy to be useful for other biochemical pathways/reactions. The formation of ATP from ADP + Pi would be a dehydration reaction and does not require an excessive amount of energy.

Ink is secreted through two glands, the ink sac, and the funnel organ. Ink sacs were evolved by proliferation, rapid reproduction of cells, of the lower intestine. The cells of the hind gut were proliferated and mutated into the ink sacs and within those ink sacs, there are ink glands. The ink glands are where ink is released into the ink sac lumen for storage. The funnel organ is the gland where the mucus part of the ink is produced. The funnel organ is composed of two lateral pads of epithelial tissue. The epithelial tissues contain secretory cells that release the mucus. Mucus is a polymer of mucous and serous cells. Serous cells are made up of bodily fluids that resemble a serum. Mucous and serous cells are made up of inorganic salts and enzymes which do not mix together, therefore, it is a colloid. Which is why mucus is chunky and sticky. The ink that is being released is a mix between the melanin produced from the ink glands and the mucus from the funnel organ.

Biosafety level 4 labs are very rare. They are rare because the pathogens that the laboratories work on are very serious and pose a huge threat to public health. There are only 13 of these facilities in the united states that are even proposed. Only 8 of the facilities are even approved to work with these pathogens. Very few of them are in cities just because they could be so potentially dangerous. One of the biosafety 4 labs actually recently got approved in boston. The lab had been under construction and ready to be used since 2008. The lab got approved to be functional only in 2017, that shows how hard it is to get approved to have one of these labs. A decent amount of these labs also exist in europe. These labs will always be beyond heavily regulated as I believe pathogens as deadly as the ones that these lab work with will prove the biggest threat to human survival. I also think that this is why many countries don’t, or at least say they don’t, work on bioweapons. Bioweapons could so easily affect the person or organisation that releases it. If a pathogen is released in any major city in any region of the world it will be in another country within a day.

The Protein BLAST of Bradi1g72430 resulted in matches that covered the majority of the query sequence. The majority of the matches were to SRF7 and SRF6 in various species, and there was a 100% query cover and identity match to the SRF7 protein in B. distachyon. When matches were searched for in the Brachypodium genome, the >90% query cover matches were mostly to SRF7, SRF8, and SRF3 proteins. The rest of the sequences only matched to the protein kinase domain around 400 residues in. The Bradi1g72430 protein sequence search in plant genomes resulted in >90% query cover matches to SRF7 and SRF6 proteins in different species. When searched for in non-plant species, there were only matches to protein kinases.

There were two generally conserved domains shown in BLAST: leucine-rich repeats (LRRs) roughly from residues 40-250 and the kinase domain with an ATP binding site roughly from residues 420-700. When the gene was searched in the European Bioinformatics Institute website, two homologous superfamilies were listed: leucine-rich repeat domain superfamily from residues 38-265 and the protein kinase-like domain superfamily from residues 402-690. Protein kinases modify proteins by adding phosphate groups to them, and LRRs are 20-29 residue-long structures primarily involved in protein-protein interactions.

Another therapy approach described to target the protection functions of the metastatic niche are STAT3 inhibitors. STAT3 is a transcription factor involved in cellular immunity, proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation. In brain metastasis, the STAT3 inhibitor Legasil (Silibinin) reduced the immunosuppressive effect of astrocytes (Priego et al. 2018). Legasil prevents the activation these astrocytes which allows for CD8+ T cells to kill cancerous cells, a function previously suppressed by these cells allowing them to evade the immune response. With this STAT3 inhibitor activity, the protective function of the metastatic niche is eliminated. This therapy is systemic as STAT3 is a transcription factor prevalent throughout the body and inhibiting this transcription factor may affect healthy cells as well as cancerous ones. This treatment may also be better functioning within a more specific treatment targeted at solely tumor cells.