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Comparative Analysis of Silk Proteins and Discovery of Novel Sericin Gene in Lepidopteran Moths
WU, Bulah Chia-Hsiang
This thesis focuses on the silk components of the Mediterranean moth, Ephestia kuehniella, and the discovery of a novel silk gene, P150/ser6, in the silkworm, Bombyx mori. We analyzed and described the cocoon silk components in both species. In the first publication, we combined transcriptomic, genomic, and proteomic approaches to identify silk proteins in E. kuehniella. In the second publication, we described the discovery of gene P150/sericin6 in B. mori based on microsynteny analysis.
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Transcriptomics and developmental plasticity of sensory systems in fishes
Lupše, Nik ; Musilová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Reichard, Martin (referee) ; Barluenga, Marta (referee)
Organisms depend on sensory input to survive and thrive. Vision is a key sensory system to many vertebrates, including ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii). Sight is enabled by the retina composed of cone and rod photoreceptors, each characterised by its own set of opsin proteins that together with the chromophore form the photo-sensitive pigment. Vision is energetically very costly and so it is often adapted to specific photic conditions to best match available wavelengths of light. This Ph.D. thesis focuses on the evolution and development of opsin gene expression in ray-finned fishes. It mainly aims to explore how ontogenetic differences of visual capabilities across the fish phylogeny relate to ecological conditions. In some species, ecological shifts between developmental stages can affect their physiology, including vision. In this thesis I focused on the molecular differences of the visual system between developmental stages, mostly focusing on larvae and adults. The first chapter of the thesis focuses on developmental changes in deep-sea fishes, a unique group of organisms that has evolved unconventional adaptations to maximise photon capture in an otherwise photon- depleted environment. Most deep-sea fishes start their lives in the shallow, sun-lit, predator and food abundant epipelagic...
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Exploration of the tick-Borrelia molecular interactions by employing the transcriptomic approaches
MAHMOOD, Sazzad
Along with climate change and increased sharing of habitat, ticks are coming into more frequent contact with humans. The hard tick Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes ricinus are known disease vectors in Northern America and Europe, respectively. Along with many other pathogenic microorganisms, these ticks spread Borrelia sp. by ectoparasitic blood feeding. Borrelia afzelii is the major European Lyme disease pathogen spread by I. ricinus. Our study focuses on differential gene expression in I. ricinus salivary gland and midgut, induced in the nymphal stage by B. afzelii infection. Tick genes upregulated by infection are considered to play essential roles for the acquisition, persistence, and transmission of Borrelia. We have determined 32,897 full length sequences of tick mRNA from B. afzelii infected/noninfected tick salivary glands and the whole body. In addition, we have obtained MACEseq (Massive Analysis of cDNA Ends) from both midgut and salivary glands while the nymphs were non-infected or infected with B. afzelii during three different phases of blood-feeding. From the MACE database, we obtained 250-500 bp 3'-end sequences with raw quantitative expression values. Total reads, unique sequences and protein coding tick genes from midgut samples were 38,199,641, 88,825 and 24,276, and from salivary gland were 74,651,134, 93,096 and 26,179, respectively. After filtering, using several criteria, expression was validated by qPCR. Hence, the validated genes may most likely interact with Borrelia in its acquisition, persistence, or transmission to the vertebrate host. In our study, RNA interference approaches and vaccination were implemented in order to investigate the impact of upregulated tick midgut and salivary gland genes on Borrelia transmission to C3H mice.
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De novo transcriptomics and its use in non-model organisms
Čalounová, Tereza ; Pluskal, Tomáš (advisor) ; Svatoňová, Petra (referee)
The rise of second generation sequencing enabled the study of non-model organisms. Without the requirement of having a reference genome, de novo transcriptomics allows the study of functional elements of their genomes. That way, the great complexity of non-model organisms can be explored. This thesis gives a comprehensive overview of the de novo transcriptomics experiment workflow from a bioinformatics perspective. The emphasis was placed on both theoretical background and practical approaches. This work also highlights new methods in de novo transcriptomics which may start to dominate in the near future. The practical part of the work presents transXpress - a de novo transcriptome assembly and annotation pipeline. Its use is demonstrated on a non-model plant long pepper (Piper longum) with medicinal potential. Keywords: transcriptomics, de novo transcriptomics, transcriptome, RNA-Seq, non-model organism, assembly
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Virulence of Bordetella pertussis from an Omics Perspective
Novák, Jakub ; Šebo, Peter (advisor) ; Černý, Jan (referee) ; Novák, Petr (referee)
The Gram-negative aerobic coccobacillus Bordetella pertussis is one of the few exclusively human pathogens and the main causative agent of the respiratory infectious disease called pertussis, or whooping cough. Despite global vaccination programs, pertussis remains an important public-health burden and still accounts for over 100,000 infant deaths and over a dozen of millions of whooping cough cases every year. Substantial effort is devoted to studies on the mechanisms of action of virulence factors of B. pertussis, but the biology of interactions of B. pertussis with its human host remains largely underexplored. Evolution, genetics and adaptation of B. pertussis to the complex environment of human nasopharynx and the mechanisms enabling B. pertussis to overcome host innate and adaptive mucosal immune defenses, remain poorly understood. In such situations, unbiased exploratory omics approaches represent valuable tools for uncovering of unknown aspects of host-pathogen interactions and open the path to detailed analysis of virulence-underlying processes by mechanistic studies. In this thesis, I am presenting the results of three omics projects on B. pertussis biology that involved high-throughput proteomics. In the inital phosphoprotemics project, we analyzed the kinase signaling pathways hijacked...
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