Browsing by Subject "Morphogenesis"
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Item Developing a Model Three-Dimensional Animation of Embryonic Heart Development(2005-05-04) Carre, Ryan; Calver, LewisThree-dimensional animations are often effective in explaining complex phenomena, but altering the finished productions can be cumbersome and costly. The goal of this thesis was to develop a technique for easily altering 3D animations using 2D methods. In conjunction with the Olson Laboratory at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, I created two animations dealing with heart development, based on one 3D animation model. The animations focused on cardiac morphogenesis and transcription factor expression. The purpose of this project was to not only visually communicate cardiac morphogenesis and the expression patterns of transcription factors, but to create a 3D model that can be used as a template for any further visualization of heart development research.Item Effects of extracellular matrix macromolecules on mesenchymal cells in a culture model of cardiac cushion morphogenesis(Texas Tech University, 1980-05) Bernanke, David HenryNot availableItem Identification of cubilin (p400) as galectin-3 binding protein from the murine utero-placental complex(Texas Tech University, 2000-12) Crider-Pirkle, Sunday Suzanne; Faust, Charles; Weitlauf, Harry M.; Hardy, Daniel; Lee, Vaughan H.; Webster, Daniel R.; Whelly, Sandra M.Galectin-3 is a soluble p-galactoside binding lectin that is present in several cell types within the uteroplacental complex (UPC) of mice. Affinity chromatography with immobilized galectin-3 was used to isolate potential binding partners for the lectin from homogenates of UPC. At least one glycoprotein (Mr 400,000; p400) was isolated that bound galectin-3 in a carbohydrate-dependent manner. Exposure of p400 to glycosidases decreased its apparent size by 10%. Differential migration of p400 in nonreducing and reducing conditions demonstrated that the protein contains intramolecular disulfide bonds. Amino acid sequencing revealed similarity to cubilin, a 400 kDa endocytic receptor. Collectively, the molecular size of p400, its degree of glycosylation, the presence of intramolecular disulfide bonds, and amino acid sequence similarity strongly suggest that p400 is the murine ortholog of cubilin. Immunohistochemistry revealed that cubilin (p400) was present in the yolk sac epithelium from day 8 to term. It was also localized in the perforin-positive granules of uNK cells in metrial gland and decidua basalis. Although cubilin is best known as the receptor for intrinsic factor-vitamin B12 in the ileum, it may also act as an endocytic receptor in the kidney and yolk sac where it presumably mediates transcytosis of multiple ligands. The localization of cubilin to uNK cells is the first demonstration of the protein in an immune or non-epithelial cell type. However, the questions of whether cubilin actually interacts with galectin-3 in vivo, and what role cubilin plays, cannot be answered from our results. Because both galectin-3 and cubilin are present in uNK cells, one intriguing hypothesis is that they interact to modulate the immune function of uNK cells, and thus, that they are a part of a mechanism for protecting the fetus from immune rejection.Item Transcriptional control of epithelial morphogenesis(2013-05) Chung, Mei-I; Wallingford, John B.How tissues and organs develop into their final shape during embryogenesis is a fascinating and long-standing question in developmental biology. Tissue morphogenesis is driven by a variety of events at the cellular level and individual cell shape change is one of the central morphogenetic engines. Thus, it is crucial to understand what signals specify the correct cell behavior in specific groups of cells during development. For my doctoral studies, I have focused on two cell shape change events, apical constriction and cilia assembly. First, we present data demonstrating that Shroom3 is essential for cell shape changes and morphogenesis in the developing vertebrate gut, where Shroom3 transcription requires the Pitx1 transcription factor. We identified a Pitx-responsive regulatory element in the genomic DNA upstream of Shroom3, and showed that Pitx proteins directly activated Shroom3 transcription in Xenopus. Moreover, we showed that ectopic expression of Pitx proteins was sufficient to induce Shroom3-dependent cytoskeletal reorganization and epithelial cell shape change. These data demonstrated new breadth to the requirements for Shroom3 in morphogenesis, and also provided a cell-biological mechanism for Pitx transcription factors action during morphogenesis. Next, we focused on understanding the transcriptional regulation of ciliogenesis. We first showed that Rfx2 transcription factor broadly controlled ciliogenesis, and by RNA- and ChIP-sequencing, we showed that Rfx2 directly regulated a wide range of genes encoding diverse ciliogenic machinery. Finally, in addition to ciliogenesis regulation, a large number of non-ciliary genes in our Rfx2 dataset led us to identify a novel role of Rfx2 in controlling insertion of multi-ciliated cells into the overlying mucociliary epithelium. Moreover, we showed here that Slit2, a target of Rfx2, was involved in multi-ciliated cell movements, possibly through mediating cortical E-cadherin level. This work allowed us to begin building a genetic network controlling multi-ciliated cells in mucociliary epithelium. Together, we showed a transcriptional regulation of apical constriction driving gut morphogenesis and a comprehensive transcriptional network that governs multi-ciliated cell development.