Flying fish has specialized pectoral fins. When they are activated, they will rush out of the water, expand their pectoral fins and flap their caudal fin to glide. The pectoral fins are controlled by two groups of muscles in which the external appearance is pink. No histological investigations have been made on their muscles to verify whether they are red muscles. The purposes of this study were to compare the pectoral fin muscle, trunk white muscle and trunk red muscle by histological and proteome methods so as to understand if the pectoral fin muscles is red muscles and to infer their function. Cyselurus poecilopteins was used for this study, Result show that the sizes for the cross section of the pectoral-fin-muscle-fibers were between the white and red muscles, and a large amount of connective tissue and fat tissues are present in the space among the muscle cells. It is interpreted the pectoral fin muscles of flying fish might not belong to white muscle and red muscle, and they probably utilize lipid metabolism to provide enough energy for the gliding activates. The proteomic pages for the three muscle types were compared and differences were found in the muscle proteins: actin, myosin regulatory light chain, myosin light polypeptide; enzymes: isocitrate dehydrogenase, malate synthase, queuosine biosynthesis protein¡Fstress proteins: heat shock protein (HSP70 and HSP60). Expressions of these proteins were high in the pectoral-fin muscles than in the white and red muscles. These results suggest that the flying fish¡¦ pectoral-fin muscles may involve in the oxidative and glycolysis pathways, and the muscle fibers type maybe belong to an intermediate type of muscle fiber.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kentucky, 2003. / Title from document title page (viewed onJune 21, 2004). Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 151 p. : ill. Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-149).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, August, 2009. / Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until September 1, 2012. Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-288)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, August, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until September 1, 2012. Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-288)

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 16, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Dong Xu. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Master / Master of Philosophy

abstract / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

The WHO classification of brain tumors is based on histological features and the aggressiveness of the tumor is classified from grade I to IV, where grade IV is the most aggressive. Today, the correlation between prognosis and tumor grade is the most important component in tumor classification. High grade gliomas, glioblastomas, are associated with poor prognosis and a median survival of 14 months including all available treatments. Low grade meningiomas, usually benign grade I tumors, are in most cases cured by surgical resection. However despite their benign appearance grade I meningiomas can, without any histopathological signs, in some cases develop bone invasive growth and become lethal. Thus, it is necessary to improve conventional treatment modalities, develop new treatment strategies and improve the knowledge regarding the basic pathophysiology in the classification and treatment of brain tumors. In this thesis, both proteomics and metabolomics have been applied in the search for biomarkers or biomarker patterns in two different types of brain tumors, gliomas and meningiomas. Proteomic studies were carried out mainly by surface enhanced laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS). In one of the studies, isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) labeling in combination with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used for protein detection and identification. For metabolomics, gas-chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS) has been the main platform used throughout this work for generation of robust global metabolite profiles in tissue, blood and cell cultures. To deal with the complexity of the generated data, and to be able to extract relevant biomarker patters or latent biomarkers, for interpretation, prediction and prognosis, bioinformatic strategies based on chemometrics were applied throughout the studies of the thesis. In summary, we detected differentiating protein profiles between invasive and non-invasive meningiomas, in both fibrous and meningothelial tumors. Furthermore, in a different study we discovered treatment induce protein pattern changes in a rat glioma model treated with an angiogenesis inhibitor. We identified a cluster of proteins linked to angiogenesis. One of those proteins, HSP90, was found elevated in relation to treatment in tumors, following ELISA validation. An interesting observation in a separate study was that it was possible to detect metabolite pattern changes in the serum metabolome, as an effect of treatment with radiotherapy, and that these pattern changes differed between different patients, highlighting a possibility for monitoring individual treatment response.  In the fourth study of this work, we investigated tissue and serum from glioma patients that revealed differences in the metabolome between glioblastoma and oligodendroglioma, as well as between oligodendroglioma grade II and grade III. In addition, we discovered metabolite patterns associated to survival in both glioblastoma and oligodendroglioma. In our final work, we identified metabolite pattern differences between cell lines from a subgroup of glioblastomas lacking argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS1) expression, (ASS1 negative glioblastomas), making them auxotrophic for arginine, a metabolite required for tumor growth and proliferation, as compared to glioblastomas with normal ASS1 expression (ASS1 positive). From the identified metabolite pattern differences we could verify the hypothesized alterations in the arginine biosynthetic pathway. We also identified additional interesting metabolites that may provide clues for future diagnostics and treatments. Finally, we were able to verify the specific treatment effect of ASS1 negative cells by means of arginine deprivation on a metabolic level.

Recent improvements in mass spectrometry instrumentation have stimulated the fusion of this technology with protein crosslinking to advance the structural proteomics field. However, analysis of complex datasets from crosslinking experiments remains a bottleneck. The majority of crosslinking studies for structural characterization of protein- protein interactions have been conducted with reagents specific for discrete amino acids. While this approach simplifies data analysis, the requirement for specific functionalities to be present at the interaction interface limits resolution. Herein, we report the application of stapled peptides for the development of photoaffinity reagents for mass spectrometric characterization of BCL-2 family protein interactions. To validate this approach, we synthesized photoreactive stabilized alpha-helices of BH3 domains (pSAHBs) incorporating a benzophenone containing amino acid, and demonstrated that the photo crosslinking specificity of these reagents paralleled the interaction specificity of the native proteins. We show that the standard SEQUEST algorithm is effective at identifying specific amino acids crosslinked by pSAHBs, and that this information can be used to create distance restraints for characterizing interaction interfaces by in silico docking. The pSAHB approach is applied to characterize previously elusive activating interactions between BH3 domains and the proapoptotic proteins BAX and BAK. We demonstrate that full-length BAK requires a direct activation stimulus, and that this involves interaction at a canonical surface groove at the C-terminal face of BAK. We confirmed that initiation of direct BAX activation occurs at a geographically distinct site at the N-terminal face of BAX, but further find that induced release of its C-terminus from the canonical groove exposes these residues for secondary BH3 interaction. These data suggest that BAX may be subject to a two-step activation mechanism within distinct cytosolic and mitochondrial compartments. Finally, we report the structural characterization of an interaction between BAD and glucokinase, the first description of a BH3 domain interaction with a non-BCL-2 family member. We identify the active site region of glucokinase as the BAD interaction site, establishing this region as a novel target for development of glucokinase activators. We conclude that the pSAHB approach represents a rapid and powerful approach to protein interaction site identification that complements conventional structural biology techniques.