Many universities are working toward more sustainable campus dining food systems. Third-party standards that offer definitions of and outline procurement goals one tool can use to drive system transformations. We seek understand how community stakeholders influence sustainability commitments what effects third-party certifications have on purchasing the community. explore these questions by exa...

For a motor unit to function, neurons and muscle cells need to adopt their correct cell fate, form appropriate cellular contacts, and assemble a specific repertoire of signaling proteins into presynaptic and postsynaptic structures. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a disruption of any of these steps causes uncoordinated locomotory behavior (unc phenotype). We report here the positional c...

“We thank all the study participants. For technical assistance we thank Kuo Yang and members of the UNC Clinical Trials Unit, the UNC CFAR Immunology Core and the UNC Flow Cytometry Core Facility. This study was supported by NIH grants to the Collaboratory of AIDS Researchers for Eradication (CARE; U19 AI096113) and the UNC Center for AIDS Research (CFAR; P30 AI50410). This research was also su...

Striated muscle contraction is elicited by the release of stored calcium ions through ryanodine receptor channels in the sarcoplasmic reticulum. ryr-1 is a C. elegans ryanodine receptor homologue that is expressed in body-wall muscle cells used for locomotion. Using genetic methods, we show that ryr-1 is the previously identified locus unc-68. First, transposon-induced deletions within ryr-1 ar...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE There is growing evidence suggesting that C-reactive protein (CRP) is an effecter molecule able to induce and promote atherothrombosis. The presence of CRP in atherosclerotic plaques may reflect local production or infiltration from circulating CRP increased in general inflammatory responses. Our aim was to analyze the presence of CRP in human advanced carotid artery plaq...

The organization of the motor protein myosin into motile cellular structures requires precise temporal and spatial control. Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-45 facilitates this by functioning both as a chaperone and as a Hsp90 cochaperone for myosin during thick filament assembly. Consequently, mutations in C. elegans unc-45 result in paralyzed animals with severe myofibril disorganization in striate...

The UCS (UNC-45/CRO1/She4) chaperones play an evolutionarily conserved role in promoting myosin-dependent processes, including cytokinesis, endocytosis, RNA transport, and muscle development. To investigate the protein machinery orchestrating myosin folding and assembly, we performed a comprehensive analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-45. Our structural and biochemical data demonstrate that ...

Hu, Shuang, "Rho GTPase signaling modulates neurotransmission in Caenorhabditis elegans" (2013). Theses and Dissertations. Paper 100. Rho family GTPases act as molecular switches in the regulation of diverse cellular functions, including cell division, gene transcription and neurotransmission. In the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, the Kalirin and Trio ortholog UNC-73 contains two RhoGEF...

During lysosomal acidification, proton-pump currents are thought to be shunted by a chloride ion (Cl-) channel, tentatively identified as ClC-7. Surprisingly, recent data suggest that ClC-7 instead mediates Cl-/proton (H+) exchange. We generated mice carrying a point mutation converting ClC-7 into an uncoupled (unc) Cl- conductor. Despite maintaining lysosomal conductance and normal lysosomal p...

The roles of actin-binding proteins in development and morphogenesis are not well understood. The actin-binding protein UNC-115 has been implicated in cytoskeletal signaling downstream of Rac in Caenorhabditis elegans axon pathfinding, but the cellular role of UNC-115 in this process remains undefined. Here we report that UNC-115 overactivity in C. elegans neurons promotes the formation of neur...