many recent studies have shown that glycosylation patterns of agaricus bisporus are similar to those of mammalians, so that this organism is a good candidate for the expression of glycosylated pharmaceutical protein. to achieve constant interested gene expression in all cells of the organism, proper promoter isolation is necessary. to isolate this promoter, pcr with specific primers was perform...

Transferring foreign genes into mushroom mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a standard technique in genetic engineering. Recombinant human insulin has been greatly used in the treatment of type I diabetes. The production of edible mushroom derived insulin should facilitate oral delivery. In this study we used the Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation method for the transfer an...

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster represents a key model organism for analyzing how neuronal circuits regulate behavior. The mushroom body in the central brain is a particularly prominent brain region that has been intensely studied in several insect species and been implicated in a variety of behaviors, e.g., associative learning, locomotor activity, and sleep. Drosophila melanogaster offe...

The arousing and motor-activating effects of psychostimulants are mediated by multiple systems. In Drosophila, dopaminergic transmission is involved in mediating the arousing effects of methamphetamine, although the neuronal mechanisms of caffeine (CAFF)-induced wakefulness remain unexplored. Here, we show that in Drosophila, as in mammals, the wake-promoting effect of CAFF involves both the ad...

Different brain circuits mediate the acquisition of skills and habits (via operant/instrumental learning) and the acquisition of facts (via classical/Pavlovian learning). Realistic learning situations always comprise interactions of skill-and fact-learning components (composite learning). So far, these interactions have escaped thorough scrutiny. Fixed flying Drosophila melanogaster at the torq...

Age-related memory impairment (AMI) is a critical and debilitating phenotype of brain aging, but its underlying molecular mechanisms are largely unknown. In Drosophila, AMI is highly correlated with PKA activity in the mushroom bodies, neural centers essential for forming associative olfactory memories. Heterozygous mutations in DC0 (DC0/+), which encodes the major catalytic subunit of PKA (PKA...

Betalains are one of the major plant pigment groups found in some higher plants and higher fungi. They are not produced naturally in any plant species outside of the order Caryophyllales, nor are they produced by anthocyanin-accumulating Caryophyllales. Here, we attempted to reconstruct the betalain biosynthetic pathway as a self-contained system in an anthocyanin-producing plant species. The c...

In adult primary visual cortex (V1), dendritic spines are more persistent than during development. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) increases synaptic strength, and its levels rise during cortical development. We therefore asked whether postsynaptic BDNF signaling through its receptor TrkB regulates spine persistence in adult V1. This question has been difficult to address because most ...

Title of Dissertation: JAK/STAT AND HIPPO SIGNALING PATHWAYS INDEPENDENTLY REGULATE THE SAME TARGET GENES TO CONTROL CELL PROLIFERATION Lijuan Du, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 Dissertation directed by: Professor Jian Wang Department of Entomology University of Maryland Drosophila mushroom bodies, centers of olfactory learning and memory, are generated by four neuroblasts in each brain hemisphere....