Sources: Lorena 1xbet online sports betting 785-532-3195, lpassar@k-state.edu;
and Rollie 1xbet online sports betting 785-532-3172, rclem@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Stephanie Jacques, 785-532-0101, sjacques@k-state.edu
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012
No guts, no glory: Biologists receive nearly .8 million from NIH to study virus escape from mosquito 1xbet online sports betting
MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University associate professors of biology Rollie 1xbet online sports betting and Lorena Passarelli have been bouncing ideas off each other since they met in graduate school.
This strategy has recently paid off and resulted in Clem and Passarelli being awarded a four-year .8 million grant 1xbet online sports betting National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study how mosquitoes transmit viruses.
The two have maintained independent research programs even though they have been married for 20 years and have been research colleagues even longer. However, they have always used each other as sounding boards for ideas, and these discussions recently revealed that their latest research might be connected.
"Lorena's group was working on the problem of how a virus called baculovirus escapes from the 1xbet online sports betting , which is the primary site of baculovirus infection in caterpillars," Clem said. "My group was working on apoptosis, a type of cell death, that occurs during virus infection in mosquitoes, when we realized that both processes use some of the same proteins."
Uncovering that both systems -- the caterpillar and the mosquito -- had similarities in the pathway that a 1xbet online sports betting uses to move through its host provided the couple with incentive to pool their knowledge.
"At the time we were each planning on submitting our own grant proposal to fund our projects, but then we realized that a joint proposal would be more competitive and innovative," 1xbet online sports betting said.
With the help of their collaborator Alexander Franz from Colorado State University, the three will study how mosquito-borne viruses, such as dengue and Chikungunya viruses, are able to escape a mosquito's 1xbet online sports betting after they are ingested and move to the salivary glands, where they can be transmitted to the mosquito's next host.
"There is not much known about the process of how viruses move from the 1xbet online sports betting to the salivary glands," Clem said. "All that is known is that there are some examples where certain viruses can infect a strain of mosquito and can't escape the 1xbet online sports betting , so there is a block called a 1xbet online sports betting escape barrier. The existence of this barrier implies that 1xbet online sports betting escape is not simply a passive process."
To better understand the 1xbet online sports betting escape barrier, the trio will be working with Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are known for their involvement in transmitting yellow fever and dengue fever. The eventual aim is that this knowledge can be used to prevent virus transmission by mosquitoes in the wild.
"Viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes are a huge public health problem in many parts of the world and are becoming more of a problem in the U.S.," Clem said. "If we can figure out how to prevent the virus from escaping the 1xbet online sports betting of the mosquito then we can hopefully block the transmission of these viruses. However, at this point we are in the early stages of trying to understand what controls the ability of the virus to escape from the 1xbet online sports betting ."
Insects have a protective mesh lining the 1xbet online sports betting called a basal lamina, which is thought to inhibit viruses from escaping the 1xbet online sports betting . However, penetrating the basal lamina are tracheal cells, part of a network of cells that aid in gas exchange throughout the insect's body. The tracheal cells reach into the 1xbet online sports betting to provide gas exchange for the 1xbet online sports betting cells, Passarelli said.
"If the tracheal cells that penetrate the 1xbet online sports betting become infected, they can provide a pathway from the 1xbet online sports betting to the rest of the insect," Passarelli said.
Some of Passarelli's work on caterpillars, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2010, showed that baculoviruses are able to induce degradation of the tracheal cell basal lamina, infect the tracheal cell and invade the rest of the caterpillar. This led them to hypothesize that a similar process might be triggered by virus infection in mosquito midguts. Preliminary experiments indicated that this might be the case, 1xbet online sports betting said.
Clem and Passarelli believe that their marriage is an advantage to them as scientists, since it provides opportunities to discuss science and learn 1xbet online sports betting each other's expertise. However, they don't always agree, which makes for a more interesting discussion.
"Having different points of view is an advantage for our research," Clem said. "We met as graduate students in the same lab and 1xbet online sports betting very beginning we have worked well together."
Their partnership does not just end at research and marriage. They also teach a class together, BIOL 730 General Virology, and they are exercise partners.
"Running together provides a relaxing setting to come up with new research ideas," 1xbet online sports betting said. "Some of our best discussions happen while we are running."
Both Clem and Passarelli received their doctoral degrees 1xbet online sports betting University of Georgia and joined Kansas State University's Division of Biology in 1997.
