Examining pipeline issues in counseling psychology for Native trainees

As scholars continue to advocate for more culturally commensurate approaches to psychotherapy (i.e., therapy that integrates or centralizes Indigenous healing) for Native people, questions arise as to whether or not White therapists should take part in administering such psychotherapies. One solution may lie in Native people providing psychotherapy to their own communities; however, many documented systemic barriers prevent Native students from entering graduate education and, thus, entrance into professional psychology. Given the emphasis on social justice, counseling psychology may provide Native students with culturally affirmative training that promotes the recruitment, retention, and graduation of Native students into the health service psychology pipeline. However, little research currently exists examining Native student's experiences in counseling psychology training programs. Therefore, the present study sought to fill this gap by exploring Native trainees' and Native early career psychologists' experience in their counseling psychology training by exploring the following question: What are the training experiences of Native counseling psychology trainees and Native early career psychologists? Additionally, the present study sought to answer two main sub-themes which included 1) What are the barriers to recruitment, retention, and graduation of Native counseling psychologists within counseling psychology? And 2) What strategies have Native students developed to manage and persist through such barriers within their program

Ion torrent-based transcriptional assessment of a Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis equi strain reveals denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography a promising rRNA depletion method

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis equi is a Gram-positive pathogenic bacterium which affects a variety of hosts. Besides the great economic losses it causes to horse-breeders, this organism is also known to be an important infectious agent to cattle and buffaloes. As an outcome of the efforts in characterizing the molecular basis of its virulence, several complete genome sequences were made available in recent years, enabling the large-scale assessment of genes throughout distinct isolates. Meanwhile, the RNA-seq stood out as the technology of choice for comprehensive transcriptome studies, which may bring valuable information regarding active genomic regions, despite of the still impeditive associated costs. In an attempt to increase the use of generated reads per instrument run, by effectively eliminating unwanted rRNAs from total RNA samples without relying on any commercially available kits, we applied denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) as an alternative method to assess the transcriptional profile of C. pseudotuberculosis. We have found that the DHPLC depletion method, allied to Ion Torrent sequencing, allows mapping of transcripts in a comprehensive way and identifying novel transcripts when a de novo approach is used. These data encourage us to use DHPLC in future transcriptional evaluations in C. pseudotuberculosis

Identification and preliminary characterization of mouse Adam33

BACKGROUND: The metalloprotease-disintegrin family, or ADAM, proteins, are implicated in cell-cell interactions, cell fusion, and cell signaling, and are widely distributed among metazoan phyla. Orthologous relationships have been defined for a few ADAM proteins including ADAM10 (Kuzbanian), and ADAM17 (TACE), but evolutionary relationships are not clear for the majority of family members. Human ADAM33 refers to a testis cDNA clone that does not contain a complete open reading frame, but portions of the predicted protein are similar to Xenopus laevis ADAM13. RESULTS: In a 48 kb region of mouse DNA adjacent to the Attractin gene on mouse chromosome 2, we identified sequences very similar to human ADAM33. A full-length mouse cDNA was identified by a combination of gene prediction programs and RT-PCR, and the probable full-length human cDNA was identified by comparison to human genomic sequence in the homologous region on chromosome 20p13. Mouse ADAM33 is 44% identical to Xenopus laevis ADAM13, however a phylogenetic alignment and consideration of functional domains suggests that the two genes are not orthologous. Mouse Adam33 is widely expressed, most highly in the adult brain, heart, kidney, lung and testis. CONCLUSIONS: While mouse ADAM33 is similar to Xenopus ADAM13 in sequence, further examination of its embryonic expression pattern, catalytic activity and protein interactions will be required to assess the functional relationship between these two proteins. Adam33 is expressed in the mouse adult brain and could play a role in complex processes that require cell-cell communication

A multidimensional platform for the purification of non-coding RNA species

A renewed interest in non-coding RNA (ncRNA) has led to the discovery of novel RNA species and post-transcriptional ribonucleoside modifications, and an emerging appreciation for the role of ncRNA in RNA epigenetics. Although much can be learned by amplification-based analysis of ncRNA sequence and quantity, there is a significant need for direct analysis of RNA, which has led to numerous methods for purification of specific ncRNA molecules. However, no single method allows purification of the full range of cellular ncRNA species. To this end, we developed a multidimensional chromatographic platform to resolve, isolate and quantify all canonical ncRNAs in a single sample of cells or tissue, as well as novel ncRNA species. The applicability of the platform is demonstrated in analyses of ncRNA from bacteria, human cells and plasmodium-infected reticulocytes, as well as a viral RNA genome. Among the many potential applications of this platform are a system-level analysis of the dozens of modified ribonucleosides in ncRNA, characterization of novel long ncRNA species, enhanced detection of rare transcript variants and analysis of viral genomes.Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and TechnologyNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (ES017010)National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (ES002109

Key Labeling Technologies to Tackle Sizeable Problems in RNA Structural Biology

The ability to adopt complex three-dimensional (3D) structures that can rapidly interconvert between multiple functional states (folding and dynamics) is vital for the proper functioning of RNAs. Consequently, RNA structure and dynamics necessarily determine their biological function. In the post-genomic era, it is clear that RNAs comprise a larger proportion (>50%) of the transcribed genome compared to proteins (≤2%). Yet the determination of the 3D structures of RNAs lags considerably behind those of proteins and to date there are even fewer investigations of dynamics in RNAs compared to proteins. Site specific incorporation of various structural and dynamic probes into nucleic acids would likely transform RNA structural biology. Therefore, various methods for introducing probes for structural, functional, and biotechnological applications are critically assessed here. These probes include stable isotopes such as 2H, 13C, 15N, and 19F. Incorporation of these probes using improved RNA ligation strategies promises to change the landscape of structural biology of supramacromolecules probed by biophysical tools such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography and Raman spectroscopy. Finally, some of the structural and dynamic problems that can be addressed using these technological advances are outlined

The effect of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and parathyroid hormone related peptide (PTHRP) on Na+H+ exchanger activity and analysis of signal transduction mechanisms

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) and parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHRP) regulate Na$sp+$/H$sp+$ exchanger (NHE) activity in various types of cells such as osteoblastic cells and renal proximal tubule OK cells. Na$sp+$/H$sp+$ exchangers are plasma membrane transporters catalyzing the electroneutral exchange of 1 H$sp+$ for 1 Na$sp+.$ Several mammalian isoforms of NHE have been so far identified with each mediating a variety of specific functions. Parathyroid hormone, playing an essential role in the physiology of blood Ca$sp{2+}$ and phosphate homeostasis, inhibits renal proximal tubular bicarbonate reabsorption by inhibiting the apically located Na$sp+$/H$sp+$ exchanger. However, which specific isoform of NHE mediated this effect and the specific signaling components involved were unknown. In our studies we determined that Na$sp+$/H$sp+$ exchanger NHE-3 isoform is expressed in the renal proximal tubule OK cells and that N-terminal PTH and PTHRP analogues upon binding to their receptor stimulate both the PKA and the PKC pathways, each of which can independently lead to inhibition of this exchanger activity. NHEs also play an important role in the regulation of intracellular pH which is subject to fluctuation occurring during the process of hormone stimulated bone formation and bone remodeling. Again the specific NHE isoform(s) mediating this effect and the signaling pathways involved were unidentified. It is determined by our studies that NHE type 1 is expressed in osteoblastic cell line, UMR-106 cells, and that PTH and PTHRP stimulate this exchanger via a cAMP-dependent pathway exclusively. It was believed that motivation of NHE-1 in the UMR-106 cells and inhibition of NHE-3 in the OK cells by N-terminal analogues of PTH and PTHRP involves binding of these analogues to a common G protein-coupled receptor called the "classical" PTH/PTHRP receptor. However, with the recent discovery of other PTH and/or PTHRP receptor, this hypothesis is no longer clea