Narratives of thriving : Black lesbian and queer women negotiating racism, sexism, and heterosexism

This qualitative exploratory study explores the narratives that Black lesbian and queer women age 21 to 35 tell about their lived experience by addressing racism, sexism, and heterosexism and how Black lesbian and queer women live and negotiate in the world. In exploring these narratives, the research focused on the following questions: What are the ways in which Black Lesbian and Queer Women create their own story as they negotiate at the margins of society? How do Black lesbian women create meaning out of their experiences in the face of racism, sexism, and heterosexism? The study found that these 12 self-identified Black lesbian and queer Women were proactive and intentional about creating public and private spaces where they and other Black lesbian queer women could feel safe, comfortable, and free in being their full complex selves. The major findings included each participant exercised resistance strategies to maintain the integrity and expression of their identities, including engaging in practices of renaming to allow space for an intersectional and complex understanding of their identities. They were proactive in finding and building homeplaces to help them manage their complex and individually unique experiences of racism, sexism, and heterosexism. Their narratives revealed important themes regarding coming out and negotiating their identities within their family, faith communities, work, and other social groups. This study revealed Black lesbian and queer women are not simply surviving they are thriving in their communities and in their lives. I conclude with a recommendation that clinicians develop a sense of how their own identities interact and intersect within systems of oppression, and of how Black lesbian and queer women might be impacted by racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other oppressions

Identification and Characterization of a Novel Diterpene Gene Cluster in Aspergillus nidulans

Fungal secondary metabolites are a rich source of medically useful compounds due to their pharmaceutical and toxic properties. Sequencing of fungal genomes has revealed numerous secondary metabolite gene clusters, yet products of many of these biosynthetic pathways are unknown since the expression of the clustered genes usually remains silent in normal laboratory conditions. Therefore, to discover new metabolites, it is important to find ways to induce the expression of genes in these otherwise silent biosynthetic clusters. We discovered a novel secondary metabolite in Aspergillus nidulans by predicting a biosynthetic gene cluster with genomic mining. A Zn(II)2Cys6–type transcription factor, PbcR, was identified, and its role as a pathway-specific activator for the predicted gene cluster was demonstrated. Overexpression of pbcR upregulated the transcription of seven genes in the identified cluster and led to the production of a diterpene compound, which was characterized with GC/MS as ent-pimara-8(14),15-diene. A change in morphology was also observed in the strains overexpressing pbcR. The activation of a cryptic gene cluster by overexpression of its putative Zn(II)2Cys6–type transcription factor led to discovery of a novel secondary metabolite in Aspergillus nidulans. Quantitative real-time PCR and DNA array analysis allowed us to predict the borders of the biosynthetic gene cluster. Furthermore, we identified a novel fungal pimaradiene cyclase gene as well as genes encoding 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase and a geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGPP) synthase. None of these genes have been previously implicated in the biosynthesis of terpenes in Aspergillus nidulans. These results identify the first Aspergillus nidulans diterpene gene cluster and suggest a biosynthetic pathway for ent-pimara-8(14),15-diene