State of the College Address, 2017: College of Arts & Letters

PDF of powerpoint presentation for the Old Dominion University State of the College of Arts & Letters address on August 23, 2017

2019 Arts & Letters State of the College Faculty Recognition

Brochure handed out at the 2019 State of the College of Arts & Letters Address, featuring faculty awards and recognition

State of the College Address 2018: College of Arts & Letters

PDF of powerpoint presentation for the Old Dominion University State of the College of Arts & Letters address on August 22, 2018

State of the College of Arts & Letters: 2019

PDF of powerpoint presentation for the Old Dominion University State of the College of Arts & Letters address on August 21, 2019

Iron, Meat and Health

This article is a summary of the publication “Iron and Health” by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) to the U.K. Government (2010), which reviews the dietary intake of iron and the impact of different dietary patterns on the nutritional and health status of the U.K. population. It concludes that several uncertainties make it difficult to determine dose-response relationships or to confidently characterize the risks associated with iron deficiency or excess. The publication makes several recommendations concerning iron intakes from food, including meat, and from supplements, as well as recommendations for further research

The birth of a human-specific neural gene by incomplete duplication and gene fusion

Background: Gene innovation by duplication is a fundamental evolutionary process but is difficult to study in humans due to the large size, high sequence identity, and mosaic nature of segmental duplication blocks. The human-specific gene hydrocephalus-inducing 2, HYDIN2, was generated by a 364 kbp duplication of 79 internal exons of the large ciliary gene HYDIN from chromosome 16q22.2 to chromosome 1q21.1. Because the HYDIN2 locus lacks the ancestral promoter and seven terminal exons of the progenitor gene, we sought to characterize transcription at this locus by coupling reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and long-read sequencing. Results: 5' RACE indicates a transcription start site for HYDIN2 outside of the duplication and we observe fusion transcripts spanning both the 5' and 3' breakpoints. We observe extensive splicing diversity leading to the formation of altered open reading frames (ORFs) that appear to be under relaxed selection. We show that HYDIN2 adopted a new promoter that drives an altered pattern of expression, with highest levels in neural tissues. We estimate that the HYDIN duplication occurred ~3.2 million years ago and find that it is nearly fixed (99.9%) for diploid copy number in contemporary humans. Examination of 73 chromosome 1q21 rearrangement patients reveals that HYDIN2 is deleted or duplicated in most cases. Conclusions: Together, these data support a model of rapid gene innovation by fusion of incomplete segmental duplications, altered tissue expression, and potential subfunctionalization or neofunctionalization of HYDIN2 early in the evolution of the Homo lineage

Genetic effects on gene expression across human tissues

Characterization of the molecular function of the human genome and its variation across individuals is essential for identifying the cellular mechanisms that underlie human genetic traits and diseases. The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project aims to characterize variation in gene expression levels across individuals and diverse tissues of the human body, many of which are not easily accessible. Here we describe genetic effects on gene expression levels across 44 human tissues. We find that local genetic variation affects gene expression levels for the majority of genes, and we further identify inter-chromosomal genetic effects for 93 genes and 112 loci. On the basis of the identified genetic effects, we characterize patterns of tissue specificity, compare local and distal effects, and evaluate the functional properties of the genetic effects. We also demonstrate that multi-tissue, multi-individual data can be used to identify genes and pathways affected by human disease-associated variation, enabling a mechanistic interpretation of gene regulation and the genetic basis of diseas