Imilce A. Rodriguez-FernandezUniversity of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras | UPR-RP · Department of Biology
Imilce A. Rodriguez-Fernandez
PhD
About
26
Publications
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Introduction
Our research lab is interested in looking at pathways used by adult stem cells to communicate with the gut microbiome. We will use that knowledge to understand how these interactions influence health and aging.
Additional affiliations
August 2021 - present
Education
September 2006 - September 2012
August 2002 - May 2006
Publications
Publications (26)
Adult somatic stem cells have a crucial role in maintaining the regenerative capacity of tissues throughout the lifespan of the organism. With age comes a reduction in tissue renewal and repair upon injury. Understanding the mechanisms that maintain stem cell function could potentially lead to the development of therapeutic strategies to mitigate a...
Tissue homeostasis requires long-term lineage fidelity of somatic stem cells. Whether and how age-related changes in somatic stem cells impact the faithful execution of lineage decisions remains largely unknown. Here, we address this question using genome-wide chromatin accessibility and transcriptome analysis as well as single cell RNA-seq to expl...
The age-associated decline of regenerative capacity in many tissues is a consequence of stem cell intrinsic and extrinsic perturbations that are only beginning to be understood. To gain insight into mechanisms of this age-related decline, a comprehensive understanding of these perturbations is necessary. Drosophila intestinal stem cells (ISCs) have...
In adult epithelial stem cell lineages, the precise differentiation of daughter cells is critical to maintain tissue homeostasis. Notch signaling controls the choice between absorptive and entero-endocrine cell differentiation in both the mammalian small intestine and the Drosophila midgut, yet how Notch promotes lineage restriction remains unclear...
A decline in protein homeostasis (proteostasis) has been proposed as a hallmark of aging. Somatic stem cells (SCs) uniquely maintain their proteostatic capacity through mechanisms that remain incompletely understood. Here, we describe and characterize a ‘proteostatic checkpoint’ in Drosophila intestinal SCs (ISCs). Following a breakdown of proteost...
Aging is associated with a progressive loss of tissue and metabolic homeostasis. This loss can be delayed by single‐gene perturbations, increasing lifespan. How such perturbations affect metabolic and proteostatic networks to extend lifespan remains unclear. Here, we address this question by comprehensively characterizing age‐related changes in pro...
The Adaptor Protein (AP)-3 complex is an evolutionary conserved, molecular sorting device that mediates the intracellular trafficking of proteins to lysosomes and related organelles. Genetic defects in AP-3 subunits lead to impaired biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles (LROs) such as mammalian melanosomes and insect eye pigment granules. In th...
IMAGe syndrome (intrauterine growth restriction, metaphyseal dysplasia, adrenal hypoplasia congenita and genital anomalies) is an undergrowth developmental disorder with life-threatening consequences. An identity-by-descent analysis in a family with IMAGe syndrome identified a 17.2-Mb locus on chromosome 11p15 that segregated in the affected family...
The biogenesis of melanosomes is a multistage process that requires the function of cell-type-specific and ubiquitously expressed proteins. OCA2, the product of the gene defective in oculocutaneous albinism type 2, is a melanosomal membrane protein with restricted expression pattern and a potential role in the trafficking of other proteins to melan...
ISP ortholog groups. OrthoMCL DB (www.orthomcl.org) was utilized to identify ortholog groups for the ISP family. ISP1 and 2 belong to one OrthoMCL group (OG4_23348) (A) while ISP3 belongs to another group (OG4_34375) (B). The ISP1 and 2 group contains proteins from all apicomplexans available in the OrthoMCL DB while the ISP3 group contains only pr...
Mutation of ISP3 residues predicted for acylation results in ISP3 mistargeting. Mutations of residues predicted for myristoylation or palmitoylation were generated in an HA epitope-tagged copy of ISP3 and expressed in parasites under the control of the endogenous promoter. A severe targeting defect occurs in ISP3 (G2A) with the mutant protein dispe...
Mutation of ISP2 residues predicted for acylation results in ISP2 mistargeting. Mutations of residues predicted for myristoylation or palmitoylation were generated in an HA epitope-tagged copy of ISP2 and expressed in parasites under the control of the endogenous promoter. A severe targeting defect occurs in ISP2 (G2A) in which ISP2 signal is dispe...
Primers used in this study as discussed in text. Restriction sites and mutated bases are shown in lowercase.
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ISP1 and 3 during Toxoplasma endodyogeny. Parasites stably expressing ISP3-HA were allowed to infect HFFs and grow 24 hrs before fixation and IFA analysis. Serial sections were acquired, deconvolved and projected as a three-dimensional image. Visualization of ISP1 and ISP3 during endodyogeny shows that ISP1 is present in the maternal IMC apical cap...
Disruption of ISP3. Western blot analysis using polyclonal anti-ISP3 confirms the loss of ISP3 in Δisp3 parasites. ROP1 serves as a loading control.
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Antibody confirmation of sub-compartment localizations for endogenous ISP2 and ISP3. A. ISP2 antisera confirms the localization of endogenous ISP2 to the central IMC sub-compartment in a fashion identical to the HA epitope-tagged ISP2 shown in Figure 2B. Endogenous ISP2 is clearly absent from the apical cap (brackets) and basal portion of the IMC....
ISP1 early bud rings in oryzalin treated Toxoplasma. Parasites stably expressing ISP1-HA were allowed to infect HFFs in the presence of 0.5 µM oryzalin and grow 30 hours before fixation and IFA analysis. Serial sections were acquired, deconvolved and projected as a three-dimensional image. In the absence of cortical microtubules, a single mother pa...
Author Summary
Apicomplexans are the cause of important diseases in humans and animals including malaria (Plasmodium falciparum), which claims over a million human lives each year, and toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii), which causes birth defects and neurological disorders. These parasites possess a unique cortical system of membrane sacs arranged...
Previous studies have implicated DTNBP1 as a schizophrenia susceptibility gene and its encoded protein, dysbindin, as a potential regulator of synaptic vesicle physiology. In this study, we found that endogenous levels of the dysbindin protein in the mouse brain are developmentally regulated, with higher levels observed during embryonic and early p...
The study of protein-protein interactions is a powerful approach to uncovering the molecular function of gene products associated with human disease. Protein-protein interaction data are accumulating at an unprecedented pace owing to interactomics projects, although it has been recognized that a significant fraction of these data likely represents...