Rachel Cox

Riverdale Country School · Lisman Labs

The effects of urbanization on watershed ecosystems present critical challenges to modern survival. Organisms in urbanized areas experience high rates of evolutionary change, but genetic adaptation alone cannot mitigate the rapid and severe effects of urbanization on biodiversity. Highly resilient, foundation species are key to maintaining an ecosy...

Waterways in urban areas often act as repositories for sewage, industrial waste, and environmental contaminants. In response, inhabitants of these watersheds undergo physiological adaptations specific to their respective environments. Effects of these stressors can be assayed by quantification of various well-documented biomarkers in sentinel speci...

Populations undergo physiological adaptations in response to environmental stressors. Our five-year bio-monitoring study of the Bronx River Estuary demonstrates comparatively low dissolved oxygen concentrations in this urbanized watershed. Additionally, our current results establish altered hormonal levels, resulting from endocrine disruption, in G...

The MYC protooncogene is associated with the pathogenesis of most human neoplasia. Conversely, its experimental inactivation elicits oncogene addiction. Besides constituting a formidable therapeutic target, MYC also has an essential function in normal physiology, thus creating the need for context-specific targeting strategies. The analysis of post...

The p53 family of transcription factors has been implicated in many vertebrate cancers. Altered p53 and p73 protein expression observed in leukemic cells of molluscs suggests that these transcription factors might be involved in invertebrate cancers as well. Here, we fully characterize the mRNA of four novel p53-like variants in the bivalve mollusc...

The extent to which humans and wildlife are exposed to anthropogenic challenges is an important focus of environmental research. Potential use of p53 gene family marker(s) for aquatic environmental effects monitoring is the long-term goal of this research. The p53 gene is a tumor suppressor gene that is fundamental in cell cycle control and apoptos...

To understand the role of p53 gene family members during invertebrate embryonic development, we used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to identify p63/73 homologues in the marine mollusc Spisula solidissima. Here, we report the sequences of two distinct p63/73-like homologues, both cloned from Spisula embryos. The first, Ssp63/73alpha is 2699 nucleot...

Cytochrome P450 genes (CYP) constitute a superfamily with members known from the Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. The CYP3 gene family includes the CYP3A and CYP3B subfamilies. Members of the CYP3A subfamily represent the dominant CYP forms expressed in the digestive and respiratory tracts of vertebrates. The CYP3A enzymes metabolize a wide variety...

Three genes cloned from Fundulus heteroclitus (killifish) define a new P450 subfamily, CYP2P. Structurally, the CYP2Ps are related to fish CYP2Ns and mammalian CYP2Js. CYP2P transcripts are expressed predominantly in liver and intestine. CYP2P3 coexpressed with P450 oxidoreductase in a baculovirus system catalyzed benzphetamine-N-demethylation and...

The phylogenetic distribution and structural diversity of the nitric oxide synthases (NOS) remain important and issues that are little understood. We present sequence information, as well as phylogenetic analysis, for three NOS cDNAs identified in two non-mammalian species: the vertebrate marine teleost fish Stenotomus chrysops (scup) and the inver...

Chlamydia sp. strain TWAR is an important cause of acute respiratory disease in humans. To determine the genetic relatedness of the TWAR organism to Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydia psittaci, solution hybridization followed by S1 nuclease assays were performed, and guanine-plus-cytosine (G + C) contents were determined. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DN...