Biology subjects

McKinney, J.

Publications and source records attributed to McKinney, J..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Development of the visual system in social poison frog tadpoles

The ways in which animals sense the world changes throughout development. For example, young of many species have limited visual capabilities, but still make social decisions, likely based on information gathered through other sensory modalities. Poison frog tadpoles display complex social behaviors that have been suggested to rely on vision despite a century of research indicating tadpoles have poorly-developed visual systems relative to adults. Alternatively, other sensory modalities, such as the lateral line system, are functional at hatching in frogs and may guide social decisions while other sensory systems mature. Here, we examined development of the mechanosensory lateral line and visual systems in tadpoles of the mimic poison frog (Ranitomeya imitator) that use vibrational begging displays to stimulate egg feeding from their mothers. We found that tadpoles hatch with a fully developed lateral line system. While begging behavior increases with development, ablating the lateral line system inhibited begging in pre-metamorphic tadpoles, but not in metamorphic tadpoles. We also found that the increase in begging and decrease in reliance on the lateral line co-occurs with increased retinal neural activity and gene expression associated with eye development. Using the neural tracer neurobiotin, we found that axonal innervations from the eye to the brain proliferate during metamorphosis, with little retinotectal connections in recently-hatched tadpoles. We then tested visual function in a phototaxis assay and found tadpoles prefer darker environments. The strength of this preference increased with developmental stage, but eyes were not required for this behavior, possibly indicating a role for the pineal gland. Together, these data suggest that tadpoles rely on different sensory modalities for social interactions across development and that the development of sensory systems in socially complex poison frog tadpoles is similar to that of other frog species.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Osteoarthritis Early-, Mid- and Late-Stage Progression in the Rat Medial Meniscus Transection Model

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease of synovial joints affecting all tissues, including the articular cartilage and underlying subchondral bone. Osteoarthritis animal models can recapitulate aspects of human disease progression and are commonly used to test the development of drugs, biomaterials, and cell therapies for treatment. The rat medial meniscus transection (MMT) model is a surgically induced post-traumatic osteoarthritis model and is one of the most commonly used models for therapeutic development; however, it is typically used to evaluate the efficacy of therapies to prevent disease development rather than testing the treatment of disease progression in already established disease. We describe herein, the qualitative and quantitative changes to articular cartilage, subchondral bone, and formation of osteophytes in rats at early-(3-weeks post-surgery), mid-(6-weeks post-surgery) and late-(12-weeks post-surgery) stages of osteoarthritis progression. Tibiae of MMT-operated animals showed loss of proteoglycan and fibrillation formation on articular cartilage surfaces as early as 3-weeks post-surgery. Using a contrast-enhanced CT technique, quantitative, 3-dimensional analysis of the tibiae showed that the articular cartilage initially thickened at 3- and 6-weeks post-surgery and then decreased at 12-weeks post-surgery. This decrease in cartilage thickness corresponded with increased lesions in the articular cartilage, including fully degraded surfaces down to the subchondral bone layer. In this rat MMT model, subchondral bone thickening was significant at 6-weeks post-surgery and seem to follow cartilage damage. Osteophytes were found at 3-weeks post-surgery, which coincided with articular cartilage degradation. Cartilaginous osteophytes preceded mineralization suggesting that these marginal tissue growths most likely occurred through endochondral ossification. The use of the rat MMT model has predominantly been used out to 3-weeks, and most studies determine the effect of therapies to delay or prevent the onset of osteoarthritis. We provide evidence that an extension of the rat MMT model out to 6 and 12 weeks resembled more severe phenotypes of human osteoarthritis. The mid- to late-stages of rat MMT model can be used to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of novel treatments to treat the progression of established disease -- since patients typically present in the clinic when the disease is established and becomes symptomatic, thus evaluating the efficacy of new treatments at the late stage will be important for eventual clinical translation.

pathology↗

bioRxiv2021

Dynamic persistence of intracellular bacterial communities of uropathogenic Escherichia coli in a human bladder-chip model of urinary tract infections

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) proliferate within superficial bladder umbrella cells to form intracellular bacterial communities (IBCs) during early stages of urinary tract infections. However, the dynamic responses of IBCs to host stresses and antibiotic therapy are difficult to assess in situ. We develop a human bladder-chip model wherein umbrella cells and bladder microvascular endothelial cells are co-cultured under flow in urine and nutritive media respectively, and bladder filling and voiding mimicked mechanically by application and release of linear strain. Using time-lapse microscopy, we show that rapid recruitment of neutrophils from the vascular channel to sites of infection leads to swarm and neutrophil extracellular trap formation but does not prevent IBC formation. Subsequently, we tracked bacterial growth dynamics in individual IBCs through two cycles of antibiotic administration interspersed with recovery periods which revealed that the elimination of bacteria within IBCs by the antibiotic was delayed, and in some instances, did not occur at all. During the recovery period, rapid proliferation in a significant fraction of IBCs reseeded new foci of infection through bacterial shedding and host cell exfoliation. These insights reinforce a dynamic role for IBCs as harbours of bacterial persistence, with significant consequences for non-compliance with antibiotic regimens.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2019

The developmental cycle of Dictyostelium discoideum ensures curing of a mycobacterial infection at both cell autonomous level and by collaborative exclusion

During its life cycle, the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum alternates between a predatory amoeba and a facultative multicellular form. The single-celled amoeba is a well-established model system to study cell-autonomous mechanisms of phagocytosis and defence against intracellular bacterial pathogens, whereas the multicellular forms are arising as models to study the emergence of innate immune defence strategies. Importantly, during evolution, prokaryotes have also evolved their own strategies to resist predation. Considering these complex ecological relationships, we wondered whether D. discoideum cells infected with intracellular pathogenic mycobacteria would be able to undergo their developmental cycle and what would be the fate of the infection. We show that the combination of cell-autonomous mechanisms and the organisation into a multicellular organism leads to the efficient multistep-curing of a mycobacteria-infected population, thereby ensuring germ-free spores and progeny. Specifically, using a microfluidic device to trap single infected cells, we revealed that in the first curing phase, individual cells rely on three mechanisms to release intracellular bacteria: exocytic release, ejection and lytic release. The second phase occurs at the collective level, when remaining infected cells are excluded from the forming cell aggregates.

microbiology↗