Biology subjects

Williams, E. J.

Publications and source records attributed to Williams, E. J..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Proteomic Profiling of Human Omental and Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue in Individuals with a Broad Range of BMI.

Obesity is a major public health challenge affecting an ever-increasing proportion of the global population. It is associated with numerous comorbidities. Progressive expansion and remodeling of adipose tissue may lead to depot specific changes in adipose tissue biology and energy partitioning. Such changes likely precede the development of obesity-related complications. To facilitate a deeper understanding of adipose tissue biology, a comprehensive and quantitative proteomic dataset at the peptide and protein level is presented. Data-independent acquisition LC-MS/MS data were acquired from matched subcutaneous and omental adipose tissues from metabolically healthy individuals with no comorbidities and covering a wide range of body mass indexes. Adipose tissue samples were collected during elective surgeries and immediately processed for histology or frozen until proteomic analysis. Internal and external quality control systems ensured high quality data. All data presented are available via ProteomeXchange. This dataset will allow new insights into biological changes that evolve with increasing adiposity captured before the onset of comorbidities. Matched sampling across fat depots provides an opportunity to uncover depot-specific physiological signatures.

systems biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Movement-related drivers of exposure to West Nile virus by American robins (Turdus migratorius)

The ecological processes that determine how individual animals become hosts to zoonotic pathogens is a topic of rapidly growing interest. However, how such exposure is mediated by context (e.g., season, location), host behavior (e.g., migration distance) and host demographics is generally poorly understood. We evaluated seasonal exposure to West Nile Virus of American robins sampled in Indiana and compared our results to those of previous studies. Because robins that breed in Indiana are partial migrants (i.e., only a portion of the population migrates), we evaluated their probability of exposure to WNV as a function of whether they migrated or not and of their movement distance. We also tagged a subset of breeding robins with tracking devices to evaluate their potential to disperse the virus between Indiana and other regions of the continent. We found that robins that breed in Indiana are exposed to WNV at a higher rate than that detected in previous studies, but found no correlation between robin exposure and whether a robin migrated or not, nor with migration distance, season, sex, and breeding latitude (for robins overwintering in Indiana). Our tracking data indicate that robins that breed in Indiana migrate several hundred miles to overwinter in the southeastern US. The mean duration of their return to Indiana in spring is 10.3 days, which is less than the maximum infectious period found for robins in previous studies, suggesting that they have the capacity to move WNV long distances in spring. However, we still know little about the physiological capacity of robins to migrate while being infectious, which could inhibit the dispersal of the virus through robin migration. Future research on the physiological, ecological and behavioral factors mediating the exposure of birds to WNV will lend insight into the role that robins and other birds play in the transmission ecology of the virus.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2018

Delayed differentiation of vaginal and uterine microbiomes in dairy cows developing postpartum endometritis

Bacterial infection of the uterus is a normal event after parturition. While the healthy cow achieves uterine clearance early postpartum, cows unable to control the infection within 21 days after calving develop postpartum endometritis. Studies on the Microbial Ecology of the bovine reproductive tract have focused on either vaginal or uterine microbiomes. This is the first study that compares both microbiomes in the same animals. Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism of the 16S rRNA gene showed that despite large differences associated to individuals, a shared community exist in vagina and uterus during the postpartum period. The largest changes associated with development of endometritis were observed at 7 days postpartum, a time when vaginal and uterine microbiomes were most similar. 16S rRNA Pyrosequencing of the vaginal microbiome at 7 days postpartum showed at least three different microbiome types that were associated with postpartum endometritis. All three microbiome types featured reduced bacterial diversity. Taken together, the above findings support a scenario where disruption of the compartmentalization of the reproductive tract during parturition results in the dispersal and mixing of the vaginal and uterine microbiomes, which subsequently are subject to differentiation. This microbial succession is likely associated to early clearance in the healthy cow. In contrast, loss of bacterial diversity and dominance of the microbiome by few bacterial taxa were related to a delayed succession in cows developing endometritis at 7 DPP.

microbiology↗