Uncovering the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in Toxoplasma gondii infected rats.

Toxoplasma.gondii (T.gondii) infected males rats show increased sex appeal and lowered fear for cats as compared to controls. These behavioral manipulations aim to increase parasite’s transmission efficiency and are correlated with increasing testosterone levels and decreasing corticosterone levels...

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Main Author: Tok, Rui Shen.
Other Authors: School of Biological Sciences
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2012
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Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/49429
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-494292023-02-28T18:07:29Z Uncovering the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in Toxoplasma gondii infected rats. Tok, Rui Shen. School of Biological Sciences Ajai Vyas DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Molecular biology Toxoplasma.gondii (T.gondii) infected males rats show increased sex appeal and lowered fear for cats as compared to controls. These behavioral manipulations aim to increase parasite’s transmission efficiency and are correlated with increasing testosterone levels and decreasing corticosterone levels respectively. This project focuses on the latter, seeks to explain the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone by observing the changes in mRNA expression profile of Steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein and key adrenal steroidogenic enzymes via quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Our results suggest the existence of compensatory mechanism in infected animals, probably due to the negative feedback signal produced by low corticosterone levels. Although, our results did not elucidate the exact molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone production, they provided a clue that the molecular changes might occur at the post transcriptional level. In addition, interplay between the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis was found to be involved in the compensatory mechanism observed from the results. As such, we propose that further experiments be carried out to provide a elucidate the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in T.gondii infected rats. With these experiments, we also hope to confirm our speculation of the compensatory mechanism and the link between HPA and HPG axis as suggested by our results. Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences 2012-05-18T06:51:38Z 2012-05-18T06:51:38Z 2012 2012 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/49429 en Nanyang Technological University 36 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Molecular biology
spellingShingle DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Molecular biology
Tok, Rui Shen.
Uncovering the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in Toxoplasma gondii infected rats.
description Toxoplasma.gondii (T.gondii) infected males rats show increased sex appeal and lowered fear for cats as compared to controls. These behavioral manipulations aim to increase parasite’s transmission efficiency and are correlated with increasing testosterone levels and decreasing corticosterone levels respectively. This project focuses on the latter, seeks to explain the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone by observing the changes in mRNA expression profile of Steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein and key adrenal steroidogenic enzymes via quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Our results suggest the existence of compensatory mechanism in infected animals, probably due to the negative feedback signal produced by low corticosterone levels. Although, our results did not elucidate the exact molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone production, they provided a clue that the molecular changes might occur at the post transcriptional level. In addition, interplay between the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis was found to be involved in the compensatory mechanism observed from the results. As such, we propose that further experiments be carried out to provide a elucidate the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in T.gondii infected rats. With these experiments, we also hope to confirm our speculation of the compensatory mechanism and the link between HPA and HPG axis as suggested by our results.
author2 School of Biological Sciences
author_facet School of Biological Sciences
Tok, Rui Shen.
format Final Year Project
author Tok, Rui Shen.
author_sort Tok, Rui Shen.
title Uncovering the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in Toxoplasma gondii infected rats.
title_short Uncovering the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in Toxoplasma gondii infected rats.
title_full Uncovering the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in Toxoplasma gondii infected rats.
title_fullStr Uncovering the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in Toxoplasma gondii infected rats.
title_full_unstemmed Uncovering the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in Toxoplasma gondii infected rats.
title_sort uncovering the molecular mechanism of decreasing corticosterone in toxoplasma gondii infected rats.
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/49429
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