Faculty in print: November paper publishing report

Here is the report of published academic papers written by Marquette faculty and staff and submitted to the Office of University Relations for November 2024. These papers have appeared in print or been presented recently.

Clearing the JUNQ: the molecular machinery for sequestration, localization, and degradation of the JUNQ compartment

[Special: Celebrating Women's Contribution to Protein Folding, Misfolding, and Degradation In Honor of Susan Lindquist (1949-2016)]

Dr. Emily Sontag, assistant professor of biological sciences | Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences (Volume 11 - 2024)

Abstract: Cellular protein homeostasis (proteostasis) plays an essential role in regulating the folding, sequestration, and turnover of misfolded proteins via a network of chaperones and clearance factors. Previous work has shown that misfolded proteins are spatially sequestered into membrane-less compartments in the cell as part of the proteostasis process. Soluble misfolded proteins in the cytoplasm are trafficked into the juxtanuclear quality control compartment (JUNQ), and nuclear proteins are sequestered into the intranuclear quality control compartment (INQ). However, the mechanisms that control the formation, localization, and degradation of these compartments are unknown. Previously, we showed that the JUNQ migrates to the nuclear membrane adjacent to the INQ at nucleus-vacuole junctions (NVJ), and the INQ moves through the NVJ into the vacuole for clearance in an ESCRT-mediated process. Here we have investigated what mechanisms are involved in the formation, migration, and clearance of the JUNQ. We find Hsp70s Ssa1 and Ssa2 are required for JUNQ localization to the NVJ and degradation of cytoplasmic misfolded proteins. We also confirm that sequestrases Btn2 and Hsp42 sort misfolded proteins to the JUNQ or IPOD, respectively. Interestingly, proteins required for piecemeal microautophagy of the nucleus (PMN) (i.e., Nvj1, Vac8, Atg1, and Atg8) drive the formation and clearance of the JUNQ. This suggests that the JUNQ migrates to the NVJ to be cleared via microautophagy.

Embodied Empowerment: Somatic Approaches to Gender Violence and Trauma

Dr. Heather Hlavka, professor of social and cultural sciences, and Dr. Noelle Brigden, associate professor of political science | Violence Against Women (Special Issue)

Abstract: This special issue brings together recent research on embodiment and practitioner-based somatic approaches to examine trauma and healing from violence. Contributors address the long-term somatic impact of oppression and the effects of structural inequalities enacted and perpetuated through bodies and in interaction with other bodies. Somatic practices and embodiment are addressed through the lens of intergenerational trauma, gendered, racialized, political, and colonial violence, and interpersonal and collective trauma. The introductory article contextualizes embodied empowerment, collective healing, and activist-research possibilities.

Environmental Light Controls the Daily Organization of Breathing by Activating Brn3b-expressing Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells in Mice

Dr. Deanna Arble, assistant professor of biological sciences | Journal of Biological Rhythms (Online First, Sept. 12, 2024)

Abstract: Rhythmic, daily fluctuations in minute ventilation are controlled by the endogenous circadian clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). While light serves as a potent synchronizer for the SCN, it also influences physiology and behavior by activating Brn3b-expressing, intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs). It is currently unclear the extent to which the external light environment shapes daily ventilatory patterns independent of the SCN. To determine the relative influence of environmental light versus circadian timing on the organization of daily rhythms in minute ventilation, we used whole-body plethysmography to measure the breathing of mice housed on a non-entraining T28 cycle (14 h light:14 h dark). Using this protocol, we found that minute ventilation exhibits a ~28-h rhythm with a peak at dark onset that coincides with the light:dark cycle and the animals' locomotor activity. To determine if this 28-h rhythm in minute ventilation was mediated by Brn3b-expressing ipRGCs, we measured the breathing of Brn3bDTA mice housed under the T28 cycle. Brn3bDTA mice lack the Brn3b-expressing ipRGCs that project to many non-SCN brain regions. We found that despite rhythmic light cues occurring on a 28-h basis, Brn3bDTA mice exhibited 24-h rhythms in minute ventilation, locomotor activity, and core body temperature consistent with organization by the SCN. The 24-h minute ventilation rhythm of Brn3bDTA mice was found to be driven predominantly by tidal volume rather than respiratory rate. These data indicate that the external light:dark cycle can directly drive daily patterns in minute ventilation by way of Brn3b-expressing ipRGCs. In addition, these data strongly suggest that the activation of Brn3b-expressing ipRGCs principally organizes daily patterns in breathing and locomotor activity when light:dark cues are presented in opposition to endogenous clock timing.

The Archaeological Imprint and Significance of Camp Douglas (11CK1235): A Civil War Era Training and POW Facility Located in Chicago, IL

Dr. Jane Peterson, professor of social and cultural sciences | Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology (Vol. 49, No. 2)

Abstract: Camp Douglas existed from September 1861 through early 1866, when the military decommissioned it. During this time, the camp grew to encompass 60 acres located on the southern outskirts of Chicago where it served as a recruitment and training center and, later, beginning in February 1862, a Confederate POW facility. Before the end of 1865, the federal government began auctioning off camp structures and materials, and thereafter, the camp began to fade from physical view, while Northern interests actively sought to expunge Camp Douglas, as well as other federal POW camps, from popular memory. The erasure of the camp was all but complete by the early twentieth-first century, when a group of individuals formed the Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation, Inc., in order to tell the story of the camp and determine if subsurface remains of the site existed. Since 2012, the foundation has sponsored 11 archaeological investigations of the camp. These excavations, which relied on volunteers drawn from the public, exposed camp deposits, raised public awareness about the site, and highlighted the site's connection to twentieth-century events, while demonstrating that developed urban areas may harbor significant archaeological remains. The results of the archaeological research reaffirm that Camp Douglas is a significant Chicago site whose story is worth investigating and telling.

The Archaeological Imprint and Significance of Camp Douglas (11CK1235): A Civil War Era Training and POW Facility Located in Chicago, IL

Dr. Jane Peterson, professor of social and cultural sciences | Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology (Vol. 49, No. 2)

Abstract: Suburbanization and segregation are intertwined processes that continue to shape American landscapes in profound ways. This research sheds light on both processes in the context of a community-oriented archaeology project based in the Village of Maywood, Illinois. Suburban communities began developing around major U.S. cities, like Chicago, at the turn of the twentieth century. These communities were envisioned and marketed as idyllic spaces free from the dangers and stresses of urban living. In practice, most were majority white neighborhoods where segregationist policies were implemented and strictly enforced. The Village of Maywood, one such example, was established as an all-white suburban enclave. However, in the mid-1880s, the village established a 4 × 5 block restricted zone where African American and Jewish residents could rent and buy property. Efforts to control where certain minority populations lived within the Village of Maywood closely mirrored urban Chicago's efforts to spatially confine and restrict the residential options of African American and Jewish groups. Archival and archaeological research focused on a residence within the village's restricted zone to explore the impacts exclusion and marginalization had on households within these contested spaces. Fieldwork and outreach were organized to amplify the work being done by community stakeholders to preserve the Village of Maywood's unique history and legacy.

Loss of endogenous circadian clock function in mice alters respiratory cycle timing in a time of day- and sex-specific manner

Dr. Deanna Arble, assistant professor of biological sciences | Respiratory Physiology and Neurobiology (Volume 331)

Abstract: Resting breathing and ventilatory chemoreflexes are regulated in a 24-hr manner by the endogenous circadian clock. However, it is unclear how circadian biology influences different phases of the breath-to-breath respiratory cycle which are predominantly controlled by pontomedullary regions of the brainstem. Here, we performed whole-body plethysmography during quiet wakefulness in young adult male and female mice lacking the core clock gene Brain and Muscle Arnt-like 1 (BMAL1) to determine the extent to which the molecular clock affects respiratory cycle timing and ventilatory airflow mechanics. Breath waveform analysis revealed that male BMAL1 knockout (KO) mice exhibit time of day-specific differences in inspiratory and expiratory times, total cycle length, end inspiratory pause, relaxation time, and respiratory rate compared to wild-type littermates. Notably, changes in respiratory pattern were not observed in female BMAL1 KO mice when compared to wild-type females. Additionally, BMAL1 deficiency did not disrupt overall minute ventilation or peak airflow in either sex, suggesting total ventilatory function during quiet wakefulness is preserved. Taken together, these findings indicate that genetic disruption of the circadian clock in mice elicits sex-specific changes in respiratory cycle timing.

Legal Vengeance and Popular Violence: Reimagining Justice in "The Heart of Midlothian"

Dr. Melissa Ganz, associate professor of English | Book Chapter 5, "Law, Equity and Romantic Writing: Seeking Justice in the Age of Revolutions" (Edinburgh University Press)

Abstract: This chapter reads Sir Walter Scott's "The Heart of Midlothian" (1818) in the context of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century debates about penal reform. In doing so, it sheds new light on the significance of criminal justice for Scott's fiction while underscoring the novel's critiques of both English and Scottish law. Through Andrew Wilson's, Effie Dean's, and the Whistler's encounters with the penal system, the chapter argues, Scott acknowledges the dangers of popular violence even as he challenges the state's reliance on the death penalty. In many cases, the novel shows, capital punishment cannot be justified either on retributive or utilitarian grounds. Scott's concerns shape the novel at the level of both form and theme. Through his experiments with narration and point of view, Scott teaches readers carefully to consider the circumstances of criminal cases while underscoring that punishment must be proportionate to each offense. The novel suggests, however, that to rectify harsh judgments Britons should neither rely upon unpredictable pardons nor take justice into their own hands. Like reformers such as Sir Samuel Romilly and Jeremy Bentham, Scott instead suggests that the laws should be changed to provide more merciful punishments, including punishments that promote rehabilitation.

Age enterprising: "Old" age on the make in Ghana

Dr. Alexandra Crampton, associate professor of social and cultural sciences | Journal of Aging Studies (Volume 71)

Abstract: The Aging Enterprise was first coined by Carol Estes to critique the hegemony of a gerontological discourse and policy in the United States in the 1970s. These policy interventions seemed to be serving the needs of policy-makers and aging professionals, rather than those of older adults. More recently she wrote on how these interventions limited the possibilities of the gerontological imagination and focused attention on "old age" as a social problem. This paper builds on her work and that of Lawrence Cohen to examine the reach of the Aging Enterprise in Ghana, a country with limited state investments in aging. Bringing together two research projects, we are able to make our argument through an examination of aging policy and interventions in the public and private sectors, including across academic institutions, NGOs, churches, and markets. In our analysis, we propose the term age enterprising instead of the Aging Enterprise for three reasons. One, the discourse which situates old age as a problem has not been fully imported to Ghana, but instead becomes adapted to local ways that aging is constructed as a problem. Second, the discourses of age enterprises should not be taken at face value, as their projects can often fail, especially in the short run. Finally, we see a mix of different age enterprises which do not concatenate to create a monolithic force, but which diverge in key ways, thus creating a much more contingent and contradictory set of discourses around aging.

If you have recently published a paper, or if you have one coming out, we would like to feature your publication in an upcoming Faculty in Print feature. More information on the submission process is available online.

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