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Scholarly Works (3 results)

  • Thesis
  • Peer Reviewed
UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2015)

After Rome conquered Egypt, Egypt invaded Rome. Or so it would seem, judging from the explosion of Egyptian-inspired art in Rome beginning in the mid-first century BC—including a host of Egyptian motifs incorporated into Roman wall painting. These motifs are based on pharaonic art, the art of Egypt under the pharaohs until the Hellenistic period, and they carefully reproduce the iconography and even the artistic style of this tradition. Roman walls in this period thus depict for the first time miniature pharaonic figures, crowns, and animals, lined up in delicate friezes, framed in elaborate panels, and tucked among bushes in lush garden scenes. In these frescoes—an artistic genre that has been called “quintessentially Roman”—the Egyptian elements seem to produce a striking contrast to their surrounding Roman framework. This marked shift in domestic decoration prompts the question: Why would a Roman homeowner choose such foreign elements for his walls?

The present project proposes that the pharaonic subjects in Roman painting relate primarily not to the world of religion, politics, or fashion, as has been argued, but to the practice of collecting art and luxury goods; and that, in this respect, they act analogously to the Greek elements in Roman painting—elements which, until now, have been treated as a discrete and unrelated phenomenon. Investigating how Roman collections of art inform both sets of material, and what this means for our understanding of Egyptian and Greek elements in Roman wall painting, lies at the heart of this project.

Using diverse modes of inquiry and a wide range of evidence—close analysis of the paintings, comparison with archaeological material, and interpretation of literary sources—this study makes two major contributions to Roman painting studies. First, it encourages a revision of the widespread political readings of Roman domestic art, especially painting. Second, it drives home the importance of studying the manifold visual culture of the Roman house as a unit, rather than separating wall painting from the other materials with which it was clearly in dialogue. In so doing, this study casts new light on Roman collecting, artistic practice, and domestic life.

    Cover page: Egyptian Airs: The Life of Luxury in Roman Wall Painting
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UCLA Previously Published Works (2019)
    Prolonged cold exposure stimulates the recruitment of beige adipocytes within white adipose tissue. Beige adipocytes depend on mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to drive thermogenesis. The transcriptional mechanisms that promote remodeling in adipose tissue during the cold are not well understood. Here we demonstrate that the transcriptional coregulator transducin-like enhancer of split 3 (TLE3) inhibits mitochondrial gene expression in beige adipocytes. Conditional deletion of TLE3 in adipocytes promotes mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and increases energy expenditure, thereby improving glucose control. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation and deep sequencing, we found that TLE3 occupies distal enhancers in proximity to nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes and that many of these binding sites are also enriched for early B-cell factor (EBF) transcription factors. TLE3 interacts with EBF2 and blocks its ability to promote the thermogenic transcriptional program. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that TLE3 regulates thermogenic gene expression in beige adipocytes through inhibition of EBF2 transcriptional activity. Inhibition of TLE3 may provide a novel therapeutic approach for obesity and diabetes.
      Cover page: Loss of TLE3 promotes the mitochondrial program in beige adipocytes and improves glucose metabolism
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      UCLA Previously Published Works (2020)
      Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is composed of thermogenic cells that convert chemical energy into heat to maintain a constant body temperature and counteract metabolic disease. The metabolic adaptations required for thermogenesis are not fully understood. Here, we explore how steady state levels of metabolic intermediates are altered in brown adipose tissue in response to cold exposure. Transcriptome and metabolome analysis revealed changes in pathways involved in amino acid, glucose, and TCA cycle metabolism. Using isotopic labeling experiments, we found that activated brown adipocytes increased labeling of pyruvate and TCA cycle intermediates from U13C-glucose. Although glucose oxidation has been implicated as being essential for thermogenesis, its requirement for efficient thermogenesis has not been directly tested. We show that mitochondrial pyruvate uptake is essential for optimal thermogenesis, as conditional deletion of Mpc1 in brown adipocytes leads to impaired cold adaptation. Isotopic labeling experiments using U13C-glucose showed that loss of MPC1 led to impaired labeling of TCA cycle intermediates. Loss of MPC1 in BAT increased 3-hydroxybutyrate levels in blood and BAT in response to the cold, suggesting that ketogenesis provides an alternative fuel source to compensate. Collectively, these studies highlight that complete glucose oxidation is essential for optimal brown fat thermogenesis.
        Cover page: Mitochondrial pyruvate carrier is required for optimal brown fat thermogenesis
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