Life Sciences Commons^™

First Course Portfolio For Bioc205: Scientific Analysis And Technical Writing, Lindsey B. Crawford

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

BIOC205: Scientific Analysis and Technical Writing is a core course for the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This course is geared for second year (sophomore students) with minimal prerequisites and as a foundation for future classes. Challenges include 1) teaching the needed scientific background and elements of scientific analysis and writing to a broad cohort of students with diverse backgrounds and interests, 2) building student skills towards analysis of primary peer-reviewed scientific literature, 3) developing students as writers of scientific information for different audiences. This course used Genetic Engineering as a broad topic choice to capture students …

Investigation Of The Role Of Overexpression Of Psbs Under Stress Inducible And Constitutive Promoters To Improve Water Use Efficiency., Annie Nelson

Honors Theses

As climate change continues to impact environmental growth conditions, it has become increasingly more important to identify potential mechanisms of crop development to resist these changes. Previous studies have identified the role of PsbS in the non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) mechanism in the plant by identifying its direct effect on the rate in which excitation energy absorbed by photosystem II is dissipated as heat. It was identified also that PsbS via NPQ oxidizes chloroplastic quinone A (QA) which is a signal for stomatal opening in response to light. By identifying this relationship between PsbS and the signal for stomatal opening in …

Analysis Of Single-Site Cysteine Mutation, I412c, In Human A Glycine Receptor States To Further Refine Structure And Allostery, Leah Engquist

Honors Theses

The glycine receptor (GlyR) is the major inhibitory receptor in the brain and spinal cord. A member of the pentameric ligand gated ion channel superfamily, crystal structures are available but there are still unresolved areas, specifically the C-terminal tail and TM3-TM4 intracellular loop. Further refinement can provide deeper understanding of the molecular mechanism and allow the creation of novel therapeutics to modulate its function. We propose to insert a single cysteine mutation, I412C, into a Cys null background (C41S/C290A/C345S) to study non- conducting states (resting, desensitized) or with F207G/A288G mutations to study the open state. Purified, reconstituted GlyR is crosslinked …

Development Of High Value Oil Traits Using The Model Oilseed Crop Camelina Sativa, Evan Updike

Department of Biochemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Plant oils are an important source of food, fuel, and feed in our society today. The oil found in the seeds of plants is composed almost entirely of triacylglycerol (TAG) molecules, which consist of three fatty acids esterified to a glycerol backbone. As crude oil supplies decline, vegetable oils are gaining traction as a renewable substitute to petroleum-based materials in fuels, lubricants, and specialty oleochemicals. However, as it currently stands vegetable oils do not possess the properties necessary to fill the void of a petroleum free world.

To address this problem, plant biotechnologists have done extensive work on genetic engineering …

Engineering Src Homology 2 Domains With Improved Specificity For Sulfotyrosine, Anya Morozov

Honors Theses

Protein tyrosine O-sulfation (PTS) is a common post-translational modification that has been implicated in a variety of biological processes and human illnesses. Despite continued progress in the field of sulfoproteomics, the extent and function of sulfated tyrosine (sulfotyrosine) residues is a topic of ongoing research. Previous work in the Guo Lab has identified Src Homology-2 (SH2) mutants that have a high affinity for sulfotyrosine along with retained high affinity for their natural ligand, phosphorylated tyrosine (phosphotyrosine). In this thesis, I attempted to generate SH2 mutants that have high affinity and specificity for sulfotyrosine over phosphotyrosine. While I successfully generated …

Characterization Of Metabolic Networks In Differentiated Cd4+ T Cells, Bailee Lichter

Honors Theses

CD4+ T cells play a critical role in the immune system and protecting the body from infection. Cell differentiation of T-cells leads to the specialization of the immune system and has been determined to have plasticity. Differentiation of the CD4+ T cells depends on cytokines present in the environment, concentration of antigens, types of antigen – presenting cells (APCs), and costimulatory molecules (Luckheeram, 2012). Commonly known differentiated T-cells include the T-helper 1 (Th1) and the T-helper 2 (Th2) cells. Upon CD4+ T cell activation, the cells undergo metabolic changes that allow for cell growth and division. By characterizing the metabolic …

Purification Of Hepatocytes And Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells From Mouse Liver Perfusion, Fatima Cabral, Colton M. Miller, Katrina M. Kudrna, Blake E. Hass, Jocelyn G. Daubendiek, Brianna M. Kellar, Edward N. Harris

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

This protocol demonstrates a method for obtaining high yield and viability for mouse hepatocytes and sinusoidal endothelial cells (SECs) suitable for culturing or for obtaining cell lysates. In this protocol, the portal vein is used as the site for catheterization, rather than the vena cava, as this limits contamination of other possible cell types in the final liver preparation. No special instrumentation is required throughout the procedure. A water bath is used as a source of heat to maintain the temperature of all the buffers and solutions. A standard peristaltic pump is used to drive the fluid, and a refrigerated …

Mutant Study Of Sinorhizobium Meliloti Proline Utilization A (Puta), Jacob E. Wilkinson, John J. Tanner, Donald F. Becker

UCARE Research Products

The purpose of this project is to purify and characterize the reaction kinetics of mutant versions the enzyme Proline Utilization A (PutA) in Sinorhizobium meliloti. The enzyme catalyzes the first step in proline metabolism. It has two active sites. The first is proline dehydrogenase (PRODH) which converts proline to pyrroline-5-carboxylate (P5C). The second is P5C dehydrogenase (P5CDH) which converts P5C to glutamate. Although many bacterial organisms have PutA, there are still significant interspecies variations, resulting in an entire family of PutA enzymes. The main difference is the length of the amino acid sequence. This affects the protein’s structure or …