Life Sciences Commons^™

Body Fluid Identification Using Dna Extraction Waste Product, Rachel M. Tolces

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In many situations, the amount of DNA evidence recovered at a crime scene is at trace levels, limiting the amount of testing that can be done on the evidence. Because genetic profiling is generally considered the most imperative assay to be completed on a DNA sample, in situations where yield is low, DNA extracts may not be utilized for any other purpose. Fortunately, an alternate source of DNA may exist by utilizing the waste products resulting from DNA extraction.

The goal of this project was to a protocol for recovery of DNA from robotic extraction waste and utilizing this DNA …

High And Low Toxin Producing Strains Of Karenia Brevis Differ Significantly In The Redox Proteome, Lipid Profiles, And Xanthophyll Cycle Pigments, Ricardo Colon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dinoflagellate Karenia brevis, blooms annually in the Gulf of Mexico, producing a suite of neurotoxins known as the brevetoxins. The cellular toxin content of K. brevis, however, is highly variable between or even within strains. I investigated biochemical differences between high (KbHT) and low (KbLT) toxin producing cultures both derived from the Wilson strain, related to energy-dependent quenching (qE) by photosystem II, and the content of reduced thiols of the proteome. By characterizing the xanthophyll content of the two strains I was able to determine that KbLT performs qE inconsistently. To investigate the …

The Role Of Inositol Polyphosphate-4-Phosphatase Type Ii B (Inpp4b) In Obese Models And Endocrine Cancers, Manqi Zhang

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

INPP4B is a dual-specificity phosphatase and a tumor suppressor in prostate and breast cancers. Progression of the prostate and breast cancers depends on the androgen receptor (AR) or estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) signaling, respectively. In this work we demonstrated that INPP4B reprograms ERα transcriptional activity in breast cancer. INPP4B maintains expression and protein levels of progesterone receptor (PR), an ERα direct target gene required for mammary gland development. Consistently we demonstrated that Inpp4b knockout severely impairs lateral branching in the mammary gland of maturing virgin females. In advanced prostate cancer, activation and transcriptional reprogramming of AR frequently coincides with the …

Structure And Mechanism Of Mycobacterial Topoisomerase I, Nan Cao

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The enzyme DNA topoisomerase I is an essential enzyme that plays an important role in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cellular processes such as DNA replication, transcription, recombination and repair. Mycobacterium tuberculosistopoisomerase I (MtTOP1) is a validated drug target for antituberculosis treatment. Mycobacterial topoisomerase I regulates the topological constraints in chromosomes and helps in maintaining the growth of mycobacteria. The N- terminal domain (NTD) of mycobacterial topoisomerase I contains conserved catalytic domains that along with the active site Tyrosine are involved in cleaving and rejoining a single strand of DNA. Magnesium is required in DNA cleavage activity of type IA topoisomerases. …

Oxidative Dna Damage Modulates Trinucleotide Repeat Instability Via Dna Base Excision Repair, Meng Xu

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Trinucleotide repeat (TNR) expansion is the cause of more than 40 types of human neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease. Recent studies have linked TNR expansion with oxidative DNA damage and base excision repair (BER). In this research, we provided the first evidence that oxidative DNA damage can induce CAG repeat deletion/contraction via BER. We found that BER of an oxidized DNA base lesion, 8-oxoguanine in a CAG repeat tract, resulted in the formation of a CTG hairpin at the template strand. DNA polymerase β (pol b) then skipped over the hairpin creating a 5’-flap that was cleaved by flap …