Life Sciences Commons^™

Investigating The Glutamine-Trna (Glutamine) Synthesis Appartus Of The Human Pathogen Helicobacter Pylori, Nilesh Joshi

Wayne State University Theses

INVESTIGATING THE GLUTAMINE-TRNA (GLUTAMINE) SYNTHESIS APPARTUS OF THE HUMAN PATHOGEN HELICOBACTER PYLORI

by

NILESH JOSHI

August 2012

Advisor: Tamara L. Hendrickson

Major: Chemistry

Degree: Master of Science

Accurate protein biosynthesis is a vital process to all cellular life. Aminoacyl-tRNAs are at the heart of this process: A correctly formed aminoacyl-tRNA is critical for protein biosynthesis. Organisms have evolved many mechanisms to repair misacylated tRNAs before they cause errors in protein biosynthesis, thus maintaining the integrity of the genetic code. The human pathogen Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) synthesizes Glu-tRNAGln as an intermediate to producing Gln-tRNAGln. This misacylated intermediate could cause lethal …

The Spliceosomal Protein Prp8 Stabilizes A Compact Conformation Of The U2-U6 Complex, Subasinghe Appuhamilage Lemintha Imali Subasinghe

Wayne State University Theses

The spliceosome is a large, RNA-protein complex that catalyzes pre-mRNA splicing during mRNA maturation. The RNA components (small nuclear RNA; snRNAs) of the spliceosome have been well studied and are believed to be involved in the splicing catalysis. Although proteins are essential for splicing, they may not be directly involved in catalysis. Among hundreds of proteins, Prp8 is the only protein that interacts with all of the catalytically important snRNAs. Therefore, it is hypothesized that Prp8 may catalyze splicing either by directly participating in catalysis or by stabilizing the conformation of the catalytically active spliceosome. In order to test whether …