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Immunology and Infectious Disease

Washington University in St. Louis

Malaria

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Protein Synthesis Adaptation To The Au-Rich Transcriptome Of Plasmodium Falciparum, Jessey Lee Erath Jan 2021

Protein Synthesis Adaptation To The Au-Rich Transcriptome Of Plasmodium Falciparum, Jessey Lee Erath

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The process of protein synthesis whereby a messenger RNA is decoded into an amino acid chainis conserved among the domains. Fastidious protein synthesis is necessary for organism survival. However, exceptions negatively affecting the mRNA translation cycle – inadvertently or by design – may occur. Polyadenosine tracts are one such motif causing ribosomal stalling and frameshifting in almost all organisms tested thus far; save Plasmodium spp. Thus, with ~60% of their protein-coding genome harboring polyadenosine tracts, the elucidation of such paradigm-breaking adaptations enabling Plasmodium spp. to translate this typically problematic motif without issue is salient from both basic science and clinical …


Robust Odorant Recognition In Biological And Artificial Olfaction, Nalin Katta Aug 2017

Robust Odorant Recognition In Biological And Artificial Olfaction, Nalin Katta

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Accurate detection and identification of gases pose a number of challenges for chemical sensory systems. The stimulus space is enormous; volatile compounds vary in size, charge, functional groups, and isomerization among others. Furthermore, variability arises from intrinsic (poisoning of the sensors or degradation due to aging) and extrinsic (environmental: humidity, temperature, flow patterns) sources. Nonetheless, biological olfactory systems have been refined over time to overcome these challenges. The main objective of this work is to understand how the biological olfactory system deals with these challenges, and translate them to artificial olfaction to achieve comparable capabilities. In particular, this thesis focuses …