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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Role Of Rna Helicases In The Drosophila Germline, Patrick Blatt
Role Of Rna Helicases In The Drosophila Germline, Patrick Blatt
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Gametogenesis, the process of creating egg or sperm, is required for launching successive generations of sexually reproducing organisms. The developmental milestones that occur during gamete production have been studied for decades and are of critical interest to gain insight to conserved features of human fertility. Drosophila has been used for over a century as an efficient research model and remains pivotal in uncovering fundamental biological paradigms. During Drosophila egg production, or oogenesis, several developmental transitions must be traversed to ensure completion of oogenesis including: Germline Stem Cell (GSC) maintenance and differentiation, mitotic and meiotic cell divisions, and production of maternally …
Host Factors Affecting Group Ii Intron Retrotransposition, Justin Michael Waldern
Host Factors Affecting Group Ii Intron Retrotransposition, Justin Michael Waldern
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Group II introns are self-splicing mobile elements that are thought to be the evolutionary ancestors of eukaryotic retrotransposons, the spliceosome, and spliceosomal introns. Yet, little is known about how group II introns have coevolved within their native hosts or about the corresponding host biology.Using the Ll.LtrB intron in its native host, Lactococcus lactis, I first sought to identify host factors that influence retrotransposition. Since retrotransposition can be costly to the host organism, group II introns must achieve a delicate balance between self-proliferation and host preservation. By utilizing the native host organism, my goal was to unearth retrotransposition-related mechanisms that have …
Identification Of Ires Activity In Cellular Mrnas And Viral Rna Using A Circular Rna Construct, Priyanka Sehta
Identification Of Ires Activity In Cellular Mrnas And Viral Rna Using A Circular Rna Construct, Priyanka Sehta
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Translation initiation is a critical step in the process of protein synthesis. The canonical way of translation initiation involves ribosomes being recruited to the 7-methyl guanosine cap present at the 5’end of the untranslated region (5’ UTR) of the RNAs. However, viral RNAs and some cellular mRNAs lack this 5’ cap structure and thus deploy an alternate non-canonical translation initiation mechanism. In non-canonical translation initiation, ribosome recruitment is facilitated by the RNA secondary structures called Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES) present most often in the 5’ UTR. To measure IRES-mediated translation, the dual luciferase assay has been the gold standard. …