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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Blubber Transcriptome And Proteome Responses To Repeated Adrenocorticotropic Hormone Administration In A Marine Mammal, Jared Deyarmin
Blubber Transcriptome And Proteome Responses To Repeated Adrenocorticotropic Hormone Administration In A Marine Mammal, Jared Deyarmin
University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations
Chronic physiological stress impacts animal fitness by catabolizing metabolic stores and suppressing reproduction and immunity. This can be especially deleterious for capital breeding carnivores, such as marine mammals, which rely on lipid stores accrued during intensive foraging to sustain prolonged periods of fasting associated with reproduction. Therefore, chronic stress may cause a decrease in fitness in these animals, leading to population declines and potentially detrimental shifts in food web dynamics as a result. However, the impacts and indicators of chronic stress in animals are currently poorly understood. To identify downstream mediators of repeated stress responses in marine mammals, adrenocorticotropic hormone …
Evaluating Methods Of Obtaining Male Pheromone From Hymenochirus Sp. Using Analytical Chemistry, Vincent Wing-Kun Leung
Evaluating Methods Of Obtaining Male Pheromone From Hymenochirus Sp. Using Analytical Chemistry, Vincent Wing-Kun Leung
University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations
Male Hymenochirus sp. frogs are known to release pheromone that attracts females of the same species. Four methods for collecting secretions containing pheromone in Hymenochirus sp. were tested: norepinephrine injection, gonadotropin-releasing hormone injection, homogenization of gland tissue, and electrostimulation of the skin over the breeding gland area. The samples collected were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry. The HPLC chromatograph for the male norepinephrine sample contained a peak at 6.4 min that was not in the female norepinephrine sample HPLC chromatograph. The male norepinephrine sample mass spectrum had a peak of m/z 292.0 not in the female …
Structural Characterization Of Black Widow Spider Dragline Silk Proteins Crp1 And Crp4, Mikayla Shanafelt
Structural Characterization Of Black Widow Spider Dragline Silk Proteins Crp1 And Crp4, Mikayla Shanafelt
University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations
Spider dragline silk is a biomaterial with outstanding material properties, possessing high-tensile strength and toughness. In nature, dragline silk serves a central role during spider locomotion and web construction. Today, scientists are racing to elucidate the molecular machinery governing silk extrusion, attempting to translate this knowledge into a mimicry process in the laboratory to create synthetic fibers for a wide range of different applications. During extrusion, it has been established that biochemical and mechanical forces govern spidroin folding, aggregation, and assembly. In black widow spiders, at least 7 different proteins have been identified as constituents of dragline silk fibers. These …
Characterization Of The Roles Of Ppp1r15a (Gadd34) And Ppp1r15b (Crep) In Er Stress-Induced Apoptosis In Vivo, Danielle Hicks
Characterization Of The Roles Of Ppp1r15a (Gadd34) And Ppp1r15b (Crep) In Er Stress-Induced Apoptosis In Vivo, Danielle Hicks
University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations
Failure to balance synthesis, folding and degradation of secreted proteins results in the accumulation of unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum, termed ER stress. Cells respond to ER stress by activating a signaling pathway known as the unfolded protein response (UPR). The UPR induces phosphorylation of eIF2α to attenuate global protein translation, allowing the ER to clear misfolded proteins. Opposing this function, eIF2α phosphatases contain a catalytic subunit, Protein Phosphatase 1, and either of two homologous scaffolding subunits, GADD34 and CReP. Inhibition of eIF2α phosphatases has been shown to prolong UPR signaling and promote survival in many cells types and …
Knob-Socket Investigation Of Stability And Specificity In Alpha-Helical Secondary And Quaternary Packing Structure, Taylor Renee Rabara
Knob-Socket Investigation Of Stability And Specificity In Alpha-Helical Secondary And Quaternary Packing Structure, Taylor Renee Rabara
University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations
The novel knob-socket (KS) model provides a construct to interpret and analyze the direct contributions of amino acid residues to the stability in α-helical protein structures. Based on residue preferences derived from a set of protein structures, the KS construct characterizes intra- and inter-helical packing into regular patterns of simple motifs. The KS model was used in the de novo design of an α-helical homodimer, KSα1.1. Using site-directed mutagenesis, KSα1.1 point mutants were designed to selectively increase and decrease stability by relating KS propensities with changes to α-helical structure. This study suggests that the sockets from the KS Model can …