Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology

Investigating The Effects Of Ph On Alphaviral E3-E2 Glycoprotein Association, Organization, And Cellular Tropism, Jason Michael Sequra Dec 2016

Investigating The Effects Of Ph On Alphaviral E3-E2 Glycoprotein Association, Organization, And Cellular Tropism, Jason Michael Sequra

Open Access Dissertations

In alphaviruses the role of E3 is required in protecting the fusion peptide region of E1 during intracellular transport. Throughout viral processing, the association of E2 and E3 is required for the successful trafficking and incorporation of E1 into the mature virion. This E3-E2 association has been observed to extend to mature virions in the solved structure for the envelope of Semliki Forest virus (SFV) and supported by the solved structure for the entire Venezuelan equine encephalitis virion (VEEV) with exclusive contacts being made between E3-E2. Immunization with monoclonal antibodies against VEEV E3 provided protection for mice challenged by lethal …


Intestinal Cytoplasmic Lipid Droplets, Associated Proteins, And The Regulation Of Dietary Fat Absorption, Theresa M. D'Aquila Aug 2016

Intestinal Cytoplasmic Lipid Droplets, Associated Proteins, And The Regulation Of Dietary Fat Absorption, Theresa M. D'Aquila

Open Access Dissertations

Dietary fat provides essential nutrients, contributes to energy balance, and regulates blood lipid concentrations. These functions are important to health, but can also become dysregulated and contribute to diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The small intestine absorbs dietary fat through an efficient multi step process of digestion, uptake, metabolism, and secretion or storage. When dietary fat is taken up by the absorptive cells of the small intestine, enterocytes, it can be secreted into circulation where it contributes to blood lipid levels or temporarily stored in cytoplasmic lipid droplets (CLDs). The objective of this dissertation is to investigate …


Axonal Transport And Life Cycle Of Mitochondria In Parkinson's Disease Model, Hyun Sung Apr 2016

Axonal Transport And Life Cycle Of Mitochondria In Parkinson's Disease Model, Hyun Sung

Open Access Dissertations

In neurons, normal distribution and selective removal of mitochondria are essential for preserving compartmentalized cellular function. Parkin, an E3 ubiquitin ligase associated with familial Parkinson’s disease, has been implicated in mitochondrial dynamics and removal. However, it is not clear how Parkin plays a role in mitochondrial turnover in vivo, and whether the mature neurons possess a compartmentalized Parkin-dependent mitochondrial life cycle. Using the live Drosophila nervous system, here, I investigate the involvement of Parkin in mitochondrial dynamics; organelle distribution, morphology and removal. Parkin deficient animals displayed less number of axonal mitochondria without disturbing organelle motility behaviors, morphology and metabolic state. …


Analysis Of Chd Remodelers During Development: A Tale In Two Organisms, Brett Bishop Apr 2015

Analysis Of Chd Remodelers During Development: A Tale In Two Organisms, Brett Bishop

Open Access Dissertations

The correct development of different organisms requires the precise timing of genes important for development transitions. Organisms have recruited ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers to ensure the correct timing of gene expression during developmental transitions. Here I show how different CHD ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers regulate developmental transitions of different organisms. I show that PICKLE not only promotes H3K27me3 during development to repress developmental genes but also is targeted to these genes. The association of PICKLE to these genes suggests that both repression and H3K27me3 levels is a direct action of PICKLE on these loci. Using zebrafish as a model system, I show …


Mach: A Model For Explaining Molecular And Cellular Mechanisms, Caleb M. Trujillo Jan 2015

Mach: A Model For Explaining Molecular And Cellular Mechanisms, Caleb M. Trujillo

Open Access Dissertations

Biologists use mechanistic explanations to understand behaviors of the immense complexity of molecular and cellular systems. In undergraduate biology courses, students are expected to explain molecular and cellular mechanisms, but teaching this skill presents many challenges due to the highly abstract, intangible nature of the cellular world, the influence of everyday language, and the tendency of students to overestimate how much they can explain. Therefore, across three studies this dissertation addresses these obstacles to teach undergraduate biology students to explain molecular and cellular mechanisms. ^ The first step was to model how biology experts explain molecular and cellular mechanisms, and …


Associated Behavioral, Genetic, And Gene Expression Variation With Alternative Life History Tactics In Salmonid Fishes, Ashley Chin-Baarstad Oct 2014

Associated Behavioral, Genetic, And Gene Expression Variation With Alternative Life History Tactics In Salmonid Fishes, Ashley Chin-Baarstad

Open Access Dissertations

Individual differences in behavior can have potential fitness consequences and often reflect underlying genetic variation. My research focuses on three objectives related to individual level variation: 1) evaluating the innate behavioral variation within and between individuals, families, and progeny of different life-history types across time; 2) testing for differences in gene expression within the brain associated with this behavioral variation; and 3) using genetic polymorphisms to test for associations with ecotype, as well as population structure, in polymorphic populations. First, we evaluated the variation in a suite of ecologically relevant behaviors across time in juvenile progeny produced from crosses within …


Intranuclear Strain Measured By Iterative Warping In Cells Under Mechanical And Osmotic Stress, Jonathan T Henderson Oct 2014

Intranuclear Strain Measured By Iterative Warping In Cells Under Mechanical And Osmotic Stress, Jonathan T Henderson

Open Access Dissertations

The nucleus is a membrane bound organelle and regulation center for gene expression in the cell. Mechanical forces transfer to the nucleus directly and indirectly through specific cellular cytoskeletal structures and pathways. There is increasing evidence that the transferred forces to the nucleus orchestrate gene expression activity. Methods to characterize nuclear mechanics typically study isolated cells or cells embedded in 3D gel matrices. Often report only aspect ratio and volume changes, measures that oversimplify the inherent complexity of internal strain patterns. This presents technical challenges to simultaneously observe small scale nuclear mechanics and gene expression levels inside the nuclei of …


Measuring And Modeling The Response Characteristics Of The Environmental Phosphate Transducer In Escherichia Coli, Chetan Sood Oct 2013

Measuring And Modeling The Response Characteristics Of The Environmental Phosphate Transducer In Escherichia Coli, Chetan Sood

Open Access Dissertations

The PhoR/PhoB two-component system in Escherichia coli is a biological transducer that senses the limitation of environmental inorganic orthophosphate, the bacteria's preferred source of the essential nutrient phosphate, and transmits that information to the interior of the cell initiating a response that mitigates phosphate starvation. In the first part of this study, we present and apply a fluorescence microscopy technique to measure, in vivo, the dynamic response characteristics of the transducer with single-cell resolution. We report that the transience in the PhoR/PhoB TCS response is consistent with the transducer having a threshold sensitivity to the concentration of environmental phosphate, …