Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

Protein Threading For Genome-Scale Structural Analysis, Kyle P. Ellrott

Doctoral Dissertations

Protein structure prediction is a necessary tool in the field of bioinformatic analysis. It is a non-trivial process that can add a great deal of information to a genome annotation. This dissertation deals with protein structure prediction through the technique of protein fold recognition and outlines several strategies for the improvement of protein threading techniques. In order to improve protein threading performance, this dissertation begins with an outline of sequence/structure alignment energy functions. A technique called Violated Inequality Minimization is used to quickly adapt to the changing energy landscape as new energy functions are added. To continue the improvement of …

Exploring The Mechanism Of Meiosis In Drosophila Melanogaster: Meiotic Functions Of A Novel Cohesion Protein Solo And A Translation Initiation Factor Vasa, Rihui Yan

Doctoral Dissertations

Sister chromatid cohesion is essential for proper chromosome segregation during meiosis. However, the mechanism of meiotic cohesion in Drosophila is unclear.

We describe a novel protein, SOLO (Sisters On the LOose) that is essential for meiotic cohesion in Drosophila melanogaster. solo mutations cause high nondisjunction of sister and homologous chromatids of sex chromosomes and autosomes in both sexes. In solo males, sister chromatids separate prematurely and segregate randomly during meiosis II. Although bivalents appear intact throughout meiosis I, sister centromeres lose cohesion prior to prometaphase I and orient nearly randomly on the meiosis I spindle. Centromeric foci of SMC1 are …

Gene Synthesis, Cloning, Expression, Purification And Biophysical Characterization Of The C2 Domain Of Human Tensin, Kiran Sukumar Gajula

Doctoral Dissertations

Tensin is a large "docking" protein found in the adhesive junctions of animal cells and recruited early in the development of cell-substrate contacts. There it binds to the cytoplasmic domain of integrin β1 and caps the barbed ends of filamentous actin. This forms a rational basis for its implication in a direct role in the mechanics of membrane-cytoskeleton interactions. Tensin provides a physical link between the actin cytoskeleton, integrins, and other proteins at the cell-substrate contacts. Its overall biochemical properties are a function of its domain composition and architecture, i.e., the domains that are present and their relative positions in …