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

Premature Rho-Dependent Transcription Termination In Escherichia Coli : Link To Translation And Gene Regulation, Gabriele Baniulyte Jan 2019

Premature Rho-Dependent Transcription Termination In Escherichia Coli : Link To Translation And Gene Regulation, Gabriele Baniulyte

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Transcription termination factor Rho is an essential protein in Escherichia coli and related bacteria. The primary function of Rho is to clear unproductive RNA polymerases from the DNA template to minimize negative effects associated with uncontrolled transcription. Although most of the Rho termination events are constitutive, premature Rho-mediated termination was observed at 3% of all affected transcripts indicating active regulation of Rho activity. In this work, we investigated the regulatory mechanism behind premature Rho-dependent transcription termination in two unrelated genes: suhB and topAI. We show that in both cases transcription is terminated inside the coding gene as a consequence of …


Post-Translational Modifications And Functional Studies Of Dksa In Escherichia Coli, Andrew Charles Isidoridy Jan 2019

Post-Translational Modifications And Functional Studies Of Dksa In Escherichia Coli, Andrew Charles Isidoridy

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

DksA is a bacterial gene regulator that functions synergistically with the stress alarmone ppGpp to mediate the stringent response. DksA also functions independently of ppGpp to regulate transcription of a number of genes. DksA function is dependent on its binding affinity to RNA polymerase and requires specific interactions between RNAP and catalytic amino acids located on the coiled coil tip, D74 and A76. While much of the previous work on DksA has focused on understanding the mechanisms of action and the numerous gene targets for transcriptional regulation, little is known about the mechanisms by which DksA expression and function may …


Epitranscriptomic Writer Systems And Codon Bias Regulate The Response To Environmental Stress, Andrea Leonardi Jan 2019

Epitranscriptomic Writer Systems And Codon Bias Regulate The Response To Environmental Stress, Andrea Leonardi

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Epitranscriptomic marks in the form of enzyme-catalyzed modifications to RNA nucleosides can be important regulators of translation and play integral roles in the response to stress. Dynamic changes in tRNA modification status can regulate the translation of stress response proteins whose transcripts have distinct codon biases. The epitranscriptomic writer Alkylation repair homolog 8 (ALKBH8) plays a crucial part in the translation of codon biased transcripts, as it regulates stop codon recoding, which is a specialized form of translation used to generate selenoproteins. ALKBH8 modifies the wobble uridine of selenocysteine tRNA (tRNASec) to promote the decoding of an internal UGA codon …


Transcriptional Regulation Of Dksa In E. Coli, Daniel Thomas Woods Jan 2019

Transcriptional Regulation Of Dksa In E. Coli, Daniel Thomas Woods

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

DksA is a global transcription factor that binds RNAP directly to regulate the expression of many genes and operons, including ribosomal RNA, in a ppGpp-dependent or ppGpp–independent manner. It is also involved in facilitating the process of DNA replication by removing stalled transcription elongation complexes that could block the progress of the replication fork. In addition, DksA is important for colonization, establishment of biofilms, and pathogenesis. In order to sustain these various functions, an adequate level of cellular DksA is required. This work tested the hypothesis that the E. coli dksA is substantially regulated at the level of transcription. Using …