Molecular Biology Commons^™

Modeling Of Interaction Of Ions With Ether- And Ester-Linked Phospholipids, Matthew W. Saunders

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Phospholipids are present in all parts of cells and are used in many signalling and struc- tural roles. As structural molecules they act as the main component of cellular membranes. Bilayer properties are heavily influenced by the structure of their component polar lipids, and different lipids are found in different organisms. A distinguishing feature of Archaeal plasma membranes is that their phospholipids contain ether-links, as opposed to bacterial and eukaryotic plasma membranes where phospholipids primarily contain ester-links. In our work we examine the effects of salt on bilayer structure in the case of both ester- and ether-linked lipid bilayers. We …

Functional Characterization Of The Ovarian Tumor Domain Deubiquitinating Enzyme 6b, Jasmin M. D'Andrea

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The posttranslational modification ubiquitination is major regulatory mechanism used throughout cell signaling pathways such as cell cycle regulation and the DNA damage response. As such, the E3 ligases and their deubiquitinating enzyme counterparts, which conjugate and deconjugate ubiquitin to and from protein substrates respectively, must be tightly regulated to prevent aberrant cellular behaviors that could lead to diseases such as cancer.

Of the five families of deubiquitinating enzymes, the Ovarian Tumor Domain (OTU) family is fairly unique and under-studied; many of its family members hold a linkage specificity to certain ubiquitin chains and a number of them have been implicated …