Molecular Biology Commons^™

Testing Ssa4:Ade3 Reporters For Mcs Screening, Karah Edmonds, Rebecca Adams

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

In eukaryotic cells, after transcription, mRNA is escorted from the nucleus to the cytoplasm to be translated. This process, called mRNA export, is essential for gene expression. However, when the cell exists in stressful conditions, mRNA export becomes regulated, and only select transcripts, including the stress-responsive SSA4 mRNA, can be exported. This project aims to uncover the mechanism of selective SSA4 mRNA export by generating a reporter that enables phenotypically visible expression under stressful conditions. Specifically, the ADE3 ORF was placed under the regulatory sequence of SSA4, which was anticipated to induce a red color for colonies only following stress. …

Reducing Seed Coat Fiber Content And Pod Shatter, And Engineering Medium Chain Fatty Acids-Containing Oil, In The Oilseed Crop Pennycress ( Thlaspi Arvense L. ), Maliheh Esfahanian

Theses and Dissertations

The overall goal of this thesis was to genetically improve agronomic traits of pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.; Field Pennycress) and demonstrate the production of value-added designer seed oils to domesticate pennycress and enable its establishment as a new winter annual oilseed/meal/cover crop to be grown in temperate regions of the world. In the U.S. Midwest, pennycress can be double cropped on existing farmland during the time between corn harvest and subsequent planting of soybeans the following spring. Pennycress has the potential to produce 2,000 lbs/acre seeds, which at 33% by weight oil content and 20% protein, would yield 85 gallons/acre …

An Analysis Of Crispr-Cas Gene Editing In Agriculture, Ashley Laliberte

Honors Scholar Theses

The CRISPR-Cas system is a promising form of gene editing, especially for the agriculture industry. The ability to make single-nucleotide edits within a gene of interest, without the need to introduce foreign DNA, is a powerful tool for designing healthier and more efficient crops and food animals. This system provides opportunity for increased nutritional value, decreased food waste, and more economically and environmentally sustainable food production. Though this biotechnology is facing mechanistic limitations due to off-target effects and inefficient homology-directed repair, vast improvements have already been made to improve its efficacy. The CRISPR-Cas system is already the most advanced form …

Anti-Crispr Vs. Crispr: The Evolutionary Arms Race Between Microorganisms, Rachael M. St. Jacques

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

CRISPR arrays are a defense mechanism employed by bacteria against viral invaders. Cas proteins do the work in detecting, capturing, and integrating the viral DNA into the CRISPR array (Barrangou et al., 2007). Anti-CRISPR proteins are produced by phages, viruses that infect bacteria, to stop the bacterial host’s CRISPR-Cas complex from interrupting the phage life cycle (Bondy-Denomy, et al., 2015).

SEA-PHAGES is a course-based bacteriophage research network composed of 120 colleges and known at James Madison University as Viral Discovery. JMU uses the unsequenced Streptomyces griseus ATCC10137 as a host for bacteriophage discovery and propagation, and in this study we …

The Dna Dependent Protein Kinase Catalytic Subunit Maintains Genomic Stability, Brandon Lee Sklavanitis

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

GBM is the most common CNS derived malignancy diagnosed each year. The median survival time to date is between 14.6 to 16.7 months for patients suffering from the disease. Clinical trials and research has yet to yield a breakthrough treatment. The invasive nature of GBM to surrounding tissue typically poses a challenge for complete surgical resection of the tumor, and radiotherapy remains a predominant treatment modality. The NHEJ pathway is main repair pathway responsible for repairing lethal radiation damage. As a result, this study used the CRISPR-Cas9 system to genetically engineer two GBM cell lines lacking expression of an essential …

Investigating The Essential Roles Of Dprl-1 In Drosophila Melanogaster, Alex Lee

Summer Research

Phosphatase of Regenerating Liver (PRL) proteins regulate a number of important cellular processes, including cell growth and division. Humans have three PRL proteins: PRL-1, PRL-2, and PRL-3. An accumulation of evidence has shown that elevated levels of PRLs are strongly correlated with uncontrollable growth and metastasis of tumors. However, contradictory findings have arisen indicating that PRLs instead function to halt cell division thereby preventing uncontrollable tumor growth. In light of these results, the underlying mechanisms regarding how PRLs function within cellular processes remains unclear. To investigate the functions of PRLs, we will create transgenic fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) …