Molecular Biology Commons^™

Comparison Of Electrically Mediated And Liposome-Complexed Plasmid Dna Delivery To The Skin, Loree C. Heller, Mark J. Jaroszeski, Domenico Coppola, Richard Heller

Bioelectrics Publications

BACKGROUND: Electroporation is an established technique for enhancing plasmid delivery to many tissues in vivo, including the skin. We have previously demonstrated efficient delivery of plasmid DNA to the skin utilizing a custom-built four-plate electrode. The experiments described here further evaluate cutaneous plasmid delivery using in vivo electroporation. Plasmid expression levels are compared to those after liposome mediated delivery.

METHODS: Enhanced electrically-mediated delivery, and less extensively, liposome complexed delivery, of a plasmid encoding the reporter luciferase was tested in rodent skin. Expression kinetics and tissue damage were explored as well as testing in a second rodent model.

RESULTS: Experiments …

Promoter Library Designed For Fine-Tuned Gene Expression In Pichia Pastoris, Franz S. Hartner, Claudia Ruth, David Langenegger, Sabrina N. Johnson, Petr Hyka, Geoff P. Lin-Cereghino, Joan Lin-Cereghino, Karin Kovar, James Cregg, Anton Glieder

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

Although frequently used as protein production host, there is only a limited set of promoters available to drive the expression of recombinant proteins in Pichia pastoris. Fine-tuning of gene expression is often needed to maximize product yield and quality. However, for efficient knowledge-based engineering, a better understanding of promoter function is indispensable. Consequently, we created a promoter library by deletion and duplication of putative transcription factor-binding sites within the AOX1 promoter (P_AOX1) sequence. This first library initially spanned an activity range between ∼6% and >160% of the wild-type promoter activity. After characterization of the promoter library employing …

Computational Design Of Orthogonal Ribosomes, Lon Chubiz, Christopher Rao

Biology Department Faculty Works

Orthogonal ribosomes (o-ribosomes), also known as specialized ribosomes, are able to selectively translate mRNA not recognized by host ribosomes. As a result, they are powerful tools for investigating translational regulation and probing ribosome structure. To date, efforts directed towards engineering o-ribosomes have involved random mutagenesisbased approaches. As an alternative, we present here a computational method for rationally designing o-ribosomes in bacteria. Working under the assumption that base-pair interactions between the 16S rRNA and mRNA serve as the primary mode for ribosome binding and translational initiation, the algorithm enumerates all possible extended recognition sequences for 16S rRNA and then chooses those …

Ancient Dna Identification Of Early 20th Century Simian T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1, Sebastien Calvignac, Jean-Michel Terme, Shannon M. Hensley, Pierre Jalinot, Alex D. Greenwood, Catherine Hanni

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The molecular identification of proviruses from ancient tissues (and particularly from bones) remains a contentious issue. It can be expected that the copy number of proviruses will be low, which magnifies the risk of contamination with retroviruses from exogenous sources. To assess the feasibility of paleoretrovirological studies, we attempted to identify proviruses from early 20th century bones of museum specimens while following a strict ancient DNA methodology. Simian T-cell leukemia virus type 1 sequences were successfully obtained and authenticated from a Chlorocebus pygerythrus specimen. This represents the first clear evidence that it will be possible to use museum specimens to …