Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Molecular Biology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Molecular Biology

Engineered Aptamers To Probe Molecular Interactions On The Cell Surface, Sana Batool, Sanam Bhandari, Shanell George, Precious Okeoma, Nabeela Van, Hazan E. Zümrüt, Prabodhika Mallikaratchy Aug 2017

Engineered Aptamers To Probe Molecular Interactions On The Cell Surface, Sana Batool, Sanam Bhandari, Shanell George, Precious Okeoma, Nabeela Van, Hazan E. Zümrüt, Prabodhika Mallikaratchy

Publications and Research

Significant progress has been made in understanding the nature of molecular interactions on the cell membrane. To decipher such interactions, molecular scaffolds can be engineered as a tool to modulate these events as they occur on the cell membrane. To guarantee reliability, scaffolds that function as modulators of cell membrane events must be coupled to a targeting moiety with superior chemical versatility. In this regard, nucleic acid aptamers are a suitable class of targeting moieties. Aptamers are inherently chemical in nature, allowing extensive site-specific chemical modification to engineer sensing molecules. Aptamers can be easily selected using a simple laboratory-based in …


Thermodynamic And Kinetic Analyses Of Iron Response Element (Ire)-Mrna Binding To Iron Regulatory Protein, Irp1, Mateen A. Khan, William E. Walden, Elizabeth C. Theil, Dixie J. Goss Aug 2017

Thermodynamic And Kinetic Analyses Of Iron Response Element (Ire)-Mrna Binding To Iron Regulatory Protein, Irp1, Mateen A. Khan, William E. Walden, Elizabeth C. Theil, Dixie J. Goss

Publications and Research

Comparison of kinetic and thermodynamic properties of IRP1 (iron regulatory protein1) binding to FRT (ferritin) and ACO2 (aconitase2) IRE-RNAs, with or without Mn2+, revealed differences specific to each IRE-RNA. Conserved among animal mRNAs, IRE-RNA structures are noncoding and bind Fe2+ to regulate biosynthesis rates of the encoded, iron homeostatic proteins. IRP1 protein binds IRERNA, inhibiting mRNA activity; Fe2+ decreases IRE-mRNA/IRP1 binding, increasing encoded protein synthesis. Here, we observed heat, 5 °C to 30 °C, increased IRP1 binding to IRE-RNA 4-fold (FRT IRE-RNA) or 3-fold (ACO2 IRE-RNA), which was enthalpy driven and entropy favorable. Mn2+ (50 μM, 25 °C) increased IRE-RNA/IRP1 …


Bow-Tie Signaling In C-Di-Gmp: Machine Learning In A Simple Biochemical Network, Jinyuan Yan, Maxime Deforet, Kerry E. Boyle, Rayees Rahman, Raymond Liang, Chinweike Okegbe, Lars E. P. Dietrich, Weigang Qiu, Joao B. Xavier Aug 2017

Bow-Tie Signaling In C-Di-Gmp: Machine Learning In A Simple Biochemical Network, Jinyuan Yan, Maxime Deforet, Kerry E. Boyle, Rayees Rahman, Raymond Liang, Chinweike Okegbe, Lars E. P. Dietrich, Weigang Qiu, Joao B. Xavier

Publications and Research

Bacteria of many species rely on a simple molecule, the intracellular secondary messenger c-di-GMP (Bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate), to make a vital choice: whether to stay in one place and form a biofilm, or to leave it in search of better conditions. The c-di-GMP network has a bow-tie shaped architecture that integrates many signals from the outside worldÐthe input stimuliÐinto intracellular c-di-GMP levels that then regulate genes for biofilm formation or for swarming motilityÐthe output phenotypes. How does the `uninformed' process of evolution produce a network with the right input/output association and enable bacteria to make the right choice? Inspired …


Evolution Of Complex Target Selex To Identify Aptamers Against Mammalian Cell-Surface Antigens, Prabodhika R. Mallikaratchy Jan 2017

Evolution Of Complex Target Selex To Identify Aptamers Against Mammalian Cell-Surface Antigens, Prabodhika R. Mallikaratchy

Publications and Research

The demand has increased for sophisticated molecular tools with improved detection limits. Such molecules should be simple in structure, yet stable enough for clinical applications. Nucleic acid aptamers (NAAs) represent a class of molecules able to meet this demand. In particular, aptamers, a class of small nucleic acid ligands that are composed of single-stranded modified/unmodified RNA/DNA molecules, can be evolved from a complex library using Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) against almost any molecule. Since its introduction in 1990, in stages, SELEX technology has itself undergone several modifications, improving selection and broadening the repertoire of targets. This …