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Full-Text Articles in Biology

Sensing Ribonuclease H Activity With Dna Nanoswitches, Ruju Trivedi May 2020

Sensing Ribonuclease H Activity With Dna Nanoswitches, Ruju Trivedi

Biological Sciences

Ribonuclease H (RNase H) is a damage-repair protein and ribonuclease that specifically catalyzes the hydrolysis of RNA in an RNA/DNA duplex and breaks down RNA/DNA junctions. It plays an important role in a variety of biological processes including DNA replication, DNA repair, and transcription. It is also pivotal in anti-HIV drug development and the analysis of cellular processes and has been shown to be a potential therapeutic target for various neoplastic diseases. This thesis discusses a unique assay based on DNA nanoswitches to detect RNase H levels and activity. The assay is based on conformational changes of DNA nanoswitches in …


Termination-Independent Role Of Rat1 In Cotranscriptional Splicing In Budding Yeast, Zuzer Hakimuddin Dhoondia Jan 2020

Termination-Independent Role Of Rat1 In Cotranscriptional Splicing In Budding Yeast, Zuzer Hakimuddin Dhoondia

Wayne State University Dissertations

Rat1 is a 5′→3′ exoribonuclease in budding yeast belonging to the XRN-family of nucleases. It is a highly conserved protein with homologs being present in fission yeast, flies, worms, mice and humans. Rat1 and its homolog in metazoan have been shown to function in multiple facets of RNA metabolism. In this study, we report a novel role of Rat1 in splicing of pre-mRNA in budding yeast. In the absence of the functional Rat1 in the nucleus, an increase in the level of unspliced transcripts was observed in yeast cells. Strand-specific TRO analysis revealed that the accumulation of unspliced transcripts upon …


Estimating The Age Of A Bloodstain Using Mitochondrial Rrna, Jordan R. Flesher Jan 2020

Estimating The Age Of A Bloodstain Using Mitochondrial Rrna, Jordan R. Flesher

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

DNA evidence is considered the gold standard of evidence in forensic investigations. DNA is one of the most highly discriminatory pieces of evidence found at crime scenes and can link individuals to scenes. It is not relied on to perform temporal estimates to help establish a timeline for when a crime took place. Previous studies have shown that measurement of the degradation of RNA is a potential tool to establish a temporal estimate of when a blood sample was left at a crime scene. This experiment attempts to improve on previous RNA degradation studies by evaluating the validity of mitochondrial …


Development Of Small Molecule Antibiotics Against A Conserved Rna Gene Regulatory Element In Gram-Positive Bacteria, Ville Yrjö Petteri Väre Jan 2020

Development Of Small Molecule Antibiotics Against A Conserved Rna Gene Regulatory Element In Gram-Positive Bacteria, Ville Yrjö Petteri Väre

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Bacterial infections and the rise of antibiotic resistance, especially multidrug resistant strains, have generated a clear need for discovery of novel therapeutics. Most antibiotics in use today are derivatives of previous antibiotics to which resistance mechanisms already exist, and traditionally they have a single target: either a protein or rRNA. Gram-positive bacteria regulate the expression of several essential genes or operons using a mechanism called the T-box. The T-box is a structurally conserved riboswitch-like gene regulator in the 5’-untranslated region (UTR) of numerous essential genes of Gram-positive bacteria. T-boxes are stabilized by cognate, unacylated tRNA ligands, allowing the formation of …