Genetics and Genomics Commons^™

Mechanism Of Gene Regulation By Coding Polya Tracks, Laura Lea Arthur

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Regulation of gene expression is essential for cellular development and survival. The great variety and complexity of regulatory mechanisms underscores this fact. Messenger RNA stability and translational efficiency are often key determinants of gene expression. mRNA surveillance pathways, discovered for their role in degradation of aberrant mRNA, are now known to be instrumental in the regulation of physiologically correct mRNA stability. Thus, the study of cis elements in a transcript that can induce mRNA surveillance pathways has become an area of particular interest.

Here I report on the mechanism of gene regulation by coding polyA tracks, defined as a sequence …

Factors That Contribute To De Novo Protein Misfolding And Prion Formation In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Kathryn Morgan Keefer

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Protein misfolding is a common phenomenon that can have severe consequences on cellular and organismal health. Despite this, the causes of protein misfolding remain poorly understood. Prions are a class of proteins that, when misfolded, can convert other molecules into a heritable, non-native conformation. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae naturally harbors several diverse prion-forming proteins; thus, it is an ideal model with which to investigate the factors that influence misfolding and aggregation.This thesis utilizes the yeast prions [PSI+] and [RNQ+] to investigate two distinct steps of the protein misfolding pathway: interactions with chaperones and their cofactors, and heterologous templating by other …

The Effects Of The Gut Microbiota On The Host Chromatin Landscape, Nicholas Semenkovich

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The human gut microbiota is home to tens of trillions of microbes belonging to all three domains of life. The structure and expressed functions of this community have myriad effects on host physiology, metabolism, and immune function. My studies focused on a facet of host-microbial interactions and mutualism that has not been explored to a significant degree in part because of the absence of suitable tools: namely, if, when, and how the gut microbiota produces durable effects on host biology through its impact on the epigenome. To address this area, I turned to gnotobiotic mice and developed a variety of …