Genetics and Genomics Commons^™

Characterizing Endogenous Dicer Products To Unravel Novel Rnai Biogenesis Pathways, Jacob Oche Peter

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

RNA interference (RNAi) is a pervasive gene regulatory mechanism in eukaryotes based on the action of multiple classes of small RNA (sRNA). Exploiting RNAi pathways in non-model systems have great potential for creating potent RNAi technologies. Here, we accessed RNAi-mediated control of gene expression in the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae (T. urticae) using engineered dsRNA designed to modulate the host RNAi pathway and increase RNAi efficacy. Analysis of Dicer (Dcr) generated fragments revealed how exogenous RNAs access the host RNAi pathway in this animal, opening avenues for designing RNAi technology for their control. Further, some organisms …

Development, Evaluation, And Application Of A Novel Error Correction Method For Next Generation Sequencing Data, Isaac Akogwu

Dissertations

Tremendous evolvement in sequencing technologies and the vast availability of data due to decreasing cost of Next-Generation-Sequencing (NGS) has availed scientists the opportunity to address a wide variety of evolutionary and biological issues. NGS uses massively parallel technology to accelerate the process at the expense of accuracy and read length in comparison to earlier Sanger methods. Therefore, computational limitations exist in how much analysis and information can be gleaned from the data without performing some form of error correction.

Error correction process is laborious and consumes a lot of computational resources. Despite the existence of many NGS data error correction …

A Neuroprotective Role For Mir-1017, A Non-Canonical Mirna, Matthew De Cruz

Master's Theses

miRNAs are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression, with numerous being involved in neurobiology. Within the human genome a quarter of the identified miRNA loci derive from a class of miRNAs termed tailed mirtrons. Despite the identification of this large population of miRNA, no functional studies have been conducted to identify their role. In this study we examined the highly expressed and deeply conserved Drosophila 3’ tail mirtron, miR-1017, as a candidate to elucidate tailed mirtron functionality. We identified acetylcholine receptor transcripts, Da5 and Da2, as bona fide targets for miR-1017. Interestingly, Da2 is also the host transcript for miR-1017. We …