Genomics Commons^™

Ether Bridge Formation And Chemical Diversification In Loline Alkaloid Biosynthesis, Juan Pan

Theses and Dissertations--Plant Pathology

Loline alkaloids, found in many grass-Epichloë symbiota, are toxic or feeding deterrent to invertebrates. The loline alkaloids all share a saturated pyrrolizidine ring with a 1-amine group and an ether bridge linking C2 and C7. The steps in biosynthesis of loline alkaloids are catalyzed by enzymes encoded by a gene cluster, designated LOL, in the Epichloë genome. This dissertation addresses the enzymatic, genetic and evolutionary basis for diversification of these alkaloids, focusing on ether bridge formation and the subsequent modifications of the 1-amine to form different loline alkaloids.

Through gene complementation of a natural lolO mutant and comparison …

The Evolutionary Dynamics Of Transcription Factors, Operators, And Their Target Genes Across Prokaryotes, Marc Del Grande

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In prokaryotes, transcriptional regulation commonly involves a transcription factor (TF) binding to a particular conserved sequence of nucleotides (operator). Binding elicits a transcriptional response, either activation or repression. The evolution of gene regulation has been identified as a primary driver of species diversity, making it an important area of research. This work examined the dynamics of the interactions between TFs and operators, and TFs and their primary target genes in attempt to assess the rapid evolution of transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) across a diverse set of prokaryotes. Using software packages, operator sequences from Escherichia coli K12 were compared to every …

Methods For Integrative Analysis Of Genomic Data, Paul Manser

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the development of new genomic technologies has allowed for the investigation of many regulatory epigenetic marks besides expression levels, on a genome-wide scale. As the price for these technologies continues to decrease, study sizes will not only increase, but several different assays are beginning to be used for the same samples. It is therefore desirable to develop statistical methods to integrate multiple data types that can handle the increased computational burden of incorporating large data sets. Furthermore, it is important to develop sound quality control and normalization methods as technical errors can compound when integrating multiple genomic …