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Organismal Biological Physiology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Organismal Biological Physiology

Regulation Of The Tubulin Homolog Ftsz In Escherichia Coli, Monika S. Buczek May 2018

Regulation Of The Tubulin Homolog Ftsz In Escherichia Coli, Monika S. Buczek

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Escherichia coli is a well-known pathogen, and importantly, a widely used model organism in all fields of biological sciences for cloning, protein purification, and as a model for Gram-negative bacterial species. And yet, researchers do not fully understand how this bacterium replicates and divides. Every year additional division proteins are discovered, which adds complexity to how we understand E. coli undergoes cell division. Due to their specific roles in cytokinesis, some of these proteins may be potential targets for development of antibacterials or bacteriostatics, which are much needed for fighting the current global antibacterial deficit. My thesis work focuses on …


Elucidating The Interplay Between Sodium Selenite On The Tick Amblyomma Maculatum Selenoprotein Gene Expression, Afnan M. Beauti May 2017

Elucidating The Interplay Between Sodium Selenite On The Tick Amblyomma Maculatum Selenoprotein Gene Expression, Afnan M. Beauti

Honors Theses

Selenium (Se) is an element recognized as an essential micronutrient in eukaryote organisms. Selenoproteins contain selenium as selenocysteine, the 21st amino acid. Selenium plays a role in cell growth and functioning. At low concentrations, it can induce growth and at high concentrations, it can cause a cell to stop growing and potentially have toxic effects on the cell and organism. When selenium levels are high, oxidative stress results by the production of reactive oxidative species. Selenoproteins, however, can aid the antioxidant response in the cell. Ticks are arthropods of interest, as they are one of few that contain many selenogenes, …


Comparative Genomics Of Microbial Chemoreceptor Sequence, Structure, And Function, Aaron Daniel Fleetwood Dec 2014

Comparative Genomics Of Microbial Chemoreceptor Sequence, Structure, And Function, Aaron Daniel Fleetwood

Doctoral Dissertations

Microbial chemotaxis receptors (chemoreceptors) are complex proteins that sense the external environment and signal for flagella-mediated motility, serving as the GPS of the cell. In order to sense a myriad of physicochemical signals and adapt to diverse environmental niches, sensory regions of chemoreceptors are frenetically duplicated, mutated, or lost. Conversely, the chemoreceptor signaling region is a highly conserved protein domain. Extreme conservation of this domain is necessary because it determines very specific helical secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures of the protein while simultaneously choreographing a network of interactions with the adaptor protein CheW and the histidine kinase CheA. This dichotomous …


Characterization Of Ftsa-Ftsn Interaction During Escherichia Coli Cell Division, Kimberly.Busiek@Gmail.Com K. Busiek May 2014

Characterization Of Ftsa-Ftsn Interaction During Escherichia Coli Cell Division, Kimberly.Busiek@Gmail.Com K. Busiek

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Division of a bacterial cell into two equal daughter cells requires precise assembly and constriction of the division machinery, or divisome. The Escherichia coli divisome includes nearly a dozen essential cell division proteins that assemble at midcell between segregating sister chromosomes. FtsZ, a homolog of eukaryotic tubulin, is the first essential cell division protein to localize at midcell where it polymerizes into a ring-shaped scaffold (Z ring). Establishment of the Z ring is required for recruitment of downstream cell division proteins including FtsA, a cytoplasmic protein that tethers the Z ring to the inner membrane. Following localization of FtsA and …