Structural Biology Commons^™

Utilizing Nmr Spectroscopy And Molecular Docking As Tools For The Structural Determination And Functional Annotation Of Proteins, Jaime Stark

Student Research Projects, Dissertations, and Theses - Chemistry Department

With the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2001 and the subsequent explosion of organisms with sequenced genomes, we are now aware of nearly 28 million proteins. Determining the role of each of these proteins is essential to our understanding of biology and the development of medical advances. Unfortunately, the experimental approaches to determine protein function are too slow to investigate every protein. Bioinformatics approaches, such as sequence and structure homology, have helped to annotate the functions of many similar proteins. However, despite these computational approaches, approximately 40% of proteins still have no known function. Alleviating this deficit will ...

Filamin Is Required For F-Actin Organization And Calcium Signaling In C. Elegans, Ismar Kovacevic

Biology Dissertations

During organism development cells sense, integrate, and respond to a variety of cues or signals. Mechanical properties of cells, and the matrix that surrounds them, contribute critical signals that direct cell migration and differentiation. In this study we sought to establish a simple model system to study mechanotransduction in an intact organism at the cellular level. The C. elegans spermatheca is a simple organ, consisting of a layer of myoepithelial cells enclosed by a basement membrane. Oocytes are ovulated into the spermatheca, where they are fertilized, and then propelled into the uterus by constriction of the spermatheca. Phenotypic analysis of ...

Phylogenetic Engineering Of The Ribulose-1,5-Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase Large Subunit In Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii, Boon Hoe Lim

Theses and Dissertations in Biochemistry

Thirty-four residues in the large subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) may account for the kinetic differences between Rubisco enzyme from green algae and land plants. By substituting these "phylogenetic residues" as groups and combinations of groups in the large subunit of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with those of land-plant Rubisco, the functions and relationships of these "phylogenetic groups" were determined.

A phylogenetic-group substitution at the base of catalytic loop 6 of the large subunit decreases the CO₂/O₂ specificity of the enzyme, but function is restored by a further phylogenetic-group substitution at the carboxy-terminal tail ...