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Investigating Phosphorylation Patterns And Their Effect On The Activity Of Transcription Factor Taabf1 In Imbibing Cereal Grains, Grace Uwase

Honors Theses

The wheat transcription factor TaABF1 plays an important role in hormone-mediated regulation of seed dormancy and germination of cereal grains. Evidence shows that TaABF1 activity is regulated by phosphorylation, and previous work in our lab showed that when serine residues in its conserved regions; S36, S37, S113, S115 were altered to phosphomimetic aspartate, the 4xD TaABF1 mutant had increased activity as a transcription factor. However, when only S113 was altered, TaABF1’s activity was greatly reduced. The work presented here explored whether the S36D/S37D/S115D mutant would have stronger activity than the 4xD mutant. Using the particle bombardment technique to introduce the …

Haloferax Volcanii For Carotenoid Production, Erika Smith

Honors Theses

Carotenoids are used as natural colorants and have been shown to have numerous health benefits, making these molecules highly desirable in the aquaculture, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical markets. There is increasing consumer demand for the natural synthesis of carotenoids, but current methods are limited by the cost and difficulty of extraction from organisms. The halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii is amenable to extraction and has an endogenous carotenoid biosynthetic pathway that culminates in the accumulation of the carotenoid bacterioruberin; however, H. volcanii also synthesizes important precursors that can be converted into more highly-desired carotenoids, such as β-carotene and astaxanthin, in the presence …

Zebrafish Model Of Mll-Rearranged Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Alex J. Belt

Theses and Dissertations

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the second most common type of leukemia and accounts for 80% of adult acute leukemia cases and is characterized by the accumulation of poorly or undifferentiated myeloid blast cells. Standard treatment includes chemotherapy, which if unsuccessful, is followed by more rigorous chemotherapy as well as stem cell transplantation. Considering most patients are over the age of 45, these more rigorous therapies are not always possible, and as such, new therapies must be developed. Furthermore, AML patients harboring a chromosomal rearrangement involving Multiple Lineage Leukemia (MLL) that results in the expression of an MLL fusion protein …

Synergistic Effect Of Smac-Mimetic And Poly (I:C) On Apoptosis Of Cholangiocarcinoma Cells, Thanpisit Lomphithak

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a malignancy transformed from cholangiocytes in the bile ducts is more common in Asia and has the highest incidence rate in Thailand. CCA is an aggressive malignancy which has high mortality, high recurrence rate and poor prognosis due to late diagnosis and lack of effective treatment, therefore identification of novel therapeutic targets could lead to the development of more efficient therapy. CCA is associated with chronic inflammation that could upregulate Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) in CCA cells. TLR3 agonist, poly(I:C) has been reported to directly induce apoptosis in selected cancers and also activates anti-tumor immunity. However, in some …

Simulating The Effects Of Co2 Gas Influx On The Thermodynamic Conditions Inside A Marine Riser Filled With Oil Based Mud, Hassan Al Dawood

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Engineering Of Two-Color Atp-Binding Cassette Biosensor Proteins For Discovery Of Novel Substrates And Modulators, Bremansu Osa-Andrews

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter proteins are a vast, ubiquitous superfamily of proteins most of which unlock the energy from ATP-binding and hydrolysis to influx or efflux a wide spectrum of structurally dissimilar substrates across cell membranes. All eukaryotic ABC transporters including P-gp and MRP1 only exist as efflux pumps whose prominent expression in cells is associated with multidrug resistance of antiretrovirals, antiepileptics, antimalarials and anticancer agents. P-gp and MRP1 reduce the bioavailability and efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs by actively pumping out these drugs, thereby, leading to poor clinical outcomes during chemotherapy. Due to their clinical importance, profiling of the interaction …

Structural Features And Domain Movements Controlling Substrate Binding And Cofactor Specificity In Class Ii Hmg-Coa Reductase, Bradley R. Miller, Yan Kung

Chemistry Faculty Research and Scholarship

The key mevalonate pathway enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase (HMGR) uses the cofactor NAD(P)H to reduce HMG-CoA to mevalonate in the production of countless metabolites and natural products. Although inhibition of HMGR by statin drugs is well-understood, several mechanistic details of HMGR catalysis remain unresolved, and the structural basis for the wide range of cofactor specificity for either NADH or NADPH among HMGRs from different organisms is also unknown. Here, we present crystal structures of HMGR from Streptococcus pneumoniae (SpHMGR) alongside kinetic data of the enzyme’s cofactor preferences. Our structure of SpHMGR bound with its kinetically preferred NADPH cofactor …

Measurement & Analysis Of The Temporal Discrimination Threshold Applied To Cervical Dystonia, Rebecca B. Beck, Eavan M. Mcgovern, John Butler, Dorina Birsanu, Brendan Quinlivan, Ines Beiser, Shrut Narasimham, Sean O'Riordan, Michael Hutchinson, Richard B. Reilly

Other resources

The temporal discrimination threshold (TDT) is the shortest time interval at which an observer can discriminate two sequential stimuli as being asynchronous (typically 30-50 ms). It has been shown to be abnormal (prolonged) in neurological disorders, including cervical dystonia, a phenotype of adult onset idiopathic isolated focal dystonia. The TDT is a quantitative measure of the ability to perceive rapid changes in the environment and is considered indicative of the behavior of the visual neurons in the superior colliculus, a key node in covert attentional orienting. This article sets out methods for measuring the TDT (including two hardware options and …

Coordination Of Different Ligands To Copper(Ii) And Cobalt(Iii) Metal Centers Enhances Zika Virus And Dengue Virus Loads In Both Arthropod Cells And Human Keratinocytes, Shovan Dutta, Michael J. Celestine, Supreet Khanal, Alexis Huddleston, Colin Simms, Jessa Faye Arca, Amlam Mitra, Loree Heller, Piotr Kraj, Michael Ledizet, John F. Anderson, Girish Neelakanta, Alvin A. Holder, Hameeda Sultana

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Trace elements such as copper and cobalt have been associated with virus-host interactions. However, studies to show the effect of conjugation of copper(II) or cobalt(III) metal centers to thiosemicarbazone ligand(s) derived from either food additives or mosquito repellent such as 2-acetylethiazole or citral, respectively, on Zika virus (ZIKV) or dengue virus (serotype 2; DENV2) infections have not been explored. In this study, we show that four compounds comprising of thiosemicarbazone ligand derived from 2-acetylethiazole viz., (E)-N-ethyl-2-[1-(thiazol-2-yl)ethylidene]hydrazinecarbothioamide (acetylethTSC) (compound 1), a copper(II) complex with acetylethTSC as a ligand (compound 2), a thiosemicarbazone ligand-derived from citral (compound 3) and a cobalt(III) complex …

Rack1 Is A Critical Component In Ires-Mediated Translation, Ethan Asher Lafontaine

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Due to its sheer number of interacting partners, core ribosomal protein RACK1 is a key player in many cellular processes and has been shown to play a vital role of translation initiation of the Hepatitis C virus RNA. The HCV 5′ untranslated region contains an internal ribosome entry site. IRES-mediated translation is a process employed in eukaryotes by select viruses and some cellular mRNAs by which translation initiation bypasses the canonical mRNA cap-dependent pathway by means of an RNA secondary structure (the IRES). While cap-dependent translation requires the recruitment of a suite of initiation factors, IRES-mediated translation requires few to …

Technology Development For Detection Of Circulating Disease Biomarkers From Liquid Biopsies Using Multifunctional Nanomaterials, Mustafa Balcioglu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Despite the advance health care, devastating health conditions such as cancer and infectious diseases that affect populations worldwide are too often not diagnosed until morbid symptoms become apparent in the late phase. Obtaining an early and accurate diagnosis that reveal a hidden lethal threat before the disease becomes complicated may dramatically reduce the severity of its impact on the patient’s life and increase the probability of survival. For example, in the case of ovarian cancer, which is the fifth most common malignancy and the fifth leading cause of cancer mortality in women in the US, the 5-year relative survival is …

Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate Signaling In Mycobacterium Tuberculosis : New Insights Into A Universal Second Messenger, Richard Mcpherson Johnson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Despite being the focus of intense research for many years Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), remains the deadliest bacterial pathogen plaguing mankind today. Humans are the sole host and reservoir for Mtb, and Mtb has coevolved closely with its human host for thousands of years. Mtb currently infects over two billion people worldwide and over 1.5 million people die from TB each year, arguably making Mtb the most successful bacterial pathogen on the planet.

Regulated Transcriptional Silencing Promotes Germline Stem Cell Differentiation In Drosophila Melanogaster, Pooja Flora

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Germ cells are the only cell in an organism that have the capacity to give rise to a new organism and are passed from one generation to the next. Therefore, to maintain this unique ability of totipotency and immortality, germ cells execute specific functions, such as, repression of a somatic program and contour a germ line-specific pre- and post-transcriptional gene regulatory landscape. In many sexually reproducing organisms, germ cells are formed during the earliest stages of embryogenesis and undergoes several stages of development to eventually get encapsulated by the somatic cells of the gonad. Once, in the gonad, the germ …

Dna Functionalized Nanoparticles In Nanobiosensor And Sensor Array Development For Molecular Diagnostics And In Vitro Identification Of Biomolecules, Mustafa Salih Hizir

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Nucleic acid technology along with vast variety of nanomaterials has demonstrated a great potential in many applications from biosensing studies to molecular diagnostics, from biomedical and bioanalytical research to environmental analysis. Especially short single stranded (ss) DNA molecules, called oligonucleotides, are extraordinary biopolymers featuring diverse functionality on the nanoparticles thanks to their high degree of programmability, target-specific binding or cleavage, molecular recognition ability, structure-switching capability, and unique interactions at the bio-nano interfaces. Among those, there have been many biosensing applications utilizing ss DNAs and numerous nanomaterials through various detection techniques such as fluorometric, colorimetric or electrochemical methods. Although many groundbreaking …

Chromatin-Signaling Axis Orchestrates The Formation Of Germline Stem Cell Differentiation Niche In Drosophila, Maitreyi Upadhyay

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Stem cells have the unique capability of self-renewing into stem cells and differentiating into several terminal cell types. Loss of either of these processes can lead to aging, progression towards degenerative diseases and cancers. Insight into how self-renewal and differentiation are regulated will have tremendous therapeutic impact. Drosophila is an excellent model system for stem cell study due to the availability of various mutants, markers and RNAi technology. In order to study stem cell biology, we use female Drosophila gonads, whose stem cell population – the germline stem cells (GSCs) gives rise to gametes.

The Dissemination, Regulatory Role, And Evolution Of Mycobacterial Inteins, Danielle Skye Kelley

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Inteins are intervening protein elements, capable of coordinating escape from a host protein through a self-catalyzed mechanism, called protein splicing. This results in free intein and a mature host protein product. Inteins are also mobile elements and many contain homing endonucleases that enable the targeting to ectopic sites and invasion of novel niches. Inteins have been found across all three domains of life and are often present in replication, recombination, and repair proteins. However, it is unclear if the observed distribution is simply a factor of endonuclease preference or if inteins have been selectively maintained due to an adaptation that …

Evaluating The Effects Of Vitamin D And Hyaluronic Acid On The Radiation Response Of Normal Mammary Epithelial Cells And Breast Cancer Cells, Lauren Rose-Boehnlein

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Each year over 200,000 American women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Nearly 25% of them are told they have triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most aggressive and lethal form, with few targeted treatment options beyond the standard regimen of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Over 40% of TNBC cases overexpress hyaluronan synthase 2 (HAS2), a cell membrane enzyme that synthesizes the extracellular matrix (ECM) polysaccharide hyaluronic acid (HA). HA binds to and activates the cell surface receptor CD44, which is highly enriched on the cell surface of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and has been associated with epithelial to mesenchymal transition …

Circular Rna : A Review Of History, Diseases, And Diagnostic Potential, Daniel Conley

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract

Heteromeric Assemblies Of Glua3 Flip And Flop Shows Differences In Their Channel Opening Kinetics, Nicholas Karl

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Prior studies of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors, including that of GluA3 AMPA receptor subunit, have shown that alternative mRNA splicing, which generates flip and flop variants with different amino acid sequences, gives rise to functional differences between the two variants. The goal of this MS thesis is to investigate the basic gating properties of the heteromeric complex channels formed from GluA2R/GluA3 AMPA receptor subunits and the different variants between the two subunits. The hypothesis to be tested is whether different GluA3 variants affect the channel gating properties when each of the variants is in a complex with the Q/R-site edited …

Functional Modulation Of Ampa Receptors By R/G Editing And Auxiliary Subunits, Wei Wen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The propagation of information in the central nervous system is, in essence, the flow of ions. Neurons connect with each other to form neural circuits that perform distinct functions, and these connections are formed through synapses. Excitatory and inhibitory synapses determine the excitability of a neuron, which further dictates the firing of action potentials. The major ion channels that mediate the transmission at the excitatory synapses are ionotropic glutamate receptors, among which AMPA receptors are responsible for the fast excitatory transmission. Therefore, the functionalities of AMPA receptors substantially affect the information flow, and dysfunction of them could potentially cause many …

The Development Of Bioaffinity-Based Concepts For On-Site Forensic Analyses : Blood, Sweat, And ... Fingerprints?, Crystal Huynh

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

There have been many advances in forensic science over the recent years, but a majority of the tests currently preformed are still heavily reliant upon laboratory-based processes. This means that valuable pieces of information are left unexamined until a crime scene has been completely processed and evidence is moved to a crime lab. In some cases, the evidence may even be left in a queue due to backlogs from previous cases. The delay resulting from the time necessary for crime scene processing and transportation, as well as additional time spent waiting on lab equipment availability, hinders an investigator’s ability to …

Retinoic Acid Receptor Isoform-Specific Control Of Mouse Salivary Gland Development And Regeneration, Kara Desantis

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Controlled expansion and differentiation of progenitor cell populations is essential for organogenesis followed by continued maintenance of the population into and through adulthood. As the K5+ basal cell population is regulated by retinoic acid signaling, we interrogated the contribution of specific RAR isoforms to the regulation of these cells during submandibular salivary gland (SMG) organogenesis and regeneration. Retinoic acid has previously been shown to be involved in the development of the salivary gland, and recently, lack of retinoid signaling has been shown to impact the K5+ population of basal progenitor cells. Since retinoic acid is known to exert stimulatory effects …

Genetically Engineered Polypeptides As Biomimetic Light Harvesting Optical Antenna, Jason P. Seeley

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Natural resources useful for the generation of energy are limited. The development of efficient materials capable of utilizing the abundant free solar radiation is of considerable interest. Utilization of otherwise wasted energy sources, including solar radiation, is a progressive step in the quest for sustainable energy. Solar radiation incident upon the earth’s surface exceeds current energy requirements and motivates scientists to investigate and develop functional devices and nanomaterials including light harvesting complexes (LHC) capable of capturing solar radiation for energy conversion and storage.

Complete Genome Sequence Of Moraxella Bovis Strain Epp-63 (300), An Etiologic Agent Of Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis, John Dustin Loy, Aaron M. Dickey, Michael L. Clawson

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

We report here the complete closed genome sequence of Moraxella bovis strain Epp-63 (300) (Epp63). This strain was isolated from an infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK) case in 1963. Since then, Epp63 has been used extensively for IBK research. Consequently, the genome sequence of Epp63 should help elucidate IBK host-pathogen interactions.

Methionine Sulfoximine: A Novel Anti Inflammatory Agent, Tyler Peters

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

METHIONINE SULFOXIMINE: A NOVEL ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AGENT

by

TYLER J. PETERS

October 2018

Advisor: William Brusilow

Major: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

The glutamine synthetase inhibitor methionine sulfoximine (MSO), shown previously to prevent death caused by an inflammatory liver response in mice, was tested on in vitro production of cytokines by mouse peritoneal macrophages triggered with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). MSO significantly reduced the production of Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha (TNFα) at 4 and 6 hours after LPS-treatment. This reduction did not result from decreased transcription of IL-6 and TNFα genes, and therefore appeared to …

Computational Design Of Levansucrase For Production Of Tailor-Made Length Levan-Type Fructo-Oligosaccharides, Pongsakorn Kanjanatanin

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Levansucrase (LS) is an exocellular fructosyltransferase catalyzing the hydrolysis of sucrose and polymerization of levan and levan-type fructo-oligosaccharides (LFOs) that have various potentials in pharmaceutical and biological applications such as prebiotics and anticancer agents. LFOs with the chain length of 5 (LFO5 or GF4) showed inhibition activity against the SW480 colorectal cell lines up to about 83%. Although LFO5 has beneficial properties, the ability to produce LFO5 in large quantity is still limited. This study aimed to explore conformational diversity and elucidate the structural and molecular properties of LFO5, LFO10 and LFO15 as well as to redesign the active site …

The Distinction Of The Interactions Between The Transmembrane Domains Of Basigin Gene Products And Monocarboxylate Transporters, Joseph D. Fong

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although it was once thought that neurons solely rely on glucose as a substrate for cellular energy production, it is now known that small monocarboxylate molecules, like pyruvate, lactate, and ketone bodies, are also utilized. Monocarboxylates are transported across plasma membranes via facilitated diffusion using a family of transport proteins known as monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs). Four MCTs (MCT1, MCT2, MCT3, and MCT4) are expressed within neural tissues. Expression of the MCTs has been tied to co-expression of a cell adhesion molecule belonging to the Basigin subset of the immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF). Basigin gene products are known to interact with MCT1 …

Implementation And Performance Comparison Of Some Heuristic Algorithms For Block Sorting, Sandhya Turlapaty

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An implementation framework has been developed in this thesis for a well-known APX-hard combinatorial optimization problem known as Block Sorting. The motivation for the study of this problem comes from applications such as computational biology and optical character recognition. While existing Block Sorting research has been theoretically focused on the development and analysis of several approximation algorithms for Block Sorting, little or no work has been carried out thus far on the implementation of the proposed approximation algorithms. The conceptualization of an implementation framework and illustrating its use by experimenting with the existing approximation algorithms will provide means for discovering …

Avicin Is A Potent Sphingomyelinase Inhibitor That Blocks K-Ras Plasma Membrane Interaction And Its Oncogenic Activity, Christian M. Garrido

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Ras proteins are small GTPases that regulate cell growth, differentiation and apoptosis. There are three main isoforms: H-, N-, and K-Ras in mammalian cells, and they cycle between an active GTP- and inactive GDP-bound states. Constitutively active Ras mutations are found in ~15% of all human cancers. Of those, oncogenic K-Ras is found in ~98% of pancreatic, ~52% colorectal, and ~32% of lung cancers. In nearly 30 years since its discovery, there are no anti-K-Ras drugs currently available for clinical use. Since K-Ras must be localized to the plasma membrane (PM) for its full biological activity, targeting K-Ras PM interaction …

A Novel Method To Analyze Dna Breaks And Repair In Human Cells, Caitlin Elizabeth Goodman

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Microsatellites repeat sequences are prone to forming non-canonical DNA structures and mutations. These areas of the genome can undergo expansions and contractions and are responsible for a variety of inherited neurological and neuromuscular disorders. Hairpin structures formed by trinucleotide repeats can lead to replication fork stalling, and fork collapse causing DNA double strand breaks. Various mechanisms are involved in processing microsatellites including mismatch repair, base excision repair, and crossover junction endonuclease cleavage. These processes, which are supposed to protect the genome, could also be the culprits which are causing mutations. In order to test and study this hypothesis, the use …