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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Improved Computational Prediction Of Function And Structural Representation Of Self-Cleaving Ribozymes With Enhanced Parameter Selection And Library Design, James D. Beck
Boise State University Theses and Dissertations
Biomolecules could be engineered to solve many societal challenges, including disease diagnosis and treatment, environmental sustainability, and food security. However, our limited understanding of how mutational variants alter molecular structures and functional performance has constrained the potential of important technological advances, such as high-throughput sequencing and gene editing. Ribonuleic Acid (RNA) sequences are thought to play a central role within many of these challenges. Their continual discovery throughout all domains of life is evidence of their significant biological importance (Weinreb et al., 2016). The self-cleaving ribozyme is a class of noncoding Ribonuleic Acid (ncRNA) that has been useful for …
Developing Ultra-High Throughput Sequencing Based Assay For Ligase Ribozymes For The Study Of Evolutionary Innovations, James Collet
Developing Ultra-High Throughput Sequencing Based Assay For Ligase Ribozymes For The Study Of Evolutionary Innovations, James Collet
Boise State University Theses and Dissertations
The study of evolutionary innovations, or novel traits, is integral to understanding evolution yet is poorly understood. By studying the regions between genotype networks that produce the same phenotype, we can better characterize the process by which innovation occurs. The overarching goal of this study is to assign fitness values to the overlapping genotype network of two catalytic RNA molecules, or ribozymes. Properly characterizing this region requires the study of thousands of individual sequences, which is achievable through the use of high-throughput sequencing analysis. This thesis focuses on developing assays for one of the ribozymes, the ligase ribozyme. Due to …
Empirical Investigations Of Rna Fitness Landscapes: Harnessing The Power Of High-Throughput Sequencing And Evolutionary Simulations, Devin Pratt Bendixsen
Empirical Investigations Of Rna Fitness Landscapes: Harnessing The Power Of High-Throughput Sequencing And Evolutionary Simulations, Devin Pratt Bendixsen
Boise State University Theses and Dissertations
Fitness landscapes or adaptive landscapes represent the mapping of genotype (sequence) to phenotype (function or fitness). Originally proposed as a metaphor to envision evolutionary processes and mutational interactions, the fitness landscape has recently transitioned from theoretical to empirical. This is due in part to advances in DNA synthesis and high-throughput sequencing. This allows for the construction and analysis of empirical fitness landscapes that encompass thousands of genotypes. These landscapes provide tractable insight into mutational pathways, the predictability of evolution or even the evolution of life. RNA enzymes (ribozymes) are an attractive model system for the construction of empirical fitness landscapes. …