Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

Loading Peptides Into Dictyostelium Discoideum Using Pinocytosis, Electroporation, Cell Penetrating Peptides, And Myristoylation, Lorena Lazo De La Vega

Senior Theses and Projects

The phospholipid bilayer of the cell is fluid and allows transport of small, hydrophobic compounds across the membrane. However, larger molecules such as peptides cannot cross the bilayer as easily. Therefore, my goal is to identify and optimize a method for loading exogenous peptides, such as reporters, hormones, or drugs, through the cell membrane. For these studies, we are using Dictyostelium discoideum as a model organism to test four peptide loading methods: pinocytosis, electroporation, cell-penetrating peptides and myristoylation. Pinocytosis uses changes in osmotic pressure to load the peptides through vesicles. The cells were exposed to a hypertonic solution for 10 …