Biochemistry Commons^™

Mapping The Effects Of 5’ Untranslated Region Deletions On Translation Of 3a In Bmv Rna3, Courtney Marie Bozman

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Brome mosaic virus (BMV) is a positive sense, single-stranded RNA virus that infects a wide array of plant hosts globally including: wheat, oats, maize, barley, and rye. Since its discovery in the 1940s, BMV has served as a model organism in uncovering the modalities of viral infectivity, composition, translation, and replication. In many viruses, it is typically imperative to recruit cellular machinery to produce viral proteins as their coding capacity is limited. Therefore, there are sequences and structures within the leader sequences allow them to be competitive with the eukaryotic mRNAs. Although BMV has been thoroughly researched in these other …

Biochemical And Biophysical Studies Of Vision Loss: Cataract And Macular Degeneration, Michael C. Vega

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Age-related biochemical and biophysical changes to the structural properties of ocular lens membrane proteins and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells are thought to play an underlying role in the etiology and progression of age-related cataract and macular degeneration. This dissertation work studies biophysical properties of biomimetic membranes to aid in further understanding of the role of aquaporin-0 in cataract pathogenesis and the biochemical composition of age-related pigmented granules, melanolipofuscin, and their implications in macular degeneration.

Cataract is the leading cause of blindness globally and is characterized by the opacification of the ocular lens. As a key optical component of the …