Laboratory and Basic Science Research Commons^™

Chaperoning Ef Hands That Shape Calcium Response: Ncald, Hpca And S100b, Jingyi Zhang

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

All organisms have an internal clock with a defined period between repetitions of activities. The period for circadian clock in human is 24.5 hours, while in mouse and rat, it is 23.5 hours. However, all organisms are forced to be in synchronization with their environment. A major environmental force that resets the internal clock to 24 hours is light. This phenomenon is defined as “light entrainment” or “phase-setting”. It is unclear how this entrainment process occurs. Studies from this laboratory indicate a role for two neuronal calcium sensor proteins: Neurocalcin  (NCALD) and S100B. For these two genes, mRNA as …

Understanding The Differences Between Neuronal Calcium Sensor Proteins: A Comparison Of Neurocalcin Delta And Hippocalcin, Jeffrey M. Viviano

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Many neuronal functions, including learning and memory are driven by changes in intracellular Ca2+concentrations. The Neuronal Calcium Sensor (NCS) family of proteins is responsible for mediating the response to calcium. They are typically comprised of 4 EF hands; of which EF 2, 3, and 4 bind calcium.

Hypothesis: NCS proteins carry out unique, non-overlapping functions, and that specific characteristics of the family can be mapped to precise regions of the proteins.

Results: The effect on the following properties were investigated primarily on two highly similar NCS proteins, Neurocalcin Delta (NCALD) and Hippocalcin (HPCA): (1) Response to calcium was determined through …