Browsing Biological chemistry by Title
Now showing items 51-70 of 122
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From transposon to transcription factor: Genome-wide functional studies of the conserved primate CSB-PGBD3 fusion protein
(2013-02-25)The CSB-PGBD3 fusion protein arose over 43 million years ago when a 2.5 kb piggyBac 3 (PGBD3) transposon inserted into intron 5 of the Cockayne syndrome Group B (CSB) gene in the common ancestor of all higher primates. As ... -
Functional Interactions of E2~Ubiquitin Conjugates in and outside the Ubiquitination Pathway
(2013-04-17)Thirty years of research have implicated ubiquitin (Ub) signaling in nearly every aspect of eukaryotic cell biology. What appears to be a simple signaling molecule in fact has the ability to encode countless cellular fates ... -
Identification, interactions, and specificity of a novel MAP kinase kinase, MKK7
(1999)The mitogen activated protein kinase (MAP kinase) cascade has emerged as an evolutionarily conserved element in the transduction of a wide variety of extracellular signals. In mammals, at least three distinct pathways have ... -
Identifying substrate and E2 interactions of the BRCA1/BARD1 ubiquitin ligase
(2007)My thesis project addresses the need to understand the function of the Breast Cancer Susceptibility Protein, BRCA1, during the process of protein ubiquitination. A significant number of known cancer predisposing mutations ... -
Improving The Energy Function Used In Rosetta For Protein Structure Prediction and Design
Protein structure prediction and design relies on conformational sampling and scoring to uncover a global energy minimum. While it is critical to have an accurate energy function for efficient and precise modeling, the ... -
In silico protein evolution by intelligent design: creating new and improved protein structures
(2005)Natural proteins perform a startling diversity of biological functions, but comprise a miniscule fraction of the theoretical sequence-structure space that polypeptides might occupy. The goal of protein design is to identify ... -
Influence of Protein Environment on Tryptophan Fluorescence
(2012-09-13)Tryptophan fluorescence is often used as a probe of protein structure. One example of this involved the study how a mutation in catechol O-methyltrasferase produces a less stable protein. Other examples of the use of ... -
Influences of Calcium and Oxygen on Retinal Metabolism
Photoreceptors require an excessive amount of energy to carry out their function, yet their access to the nutrients and oxygen which could facilitate efficient ATP production is restricted by neighboring retinal pigment ... -
Innate and humoral immune responses to HIV-1
(2014-02-24)Understanding cellular and humoral immune responses to HIV-1 infection and designed HIV immunogens are imperative to the development of an effective anti-HIV vaccine. In this thesis we investigate aspects of both the ... -
Insight from designing ideal αβ monomers and homo-oligomers
Previously, general principles relating secondary structure patterns to tertiary packing motifs enable design of different protein topologies stabilized by consistent local and non-local interactions. With the goal to ... -
Insights from a metabolic chimera: Pyruvate Kinase and Aspartate-Glutamate Carrier distributions reveal key metabolic links between Neurons and Glia in the retina.
The development of ophthalmology and vision research has established an abundance of knowledge on the process of vision. The study of the retina has contributed information about neuronal and biochemical signaling mechanisms ... -
Insights into the molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial outer membrane tethering and fusion
Mitochondrial dynamics are crucial for cellular health as perturbations in these processes which include mitochondrial fusion, division, transport and mitophagy are associated with numerous diseases, cancer and neurodegeneration. ... -
Interplay of Local Structure, Dynamics, and Self-Association in HSPB1
Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) comprise a class of ATP-independent chaperones that prevent aggregation of destabilized proteins in the cell. The structural mechanisms by which sHSPs complete their function remain ... -
Investigating the structure of macromolecular complexes and membrane proteins using transmission electron microscopy
(2013-07-25)Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has provided atomic resolution details regarding the biological processes that give rise to life. The work presented here focuses on the application of TEM for studying membrane ... -
Kinetochore-microtubule coupling and its regulation during mitosis
(2014-04-30)The coupling of kinetochores to dynamic spindle microtubules is crucial for chromosome positioning and segregation, error correction, and cell cycle progression. This linkage depends on the Ndc80 complex, a conserved and ... -
Mechanism of SspH1: A Bacterial Effector Ubiquitin Ligase Hijacks the Eukaryotic Ubiquitylation Pathway
Bacterial effector proteins promote the pathogenicity of bacteria by interacting with host cell proteins and modulating signaling pathways in the host cell. Some bacterial effectors hijack the eukaryotic ubiquitylation ... -
Metabolic and Epigenetic Regulation in Development and in Embryonic Diapause
Embryonic diapause is a state of dormancy that interrupts the normally tight connection between developmental stage and time. Regulation of this dormant state, however, is poorly understood. To better understand the processes ... -
Metabolic function in the ocular ecosystem relies on interactions between the retina and retinal pigment epithelium and remains robust in aging
The vertebrate eye is a unique ecosystem comprised of a myriad of different cells that all function in concert to facilitate vision. The electrical signal in the eye that is transmitted to the brain begins with the retina, ... -
Microtubule attachment and regulation mechanisms of the budding yeast kinetochore
Strong kinetochore-microtubule attachments are essential for faithful segregation of sister chromatids during mitosis. The Dam1 and Ndc80 complexes are the main microtubule binding components of the budding yeast kinetochore. ...