DNA is often described as the “blueprint for life”. In eukaryotes this information is contained within linear chromosomes of varying size and number. During cell division, the chromosomes must be faithfully segregated into each daughter cell to avoid disease and sustain life. This process is carried out by the kinetochore...
Molecular chirality plays a critical role in chemistry, biology, and medicine. To study and better understand conformational chirality, it is necessary to obtain structurally interesting molecules that exhibit this form of chirality. Our lab utilizes total synthesis and methodological development to obtain conformationally chiral natural products of interest. We believe...
The sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) shows some of the most derived characteristics of any mammal: a large body size, large brain, complex social organization and a capacity for deep foraging dives that few other marine mammals can match. Despite a history of exploitation that removed hundreds of thousands of individuals,...
The studies described in this thesis were motivated by ongoing efforts to develop lignocellulosic biomass as an efficient and practical source of renewable energy. Enormous problems complicate these efforts to reduce reliance on greenhouse gas-generating fossil fuels. Simply obtaining the fermentable sugars available in the cellulose and hemicellulose components of...
Schistosomiasis afflicts 200 million people and is responsible for 200,000 deaths per year. The infection is caused by a digenean trematode in the genus Schistosoma. The parasite must cycle through both a vertebrate (human) and invertebrate (snail) host to complete the life cycle. My dissertation focuses on the genetic mechanisms...
Non-vascularized hearts of buffalo sculpin (Enophrys bison)
were used to investigate the cardiac toxicity of compounds that
cause methemoglobinemia. The affinity of sculpin cardiac myoglobin
for oxygen (P50 = 1.10 torr at 20 C°, pH 7.8) was lower than that of
mammals studied (P50 = .44 and .76 torr for...
The adenovirus replication origins reside in the inverted terminal
repetition (ITR) sequences. Replication proceeds unidirectionally by a
strand-displacement mechanism from either or both origins to produce
duplex daughter DNA plus a displaced parental strand. The displaced
strand can be duplicated by two different routes. The cis pathway involves
intramolecular hybridization...
For ras gene mutation analysis in the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus
mykiss) model system, a partial trout ras sequence was identified
using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Two synthetic
oligonucleotides based on rat K-ras gene sequence were used as
primers for the PCR procedure. A 90 base pair (bp) sequence,
referred...