Histones are presumed to be of chromosomal origin and provide
both structural and functional elements for chromatin. In like
manner the ribosomal proteins are of ribosomal origin and have
analogous roles. Considerable controversy over their cellular roles
exists because of the inability to compare directly both groups of
proteins. In...
This study investigated some functional and
biochemical characteristics of a bacteriolytic protein in
the salivary glands of adult Aedes aecupti. A method for
the isolation of this protein from other mosquito salivary
gland components is also described. Based on some of its
biochemical properties, this bacteriolytic protein can be
classified...
The role of viral proteins in the pathogenesis of infectious hematopoietic necrosis
virus (IHNV) was studied at the molecular level. The expression of the viral genes at the
protein and RNA level, and their cellular localization, were characterized to further our
understanding of viral pathogenesis. The pathogenic effect of individual...
Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), a member of the thioredoxin superfamily, contains two domains with significant sequence homology to the active sites in thioredoxin. PDI facilitates the folding of nascent proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), binds hormones and Ca²⁺, catalyzes the glutathione dependent reduction of dehydroascorbate, serves as a major...
The objectives of this study were to evaluate the feeding value
and potential toxicity of single cell protein (SCP) when fed to
ruminants.
Three in vivo digestibility trials with lambs, one feedlot trial
with steers and one long term feeding trial of high levels of SCP with
sheep were conducted...
Escherichia coli 16S-like ribosomal RNAs from
eubacterial, archaebacterial and eukaryotic organisms have
several universally conserved sequence zones which are
proposed to be single-stranded. A clear function for all
of these regions has not yet been defined. To evaluate the
roles of these sequence zones in protein synthesis,
knowledge of their...
The acute phase response (APR) includes an early response of the innate immune
system to an inflammatory agent. Acute phase proteins (APP) are produced at
increased rates in the liver during this response. The APR has been well
characterized in mammals, but it is unclear to what degree teleosts mount...
These studies focused on maximizing the nutrition and safety of raw whole
muscle beef while minimizing quality and shelf-life alteration. The first study used
response surface methodology to predict fluid loss from injected beef strip loins and
steaks as influenced by levels of salt and sodium phosphates (SP) in the...
Streptococcus gordonii is a bacterial species that naturally colonizes the oral cavity of most healthy humans. It resides in the mouth as an adherent to dental surfaces and, with few exceptions, does not cause disease in individuals it inhabits. It possesses qualities that encourage its use as a vector to...
Mitochondria provide energy for biological cells to function, but this process is also a source of oxygen radicals that are capable of damaging nearby proteins. Mitochondrial protein damage can eventually lead to cell death, especially in the case of heart cells, where mitochondria are present in the highest concentrations. As...
Glutathione, a ubiquitous intracellular tripeptide, protects cells by reacting with electrophiles and radicals that can damage cellular macromolecules. However, glutathione conjugation is now recognized as one mechanism by which drugs and xenobiotics can also be converted to reactive intermediates having toxic consequences to cells. The halogenated alkane 1,2-dichloroethane forms S-(2-chloroethyl)...
Because of large declines in abundance of many Eastern Pacific rockfish populations (Genus Sebastes), there has been an increasing effort to improve our understanding of the role of spawning population characteristics and individual reproductive success in recruitment variability and population dynamics. Current methods for assessing sex and maturational status in...
Plants develop a vast array of cell shapes and sizes by selectively modifying their surrounding cell walls to expand in some regions and not in others. This process of morphogenesis requires the delivery of secretory vesicles to specific locations at the cell periphery, where exocytosis adds new membrane and proteins...
Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular bacteria that infect a variety of
eukaryotic hosts and affect normal host processes. Within host cells, their
developmental cycle takes place inside non-acidified vacuoles termed inclusions. An
inclusion membrane composed primarily of secreted chlamydial synthesized proteins
called Incs encloses the inclusion. At this location, Incs have...
The thesis begins with an introduction to signal transduction
and an analysis of current understanding of plant signal
transduction. There are similarities between plants and animals,
but also key differences, including lack of protein kinase C and of a
cAMP signaling pathway in plants, and presence in plants of
calcium...
This thesis involves analyses of 3₂-helices, a-helices and of the change in residual
entropy of a protein upon chemical modification. Part of the long-term goal of
understanding the formation, function and stability of proteins requires that all
conformations be accurately assigned and structurally understood. By a statistical
analysis of 258...
Protein kinases are an abundant class of enzymes which play important roles in numerous signal transduction systems. Arabidopsis TOUSLED kinase is a serine/threonine kinase which is essential for cell-cell communication within the shoot meristem. TOUSLED is encoded by a single gene in Arabidopsis. Recessive mutants in this gene show mild...
Surimi is a seafood product which is used to manufacture restructured products
such as artificial crab and lobster. Surimi is produced from fish fillets by washing to
remove sarcoplasmic proteins and increase the concentration of myofibrillar proteins, and
mixing with cryoprotectants. A valuable attribute of surimi is its ability to...
While microbial colonization of wood is presumed to be characterized by a myriad of interactions between numerous organisms, studying these processes is often difficult owing to the opaque nature of the wood and the inability to readily distinguish among the many species colonizing the material. One method for enhancing the...
These studies were conducted to examine the
influence of several variables on the growth hormone binding
protein (GHBP) in serum of pigs. Continuous long term
porcine somatotropin (pST) injections (daily for 6-7 wk)
increased GHBP activity (p < .05). However, periodic short
term pST injections (daily, every second d or...
Spores of foodborne pathogens such as Clostridium botulinum, Clostridium perfringens and Bacillus cereus are widely distributed in nature. Presence of those spores in food products, particularly C. botulinum spores in vacuum packed, ready-to-eat low-acid products, is a great safety concern. The research here described is a first effort towards understanding...
In order to better characterize linker histone interactions with DNA, avian erythrocyte-specific linker H5 and the trypsin-resistant globular domain of H5 (GH5) were used in DNA binding studies. To begin, H5 displayed a considerably higher binding
affinity for DNA than the isolated globular domain (GH5), supporting the importance of the...
A novel method for isolating fish proteins by shifting pH to high acid or high alkali pH was the focus of the study. Biochemical and physicochemical properties of various pH-treated soluble fish proteins as a function of ionic strength were determined. Effect of ionic strength and various storage conditions on...
There are presently two successful methods used to refine fish muscle proteins: surimi and fish protein isolate (FPI). Both surimi and FPI have the ability to form an elastic gel upon comminution and heating. However, their gelation behaviors are different as they are refined in a biochemically opposite way based...
PCR-based codon-specific random mutagenesis and site-specific mutagenesis were performed to construct a library of 18 amino acid changes at Arg276 in the conserved leucine-loop of the core catalytic domain of human uracil-DNA glycosylase (UNG). Each Arg276 mutant was then overproduced in E. coli cells and purified to apparent homogeneity by...
Plant viruses have been instrumental in our understanding of the biophysical properties pertaining to non-enveloped icosahedral virus particles. A substantial amount of research has been performed over five decades on Turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV), arguably one of the most extensively studied icosahedral plant viruses and the type-member of the...
A four months continuous feeding trial was conducted
to evaluate Canola meal as a single protein supplement in
complete dairy rations. Thirty high producing Holstein
cows in the second week of lactation were randomly alloted
in groups of ten to one of three isonitrogenous (15% CP)
and isocaloric (1.6 Mcal/kg...
In this dissertation, I describe the experimental investigation of catching ions in superfluid helium droplets. The ultimate goal of our project is to build a coherent electron diffraction apparatus for atomic structure determination from oriented single macromolecules. This involves generating protein ions from electrospray ionization (ESI) and doping them in...
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) and abdominal obesity (AbOb) increase the risk of
developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Energy restriction (ER), highprotein
(PRO) intake and high-intensity interval training (HIT) can independently
improve MetS and AbOb. However, ER reduces metabolically active lean body
mass (LBM) in addition to body fat (BF). Purpose: To...
Hard white winter (HVVW) wheat cultivars must have superior protein quality and consistent processing quality to be successful in the Asian market. New cultivars and management strategies are needed to produce HVVW grain for both bread and noodle applications from diverse environments in the US Pacific Northwest (PNW). This study...
The sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, caused by the Gram-negative bacterium and obligate human pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae, remains a significant health and economic burden worldwide. In the absence of a protective vaccine, antimicrobial agents are the only pharmacological intervention for patients with gonorrhea. However, due to the remarkable ability of gonococcus...
In recent years, the general public has recognized the dangers of a high fat diet and
are demanding meat with lower fat content. This demand has stimulated research in the
growth and regulation of adipocytes. However, despite much effort, no adipocyte-specific
plasma membrane markers from any species are available as...
C. perfringens is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, anaerobic pathogenic
bacterium capable of causing a wide variety of diseases in both humans and animals.
However, the two most common illnesses in humans are C. perfringens type A food
poisoning (FP) and non-food-borne (NFB) gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses . These two
major diseases are...
A novel protocol for the study of protein-nucleic acid interactions is presented and demonstrated
to be feasible. The protocol combines photochemical crosslinking techniques and mass
spectrometric methods into a new strategy for identifying protein domains or amino acid residues
that are in close contact with nucleic acid in protein-nucleic acid...
Effects of moisture content, pH, and salt concentration on dynamic rheological properties and gel fracture quality of Pacific whiting surimi were investigated. Torsion tests showed that shear stress decreased rapidly and strain values decreased gradually as moisture concentration increased. As pH increased, fracture shear stress and strain values increased, whereas...
The collagen content and composition of collagens in
different age classes of shrimp were determined. Their
physical and chemical characteristics were investigated.
The interrelationship of shrimp size and muscle collagen
content to raw and cooked meat yield was established.
Total collagen content for three lots of round shrimp
with weights...
CTIP2 is a C2H2 zinc finger transcription factor that plays important yet poorly understood roles in mouse development. CTIP2 is known to be highly expressed in the central nervous system, skin and T lymphocytes during embryogenesis. CTIP2-null mice die perinatally of unknown causes and exhibit defects in multiple organ systems...
Cells represent microcosms of spatial and temporal structural organization, with the achievement of internal spatial organization relying upon a collection of macromolecular motor complexes to transport and localize components throughout the cell. Cytoplasmic dynein is one such motor complex, and is the principal ATP-dependent motor for retrograde transport along microtubules...
This dissertation describes the cloning and characterization of the TOUSLEDlike kinases genes of maize (ZmTLKs). The TOUSLED-like kinases (TLKs) are a conserved family of nuclear Ser/Thr kinases in higher eukaryotes. The maize genome has three TOUSLED-like kinase genes (ZmTLK1, ZmTLK2, and ZmTLK3). Based upon sequence similarity, the ZmTLKs are divided...
In order to produce infectious virus progeny, vaccinia virus (VV)
undergoes morphogenic proteolysis to regulate the structural rearrangements of
virus particles. Several of the major structural precursor proteins of VV are
cleaved at a conserved Ala-Gly-X (where X is any amino acid) motif by the VV
I7L core protein proteinase...
Four agronomically and genetically diverse spring
barleys were used in a crossing program to study the
inheritance of lysine in barley and to determine its
possible association with certain agronomic and morphological
characters. The cultivar Hiproly was used as the
source of high protein and lysine. Characters measured
included plant...
Dysfunction of mitochondria has been linked to aging and the pathogenesis of many degenerative diseases. Aside from their primary function in energy production, mitochondria are considered as a major source and target of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) in cells as well. The mitochondrial thiol proteome is a subset...