Barrett

Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.

Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.

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miRNA Targeting: In depth review of biologically significant mechanisms and a bioinformatic approach to identifying targeting sequences in C. elegans

Description
microRNAs (miRNAs) are short ~22nt non-coding RNAs that regulate gene output at the post-transcriptional level. Via targeting of degenerate elements primarily in 3'untranslated regions (3'UTR) of mRNAs, miRNAs can target thousands of varying genes and suppress their protein translation. The precise mechanistic function and bio- logical role of miRNAs is…

microRNAs (miRNAs) are short ~22nt non-coding RNAs that regulate gene output at the post-transcriptional level. Via targeting of degenerate elements primarily in 3'untranslated regions (3'UTR) of mRNAs, miRNAs can target thousands of varying genes and suppress their protein translation. The precise mechanistic function and bio- logical role of miRNAs is not fully understood and yet it is a major contributor to a pleth- ora of diseases, including neurological disorders, muscular disorders, and cancer. Cer- tain model organisms are valuable in understanding the function of miRNA and there- fore fully understanding the biological significance of miRNA targeting. Here I report a mechanistic analysis of miRNA targeting in C. elegans, and a bioinformatic approach to aid in further investigation of miRNA targeted sequences. A few of the biologically significant mechanisms discussed in this thesis include alternative polyadenylation, RNA binding proteins, components of the miRNA recognition machinery, miRNA secondary structures, and their polymorphisms. This thesis also discusses a novel bioinformatic approach to studying miRNA biology, including computational miRNA target prediction software, and sequence complementarity. This thesis allows a better understanding of miRNA biology and presents an ideal strategy for approaching future research in miRNA targeting.
ContributorsWeigele, Dustin Keith (Author) / Mangone, Marco (Thesis director) / Katchman, Benjamin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-12
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High-throughput identification of miRNA targets in the 3`UTRs of the soil nematode C. elegans

Description
miRNAs are short non-coding regulatory RNAs that have an important roles in a wide range of biological processes. Dysfunction of miRNA regulation has also been shown to occur in diseases such as cancer. Despite the widespread influence of miRNAs in these contexts, the vast majority of miRNA targets are poorly…

miRNAs are short non-coding regulatory RNAs that have an important roles in a wide range of biological processes. Dysfunction of miRNA regulation has also been shown to occur in diseases such as cancer. Despite the widespread influence of miRNAs in these contexts, the vast majority of miRNA targets are poorly characterized. The aim of this research project was to gain a better understating of miRNA targeting by using the model organism C. elegans. In order to do this I adapted a novel high-throughput assay to detect miRNA targets for use with the C. elegans 3`UTRome. As a proof of principle I performed this assay on 96 C. elegans 3`UTRs using high-throughput techniques. The results revealed miRNA interactions with two predicted 3`UTR targets for the miRNA lin-4 and ten unpredicted targets. The results also corroborated previous findings that certain worm miRNAs require special modifications to be expressed in human cells.
ContributorsKotagama, Kasuen Indrajith Bandara (Author) / Mangone, Marco (Thesis director) / Anderson, Karen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor)
Created2013-12