Matching Items (7)
Filtering by

Clear all filters

136118-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Nucleic acids encode the information required to create life, and polymerases are the gatekeepers charged with maintaining the storage and flow of this genetic information. Synthetic biologists utilize this universal property to modify organisms and other systems to create unique traits or improve the function of others. One of the

Nucleic acids encode the information required to create life, and polymerases are the gatekeepers charged with maintaining the storage and flow of this genetic information. Synthetic biologists utilize this universal property to modify organisms and other systems to create unique traits or improve the function of others. One of the many realms in synthetic biology involves the study of biopolymers that do not exist naturally, which is known as xenobiology. Although life depends on two biopolymers for genetic storage, it may be possible that alternative molecules (xenonucleic acids – XNAs), could be used in their place in either a living or non-living system. However, implementation of an XNA based system requires the development of polymerases that can encode and decode information stored in these artificial polymers. A strategy called directed evolution is used to modify or alter the function of a protein of interest, but identifying mutations that can modify polymerase function is made problematic by their size and overall complexity. To reduce the amount of sequence space that needs to be samples when attempting to identify polymerase variants, we can try to make informed decisions about which amino acid residues may have functional roles in catalysis. An analysis of Family B polymerases has shown that residues which are involved in substrate specificity are often highly conserved both at the sequence and structure level. In order to validate the hypothesis that a strong correlation exists between structural conservation and catalytic activity, we have selected and mutated residues in the 9°N polymerase using a loss of function mutagenesis strategy based on a computational analysis of several homologues from a diverse range of taxa. Improvement of these models will hopefully lead to quicker identification of loci which are ideal engineering targets.
ContributorsHaeberle, Tyler Matthew (Author) / Chaput, John (Thesis director) / Chen, Julian (Committee member) / Larsen, Andrew (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
136133-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Currently in synthetic biology only the Las, Lux, and Rhl quorum sensing pathways have been adapted for broad engineering use. Quorum sensing allows a means of cell to cell communication in which a designated sender cell produces quorum sensing molecules that modify gene expression of a designated receiver cell. While

Currently in synthetic biology only the Las, Lux, and Rhl quorum sensing pathways have been adapted for broad engineering use. Quorum sensing allows a means of cell to cell communication in which a designated sender cell produces quorum sensing molecules that modify gene expression of a designated receiver cell. While useful, these three quorum sensing pathways exhibit a nontrivial level of crosstalk, hindering robust engineering and leading to unexpected effects in a given design. To address the lack of orthogonality among these three quorum sensing pathways, previous scientists have attempted to perform directed evolution on components of the quorum sensing pathway. While a powerful tool, directed evolution is limited by the subspace that is defined by the protein. For this reason, we take an evolutionary biology approach to identify new orthogonal quorum sensing networks and test these networks for cross-talk with currently-used networks. By charting characteristics of acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) molecules used across quorum sensing pathways in nature, we have identified favorable candidate pathways likely to display orthogonality. These include Aub, Bja, Bra, Cer, Esa, Las, Lux, Rhl, Rpa, and Sin, which we have begun constructing and testing. Our synthetic circuits express GFP in response to a quorum sensing molecule, allowing quantitative measurement of orthogonality between pairs. By determining orthogonal quorum sensing pairs, we hope to identify and adapt novel quorum sensing pathways for robust use in higher-order genetic circuits.
ContributorsMuller, Ryan (Author) / Haynes, Karmella (Thesis director) / Wang, Xiao (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
132081-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are a superfamily of ion channels found in plasma membranes of both single-celled and multicellular organisms. TRP channels all share the common aspect of having six transmembrane helices and a TRP domain. These structures tetramerize to form a receptor-activated non-selective ion channel. The specific protein

Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are a superfamily of ion channels found in plasma membranes of both single-celled and multicellular organisms. TRP channels all share the common aspect of having six transmembrane helices and a TRP domain. These structures tetramerize to form a receptor-activated non-selective ion channel. The specific protein being investigated in this thesis is the human transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (hTRPM8), a channel activated by the chemical ligand menthol and temperatures below 25 °C. TRPM8 is responsible for cold sensing and is related to pain relief associated with cooling compounds. TRPM8 has also been found to play a role in the regulation of various types of tumors. The structure of TRPM8 has been obtained through cryo-electron microscopy, but the functional contribution of individual portions of the protein to the overall protein function is unknown.
To gain more information about the function of the transmembrane region of hTRPM8, it was expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli) and purified in detergent membrane mimics for experimentation. The construct contains the S4-S5 linker, pore domain (S5 and S6 transmembrane helices), pore helix, and TRP box. hTRPM8-PD+ was purified in the detergents n-Dodecyl-B-D-Maltoside (DDM), 16:0 Lyso PG, 1-Palmitoyl-2-hydroxy-sn-glycero-3-phosphoglycerol (LPPG), and 14:0 Lyso PG, 1-Myristoyl-2-hydroxy-sn-glycero-3-phosphoglycerol (LMPG) to determine which detergent resulted in a hTRPM8-PD+ sample of the most stability, purity, and highest concentrations. Following bacterial expression and protein purification, hTRPM8-PD+ was studied and characterized with circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy to learn more about the secondary structures and thermodynamic properties of the construct. Further studies can be done with more circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, planar lipid bilayer (BLM) electrophysiology, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) to gain more understanding of how the pore domain plus contributes to the activity of the whole protein construct.
ContributorsMorelan, Danielle Taylor (Co-author) / Morelan, Danielle (Co-author) / Van Horn, Wade (Thesis director) / Chen, Julian (Committee member) / Luu, Dustin (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
Industries and research utilizing genetically-engineered organisms are often subject to strict containment requirements such as physical isolation or specialized equipment to prevent an unintended escape. A relatively new field of research looks for ways to engineer intrinsic containment techniques- genetic safeguards that prevent an organism from surviving outside of specific

Industries and research utilizing genetically-engineered organisms are often subject to strict containment requirements such as physical isolation or specialized equipment to prevent an unintended escape. A relatively new field of research looks for ways to engineer intrinsic containment techniques- genetic safeguards that prevent an organism from surviving outside of specific conditions. As interest in this field has grown over the last few decades, researchers in molecular and synthetic biology have discovered many novel ways to accomplish this containment, but the current literature faces some ambiguity and overlap in the ways they describe various biocontainment methods. Additionally, the way publications report the robustness of the techniques they test is inconsistent, making it uncertain how regulators could assess the safety and efficacy of these methods if they are eventually to be used in practical, consumer applications. This project organizes and clarifies the descriptions of these techniques within an interactive flowchart, linking to definitions and references to publications on each within an Excel table. For each reference, variables such as the containment approach, testing methods, and results reported are compiled, to illustrate the varying degrees to which these techniques are tested.
ContributorsDilly, Leon (Author) / Frow, Emma (Thesis director) / Vogel, Kathleen (Committee member) / Gillum, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor)
Created2022-05
165210-Thumbnail Image.png
Description

Industries and research utilizing genetically-engineered organisms are often subject to strict containment requirements such as physical isolation or specialized equipment to prevent an unintended escape. A relatively new field of research looks for ways to engineer intrinsic containment techniques- genetic safeguards that prevent an organism from surviving outside of specific

Industries and research utilizing genetically-engineered organisms are often subject to strict containment requirements such as physical isolation or specialized equipment to prevent an unintended escape. A relatively new field of research looks for ways to engineer intrinsic containment techniques- genetic safeguards that prevent an organism from surviving outside of specific conditions. As interest in this field has grown over the last few decades, researchers in molecular and synthetic biology have discovered many novel ways to accomplish this containment, but the current literature faces some ambiguity and overlap in the ways they describe various biocontainment methods. Additionally, the way publications report the robustness of the techniques they test is inconsistent, making it uncertain how regulators could assess the safety and efficacy of these methods if they are eventually to be used in practical, consumer applications. This project organizes and clarifies the descriptions of these techniques within an interactive flowchart, linking to definitions and references to publications on each within an Excel table. For each reference, variables such as the containment approach, testing methods, and results reported are compiled, to illustrate the varying degrees to which these techniques are tested.

ContributorsDilly, Leon (Author) / Frow, Emma (Thesis director) / Vogel, Kathleen (Committee member) / Gillum, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-05
165211-Thumbnail Image.png
Description

Industries and research utilizing genetically-engineered organisms are often subject to strict containment requirements such as physical isolation or specialized equipment to prevent an unintended escape. A relatively new field of research looks for ways to engineer intrinsic containment techniques- genetic safeguards that prevent an organism from surviving outside of specific

Industries and research utilizing genetically-engineered organisms are often subject to strict containment requirements such as physical isolation or specialized equipment to prevent an unintended escape. A relatively new field of research looks for ways to engineer intrinsic containment techniques- genetic safeguards that prevent an organism from surviving outside of specific conditions. As interest in this field has grown over the last few decades, researchers in molecular and synthetic biology have discovered many novel ways to accomplish this containment, but the current literature faces some ambiguity and overlap in the ways they describe various biocontainment methods. Additionally, the way publications report the robustness of the techniques they test is inconsistent, making it uncertain how regulators could assess the safety and efficacy of these methods if they are eventually to be used in practical, consumer applications. This project organizes and clarifies the descriptions of these techniques within an interactive flowchart, linking to definitions and references to publications on each within an Excel table. For each reference, variables such as the containment approach, testing methods, and results reported are compiled, to illustrate the varying degrees to which these techniques are tested.

ContributorsDilly, Leon (Author) / Frow, Emma (Thesis director) / Vogel, Kathleen (Committee member) / Gillum, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-05
165212-Thumbnail Image.png
Description

Industries and research utilizing genetically-engineered organisms are often subject to strict containment requirements such as physical isolation or specialized equipment to prevent an unintended escape. A relatively new field of research looks for ways to engineer intrinsic containment techniques- genetic safeguards that prevent an organism from surviving outside of specific

Industries and research utilizing genetically-engineered organisms are often subject to strict containment requirements such as physical isolation or specialized equipment to prevent an unintended escape. A relatively new field of research looks for ways to engineer intrinsic containment techniques- genetic safeguards that prevent an organism from surviving outside of specific conditions. As interest in this field has grown over the last few decades, researchers in molecular and synthetic biology have discovered many novel ways to accomplish this containment, but the current literature faces some ambiguity and overlap in the ways they describe various biocontainment methods. Additionally, the way publications report the robustness of the techniques they test is inconsistent, making it uncertain how regulators could assess the safety and efficacy of these methods if they are eventually to be used in practical, consumer applications. This project organizes and clarifies the descriptions of these techniques within an interactive flowchart, linking to definitions and references to publications on each within an Excel table. For each reference, variables such as the containment approach, testing methods, and results reported are compiled, to illustrate the varying degrees to which these techniques are tested.

ContributorsDilly, Leon (Author) / Frow, Emma (Thesis director) / Vogel, Kathleen (Committee member) / Gillum, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-05