Date of Award
2006
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Chemistry Dept.
Advisor(s)
Frederick J. LaRiviere
Abstract
Nonfunctional ribosomal RNA decay (NRD) is a novel quality control system that eliminates defective ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) from yeast cells. Plasmid-encoded rRNAs containing single nucleotide substitutions in the peptidyl transferase center of 25S rRNA or the decoding center of 18S rRNA are co-expressed with endogenous rRNAs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Quantitative northern blots reveal the steady-state levels of the resulting nonfunctional rRNAs are markedly decreased compared to wild-type rRNAs . Furthermore, the decreased expression is not the result ofdefects in rRNA transcription or processing, but instead is due to decreased stability ofthe mature, nonfunctional rRNAs. Mutations in other functionally important rRNA regions were investigated to determine the magnitude and scope ofsubstrates recognized by NRD . Finally, point mutations in intersubunit bridges (ISBs) were made to determine differences between "functional" and "structural" mutations as they pertain to NRD.
Keywords
RNA -- Stability, Molecular genetics
Recommended Citation
Fowler, Daniel, "Investigating the mechanisms of a novel ribosomal RNA degradation system" (2006). Honors Theses. Paper 89.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/89
Copyright
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Dan Fowler Symposium Poster.pdf (2745 kB)Symposium Poster