Date of Graduation

5-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Biological Sciences

Advisor/Mentor

Lewis, Jeffrey

Committee Member/Reader

Johanna, Thomas

Committee Member/Second Reader

Lessner, Dan

Committee Member/Third Reader

Fan, Chenguang

Abstract

Organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae can regulate the mechanisms of proteins through post-translational modification. These modifications play a vital role in functional proteomic activity because they can regulate protein activity, localization, and interaction with other cellular molecules. Such modifications include phosphorylation, methylation, and acetylation. The metabolic mechanisms of yeast became of keen interest to our lab because our lab noticed many stress defense proteins were being acetylated during stress heat shock. Notably, Adh1p and Adh2p showed both an increase and a decrease in acetylation at two lysine residues (K315 and K314) overtime during heat shock respectively, though the exact function of this acetylation pattern is unknown. To determine the effect acetylation has on Adhp activity, I conducted growth mutations of mimetic strains at normal temperature and heat shock. By having a better understanding of this, my project may provide novel insights into how lysine acetylation affects the capability of yeast to adapt to heat shock. Adh is also conserved in other species, so learning new information about the Adh enzymes has implications for human disease and even pathogenesis.

Keywords

Adh, Yeast, Heat shock, stress, acetylation, metabolism

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