Date of Award
4-6-2018
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department
Biology
First Advisor
Peter Lyons
Abstract
Enzymes must fold properly to function. For carboxypeptidases, a prodomain usually assists in this process. However, carboxypeptisdase O (CPO) can fold without one. We hypothesized that this prodigious ability could arise from an amino acid whose fortunate positioning stabilizes its neighbors during folding. We identified four unique, conserved amino acids and mutated them to their equivalent counterpart in CPA, a cousin of CPO, which requires a prodomain. We expressed the mutated genes in mammalian cells and checked for expression by western blotting. Our results indicate that three of four mutations were not expressed, hinting at the possible importance of these sites in the folding of CPO.
Recommended Citation
LaTour, Donn, "Critical Amino Acids for the Folding of Carboxypeptidase O" (2018). Honors Theses. 176.
https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/176/
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/honors/176
Subject Area
Amino acids; Carboxypeptidases
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/176/
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