This fundamental lab knowledge will be useful in the future. Aiko McGlynn is a senior microbiology major from Orlando. McGlynn entered the University Scholars Program because she wanted to pursue in-depth lab work and delve deeper into her upper division courses. A volunteer at Shands, McGlynn has also made the Dean's List. The proteins and galuran, stored in and developed from prespore vesicles, become associated with either the outer or inner layers, while the cellulose, polymerized and extruded across the plasma membrane, becomes the middle layer.
Unicorporated proteins accumulate in the interspore matrix, the space between neighboring spores.
Our focus has been on the coat protein SP85, which was found to bind to cellulose in isolation. SP85 appears to be a modular protein with multiple binding functions that cross-link other proteins such as SP65, Sp60, and SP70, to contribute to the coat barrier function. Transformants were screened via Western blotting with mouse antibodies 9E10, CT7, and NT7 to identify true expressors. Upon attaining all desired transformants, we will be able to locate cellulose binding domains, and also investigate the proteins interactions within a cellulose negative mutant.