Exploration of cell polarity and essential gene function in saccharomyces cerevisiae
By: by Jennifer Haynes.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 231
ISBN-13: 9780494158500
Description: The precise molecular and genetic functions of many conserved eukaryotic proteins that regulate fundamental cellular processes, such as polarized cell growth and actin cytoskeleton organization, are poorly understood. The high degree of conservation of cell cycle and cell polarity regulators among eukaryotic cells makes the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae , a useful model system for studying conserved cellular processes, such as cell cycle control and polarized cell growth. In this thesis, I describe the role of binding activity for an actin cytoskeleton regulator, Abp1p, which mediates multiple contacts with other proteins involved in actin cytoskeleton and polarized cell growth through a conserved protein-protein interaction module, the SH3 domain. I show that the impact of reductions in binding affinity of the Abp1p SH3 domain varies depending on the biological context and that considerable reductions in binding affinity can be tolerated by the cell, with little or no discernable effects on cell growth, suggesting a threshold at which growth defects begin.Functional genomics approaches have been developed in yeast to systematically analyze gene function on a genome-wide scale. Within the last ten years, a very large amount of diverse functional genomics and interaction data has been generated, including mRNA expression, protein-protein interaction, protein localization, and genetic interaction data. The integration of functional genomics and interaction data sets is of key importance for making confident predictions regarding gene function that can be followed-up by experimental verification. In this thesis, I describe the use of titratable promoter-replacement alleles to study essential gene function in yeast and the generation of multiple functional genomics and genetic interaction data sets for essential genes. I also describe my contributions to the discovery of novel functions for essential genes involved in a variety of different conserved cellular processes, which was facilitated by integrating the data from multiple functional genomics experiments.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: B, page: 3566.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2006.

Includes bibliographic references.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.