Graduation Year

2017

Graduation Month

May

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

School or Department

Biological Sciences, Division of

Major

Biology – Cellular and Molecular Biology

Faculty Mentor Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of

Faculty Mentor

Brooke Martin

Keywords

YbgL, Chromate, Genotoxicity, Oxidation, Cancer

Subject Categories

Biochemistry | Cancer Biology

Abstract

Cr(V) is a carcinogen that oxidizes guanine aggressively to form spiroiminodihydantion (Sp) and guanidinohydantoin (Gh), both of which contain an unusual hydantoin moiety that cause G→T transversion mutations at a high rate. Endonuclease VIII (nei) can recognize and excise these oxidation products from DNA and is translated as one of five protein products of the Nei operon in Escherichia coli (E. coli). However, the functions of the other four proteins remain unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, we focused on one of the four that immediately precedes nei, the ybgL protein. Previous work by our group has suggested a role for ybgL in vitro. In the current study, we attempt to characterize the role of ybgL by oxidizing a synthetic oligo with Cr(V) and reacting the oxidized oligo with ybgL in the presence of different potential cofactors. Due to the presence of hydantoin moieties within the DNA, we modeled the ybgL protein to the Hydantoinase B class of enzymes, which recognize the hydantoin moiety. This study will attempt to elucidate the role of an uncharacterized protein in excising oxidation lesions caused by chromium toxicity.

Honors College Research Project

Yes

GLI Capstone Project

no

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© Copyright 2017 Mason H. Conen, Brooke D. Martin, Kent Sugden, and Savannah Whitfield