Degree Name

MS (Master of Science)

Program

Biology

Date of Award

5-2012

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Cecilia A. McIntosh

Committee Members

Daniel K. Owens, Dhirendra Kumar

Abstract

Flavonoids are plant secondary metabolites that play diverse roles in plants and human health. These compounds in most part exist in the glucosylated form. Grapefruit accumulates high levels of glucosylated flavonoids. Plant secondary product glucosyltransferases (GTs) catalyze the glucosylation reaction, but due to low homology at both the nucleotide and amino acid sequence level of different GTs, it is not possible to ascribe function based on sequence only. The hypotheses that PGT clones 9 and 11 are plant secondary product GTs and are biochemically regulated were tested. PGT 9 has been cloned into Pichia pastoris using the pPICZA and pPICZAα vectors, expressed, enriched, and screened for GT activity with a variety of phenolic substrates. Initial screens show catechol, gentisic acid, vanillin, and p-hydroxylphenylacetic acid as potential substrates for the PGT 9 protein. PGT 11 has been successfully cloned into pPICZA for transformation into yeast, expression, and subsequent characterization.

Document Type

Thesis - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

Included in

Biology Commons

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