Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Honors Paper

Degree Name

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology-BS

Department

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Advisor

Dr. John Tansey

First Committee Member

Dr. John Tansey

Second Committee Member

Dr. Karen Steigman

Third Committee Member

Dr. Brandon T. Sinn

Keywords

Perilipin, Perilipin 5, Protein, PAT Family, Structure, Bioinformatics

Subject Categories

Biochemistry | Molecular Biology | Structural Biology

Abstract

With an increase in lipid-related diseases in countries all over the world, it has become crucial to study these diseases at the molecular level. Studying the molecular mechanisms of these diseases is necessary in order to develop treatments and preventative measures. The perilipins are the best characterized lipid droplet associated proteins and their function in regulating lipid metabolism is important. Gaining a deeper understanding of the perilipin family of proteins will lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms of neutral lipid metabolism. In terms of structure, there is very little known about the perilipins as only a partial structure of one family member, perilipin 3, has been determined. This project seeks to analyze the perilipin family of proteins using structural and bioinformatic techniques. This study has made progress toward structural determination of perilipin 5’s PAT domain, which is part of the N-terminus. The PAT domain of perilipin 5 was fused with a 6 His tag, but the overexpression vector was unable to be fully analyzed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Using bioinformatic techniques, differential expression of an in silico transcriptome containing three Mus musculus perilipin 5 isoforms in 6 tissues was determined. A de novo transcriptome for M. musculus adipose tissue was assembled. The de novo transcriptome perilipin 5 BLAST hits were mapped against the in silico transcriptome. There was differential expression of one isoform in several tissue types and 2 reads were mapped to the in silico transcriptome. Perilipin 5 will benefit from further structural and bioinformatic analyses.

Licensing Permission

Copyright, all rights reserved. Fair Use

Acknowledgement 1

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Acknowledgement 2

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