Publication Date

1-1-2007

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Hahin, Richard

Degree Name

B.S. (Bachelor of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Abstract

Scorpion activator polypeptides specifically bind to sodium channels, however the mechanism of binding is unknown. A hypothesis has been advanced by my project mentor (Dr. R. Hahin) that specifies the part of the molecule that binds and interacts with the channel. Also, certain parts of the activators play a key role in the maintenance of its three dimensional structure. The focus of the project is to compare peptides to further test the hypothesis and obtain important structural information that may well be common to all the molecules. Studies and analysis were achieved by using bioinformatic tools such as NCBI, EMBO, RSCB, SWISS-PROT, and SDMC to locate toxins. Clustal W alignment program was used to perform a multiple sequence alignment of the peptides and Deepview was used to identify key structural regions. New information was gained about how activator peptides bind to and modify sodium channels. Important structural and sequence motifs of the molecules were also identified.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

19 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

Download

Share

COinS