Date of Award
2009
Degree Name
Biology
College
College of Science
Type of Degree
M.S.
Document Type
Thesis
First Advisor
Eric R. Blough
Second Advisor
David Mallory
Third Advisor
Bin Wang
Abstract
The use of biomolecular motors for nanotechnological applications has been impaired by an inability to control biomolecular motor activity in a temporal fashion. Previous data has suggested that myosin activity can be modulated by inducing changes in the degree of myosin oxidation. The hypothesis of this study is that myosin motor activity can be regulated by altering the amount of antioxidants and reducing agents present in assay solution. To test this hypothesis we systematically altered the concentration of reducing agents and examined the effects of these changes on myosin-dependent actin filament translation. Our findings indicate that myosin activity can be controlled over several on-off cycles in a controlled fashion by varying the amount of antioxidants and reducing agents in the assay medium. This strategy if further developed may lead to new ways to control myosin motor activity in bionanotechnological devices.
Subject
Myosin
Subject
Microfilament proteins
Recommended Citation
Nalabotu, Siva Krishna, "Control of Myosin motor activity and Actin filament translation by alteration of Assay Reducing Potential" (2009). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 123.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/123
Included in
Fluids and Secretions Commons, Medical Biochemistry Commons, Musculoskeletal System Commons, Nanotechnology Commons
