Fakultät für Biologie - Digitale Hochschulschriften der LMU - Teil 05/06

Characterization of the actin-like MreB cytoskeleton dynamics and its role in cell wall synthesis in Bacillus subtilis

The peptidoglycan cell wall (CW) and the actin-like MreB cytoskeleton are the majordeterminants of cell morphology in non-spherical bacteria. Bacillus subtilis is a rod-shaped Grampositive bacterium that has three MreB isoforms: MreB, Mbl (MreB–like) and MreBH (MreBHomologue). Over the last decade, all three proteins were reported to localize in dynamic filamentous helical structures running the length of the cells underneath the membrane. This helical pattern led to a model where the extended M...

Mitochondrialer Proteinimport in Leishmania tarentolae und Charakterisierung der Hefeglutaredoxine 6-8

Heterochromatin dynamics and functions

Diversity and morphology of calcareous dinophytes (Thoracosphaeraceae, Peridiniales)

Dinophytes are unicellular eukaryotic algae that, together with their closest relatives, ciliates and apicomplexans, belong to the superphylum of alveolates. Some of them, namely calcareous dinophytes (Thoracosphaeraceae, Peridiniales), develop an immotile calcareous cell during their life history. They accumulate in the oceans’ sediments analogously to terrestrial seed banks. Although the diversity of calcareous dinophytes was investigated in several studies, only a few of them provide data fro...

Anthropologie einer frühstädtischen Randgruppe

Etablierung der Interaktion des viralen Onkoproteins LMP1 mit den zellulären Signalproteinen der TRAF-Proteinfamilie als Zielstruktur für Inhibitoren

Das Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) ist mit einer Reihe von lebensbedrohlichen Krankheiten assoziiert. Dazu zählen unter anderem Nasopharynxkarzinome, Hodgkin-Lymphome und lymphoproliferative Erkrankungen nach Organtransplantationen. Dennoch gibt es bisher keinen wirksamen Therapieansatz, der sich spezifisch mit der Rolle von EBV in diesen malignen Erkrankungen auseinandersetzt. Das latente Membranprotein 1 (LMP1) ist das primäre Onkogen von EBV und essenziell für die Transformation von B-Zellen durch ...

Pathologische Veränderungen in den Retinae transgener Mausmodelle des Morbus Alzheimer und deren diagnostische Relevanz für den Menschen

Morbus Alzheimer ist die am weitesten verbreitete Form der Demenz mit verheerendem Einfluss auf das Leben der Betroffenen, deren Angehörigen sowie die weltweiten Sozialsysteme. Durch die alternde Gesellschaft gewinnt die Krankheit immer mehr an Relevanz, vor allem da bisher weder die Ursache der Erkrankung bekannt noch hinreichende Therapien etabliert sind. Ein zentrales Problem in der Entwicklung neuer Therapieansätze liegt in dem Fehlen eines verlässlichen, breit einsetzbaren Frühdiagnoseverfa...

Golden goal regulates target specificity in the Drosophila Lamina

In the visual system of Drosophila, photoreceptor (R) neurons elaborate a precise retinotopic map of visual space in the brain. The retina consists of 750 ommatidia, each containing eight photoreceptor subtypes (R1-R8). R1-6 axons terminate in the first optic ganglion, the lamina. R7 and R8 axons extend through the lamina to innervate the second optic ganglion, the medulla. To maintain retinotopy in the lamina, R1-R6 photoreceptor axons have to undergo a complex axonal sorting during development...

Regulation of centromeric and pericentric heterochromatin

Comparative 3D microanatomy and systematics of skeneimorph gastropods, with a survey on epipodial tentacles in lower gastropods

STN7/8

Correlated plasticity of synaptic structures and its relationship to the stabilization of synaptic enlargement

The ability to adapt to environmental changes, to learn and to memorize information is one of the brain’s most extraordinary features. One important process underlying this ability is considered to be synaptic plasticity, i.e. the structural and functional modification of synaptic connections. Synaptic plasticity can occur either by genesis or elimination of synaptic connections, or at existing connections by modifications in the strength of synaptic transmission. Synaptic connections are comple...

Untersuchungen zur Autophagie-abhängigen Präsentation intrazellulärer Antigene auf MHC-Klasse-II

How top consumers structure food webs with multiple pathways of energy flow

The consequences of aneuploidy in human cells

Aneuploidy is a change in number or structure of one or more chromosomes that are not a multiple of the whole chromosome set. One of the best known pathological aneuploidies is trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), with chromosome 21 present in three instead of two copies. Patients with Down syndrome display severe mental retardation and growth defects. In fact, most abnormal aneuploid karyotypes lead to spontaneous abortions during embryogenesis, indicating that aneuploidy is not well tolerated in humans...

Identifizierung von Inhibitoren der Notch- oder EBNA2-vermittelten Transaktivierung von Zielgenen

Revision of the substrate brooding “Tilapia (Tilapia Smith, 1840 and related taxa), (Teleostei: Perciformes: Cichlidae)

Metalltranslocon - Komplexe in Chloroplasten

CDK9 links RNA polymerase II transcription to processing of ribosomal RNA

Molecular dissection of Pax6 DNA-binding domains and their roles in mouse cerebral cortex development

Generation of the brain depends on proper regulation of progenitor proliferation and differentiation during development. Many such factors known to affect proliferation and differentiation are transcription factors. In particular, the transcription factor Pax6 has received much attention because of its potency to control various aspects of brain development. During development of the telencephalon Pax6 regulates patterning, cell proliferation and neurogenesis, but how Pax6 mediates and coordinat...

Identification and characterization of glomeromycotan ammonium transporters

Role of the AAA protease Yme1 in folding of proteins in the mitochondrial intermembrane space

The vast majority of mitochondrial proteins are encoded in the nucleus and synthesized as precursor proteins on cytosolic ribosomes. After translation, these precursor proteins are imported in a largely, if not completely, unfolded state into one of the four mitochondrial subcompartments, the outer membrane, the intermembrane space, the inner membrane or the matrix. Once the precursor proteins reach their compartment of destination, they can fold into the functionally active three-dimensional na...

In vitro direct conversion of somatic cells from the adult human brain into functional neurons by defined factors

Reprogramming of somatic cells into neurons provides a new approach toward cell-based therapy of neurodegenerative diseases. Conversion of postnatal astroglia from the cerebral cortex of mice into functional neurons in vitro can be achieved by forced expression of a single transcription factor. Also skin fibroblasts have been successfully reprogrammed into functional neurons yet through the synergistic action of several transcription factors. A major challenge for the translation of neuronal rep...

So happy together

Role of sensory input in structural plasticity of dendrites in adult neuronal networks

Interaction of genetic predisposition and epigenetic factors in the development of anxiety

It is becoming increasingly clear by current research that the continuum of physiological anxiety up to psychopathology is not merely dependent on genes, but is orchestrated by the interplay of genetic predisposition, gene x environment and epigenetic interactions. To consider this interplay, we here took advantage of the rigid genetic predisposition of a selectively bred mouse model exhibiting high anxiety-related behavior (HAB) and tested whether and how enriched environment, a manipulation of...

Insights into stimulus perception, target gene expression and network formation of LytS/LytTR-like histidine kinase/response regulator systems in Escherichia coli

Molecular systematics and historical biogeography of Araceae at a worldwide scale and in Southeast Asia

This dissertation addresses the biogeographic history of the Araceae family and of one of its largest genera, Alocasia. With >3300 species, Araceae are among the largest families of flowering plants. It is the monocot lineage with the deepest fossil record, reaching back to the Early Cretaceous. Araceae are distributed worldwide, but >3100 species occur in the tropical regions of the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australia; most fossils from the Late Cretaceous and many younger ones come from...

Lokalisierung und Charakterisierung der AAA+-Proteine AFG1L2 und AFG1L1 aus Arabidopsis thaliana

Das Kalzium Signalnetzwerk ist ein wichtiger Übermittler von internen und externen Reizen in der Pflanze. Diese Signale werden unter anderem durch Calmodulin und calmodulin ähnlichen Proteine an verschiedene Effektorproteine weitergeleitet. AFG1L2 (AFG1 like Protein 2) wurde in dieser Arbeit als calmodulin bindendes Proteine aus der Familie der AAA+ Proteine (ATPasen associated with various cellular activities) identifiziert. Mit Hilfe von GFP Fusionskonstrukten konnte die in vivo Lokalisierung ...

Biochemical characterization of an intermediate membrane subfraction in cyanobacteria involved in an assembly network for photosystem II

Oxygenic photosynthesis converts light energy into chemical energy and is responsible for generating most of our atmosphere’s oxygen and biomass on earth. Several multimeric protein complexes are involved in the underlying photosynthetic electron transfer chain with photosystem II (PSII) representing the initial complex mediating the extraction of electrons from water molecules, thus generating molecular oxygen as a by-product. During recent years, the structural details and components of the PS...