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

Dissecting the role of selenothiol- versus thiol-based catalysis using the model enzyme glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPx4)

Selenocysteine (Sec) is the 21st amino acid. Unlike other amino acids incorporation of Sec into proteins is more complex by far as it is encoded by the opal stop codon UGA. A complex and highly sophisticated incorporation mechanism is required in order to assure the correct co-translational incorporation of Sec into the nascent polypeptide chain. Even after years of intensive research the question as to why selenoproteins are important for mammalian life has not been fully understood. This study...

Investigation of the biochemistry and function of neutrophil serine protease 4 (NSP4)

Serine proteases in cytoplasmic granules of neutrophils (NSPs), namely neutrophil elastase, cathepsin G (CG) and proteinase 3, have been under intense investigation for several decades. They are mainly known for their role in intracellular killing of pathogens and are also increasingly recognized as key regulators of innate immune responses. In 2009, I identified a fourth serine protease in neutrophils that has been completely overlooked and neglected so far. The aim of this thesis was an in-dept...

Die Rolle von GSK-3β in der strukturellen Spine-Plastizität

Expression of higher plant photosynthetic proteins in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

Genetic and functional characterization of candidate genes for complex psychiatric diseases using next-generation sequencing and cellular uptake assays

Complex phenotypes are the result of a complex interplay between genes and environmental factors. Extensive linkage, candidate and genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have been carried out to unravel genetic risk variants for human diseases. The identification of genes, involved in the pathomechanism of a disease, might be beneficial for its diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. While GWASs allowed the identification of a large number of common variants robustly associated with common complex ...

Visualization and targeted disruption of protein interactions in living cells

Development of a CENH3-based and non-viral vector system

New vectors for successful transgene delivery in patients are more than needed. Current gene therapeutic vectors are mostly based on virus genomes. A main reason is the very efficient administration of the vector into the target cells. The viral background of these systems also has severe side effects like e.g. immunological reactions of the patient or the activation of oncogenes due to insertional mutagenesis, which can result in cancer development. A possibility to overcome these problems is t...

Identifikation und Charakterisierung niedermolekularer MALT1 Inhibitoren zur Therapie von ABC-DLBCL

Stochastic models for the ecology and population genetics of introduced species

The long-term success of an introduced population depends on the ecological conditions in its new environment, but is also influenced by stochasticity. This is particularly clear in the first stage of an invasion when the population is still small and either goes extinct quickly or establishes a self-sustaining population. Once established, some populations grow and spread spatially, with potential impacts on native communities and ecosystems. The role of stochasticity during these later invasio...

TALE nucleases as antiviral factors

Intratumorale T-Zellen in einem Spontanlymphommodell der Maus

Es gibt zahlreiche Bemühungen, neue Immuntherapien zur Behandlung von malignen Tumoren zu entwickeln, da die Prognose vieler Krebserkrankungen immer noch schlecht ist. Dazu muss das Verständnis, wie die verschiedenen Immunzellen innerhalb des Tumormilieus miteinander interagieren, verbessert werden. Mausmodelle für Spontantumoren spiegeln die klinische Situation besser wider als transplantierbare Tumoren und stellen somit eine gute Möglichkeit dar, die während der Tumorentwicklung stattfindenden...

Integrative taxonomy of antarctic and subantarctic sea spiders (Pycnogonida) using morphological and molecular methods

Modeling the demographic history of Drosophila melanogaster using Approximate Bayesian Computation and Next Generation Sequencing Data

The main goal of this thesis was to develop demographic models of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster using Approximate Bayesian Computation and Next Generation Sequencing Data. These models were used to reconstruct the history of African, European, and North American populations. Chapter 1 deals with the demographic history of North American D. melanogaster. This project was motivated by the release of full-genome sequences of a North American population, which showed greater diversity than E...

Genome-wide analysis of innate electric shock- and odour-avoidance, punishment- and relief- learning

Insights into the RNA Polymerase CTD code

3D-Neuroanatomie und Feinstruktur nervöser Verschaltungen im Sehsystem von Tintenfischen (Cephalopoda)

Deregulated notch and CD40 signaling in murine B lymphocytes

The role of parental care in shaping personality-related variation in reproductive success in free-living passerines

Integrative systematics and biogeography of Limax (Gastropoda:Stylommatophora)

The spatial organization and regulation of triacylglycerol synthesis

Analysis of the Barr body with super-resolution microscopy

X chromosome inactivation (XCI) in female mammalian cells is an ideal model system to study the relationship of epigenetic regulation and higher-order chromatin structure. However, light microscopic studies of chromosomal organization have long been limited by the diffraction barrier of optical resolution. Super-resolution 3D-structured illumination microscopy (3D-SIM) – one of several recent techniques that circumvent this limitation – enables multicolor optical sectioning of entire cells with ...

Homer has the Blues

Die Rolle des NF-kappaB Signalwegs in LMP1/CD40-exprimierenden B-Zellen in vivo

Die Charakterisierung von DDX27 als nukleolärer Ribosomenbiogenesefaktor und Interaktionspartner des PeBoW-Komplexes

Genome-wide identification of nucleosome positioning determinants in schizosaccharomyces pombe

Post-translational preprotein targeting to plant organelles

Biogeographic and cytogenetic evolution of the Alstroemeriaceae/Colchicaceae inferred from multi-locus molecular philogenies, fluorescent in situ hybridization data, and probabilistic models of geographic and chromosome number change

Principles of protein group SUMO modification substantiated in DNA repair

Posttranslational modifications (PTMs) of proteins by covalent attachment of functional groups (like phosphorylation, acetylation, methylation, glycosylation, etc.) are of key importance for the cell as they regulate various aspects of protein behavior after its synthesis, e.g., dictate protein interaction properties, change catalytic activity of enzymes, induce conformational changes, guide subcellular localization and determine protein stability. A special class of protein PTMs is the conjugat...

Charakterisierung der in vivo Wachstumskinetik amyloider Plaques und der synaptischen Pathologie mit Evaluierung eines immuntherapeutischen Ansatzes in einem Alzheimer-Mausmodell

Morbus Alzheimer ist die häufigste Form einer Demenzerkrankung und stellt aufgrund der steigenden Lebenserwartung eine sehr große ökonomische und emotionale Belastung für Patienten, deren Familien und die gesamte Gesellschaft dar. Eine Verringerung dieser Belastung erfordert dringend krankheitsmodifizierende Therapien, die bisher nicht zur Verfügung stehen. Als wahrscheinlichste Erklärung für die molekularen Ursachen der Krankheit wurde in der Amyloid-Kaskaden-Hypothese postuliert, dass die Akku...

Beauveria bassiana infection in Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster is a model organism to study innate immunity in invertebrates. Temperate and tropical D. melanogaster populations, being exposed to different environments, potentially face distinct parasites and parasite pressure. Indeed, there is experimental evidence suggesting that tropical D. melanogaster populations survive longer than temperate ones to infection by the fungal parasite Beauveria bassiana. In the present work we test the generality of this conclusion and investigate ...