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

Identification of Roquin-regulated mRNAs in T helper cells and molecular characterization of the Roquin-RNA interaction

Environmental and social modulation of hormones and behavior in a free living songbird, the black redstart

Molecular view on the spatiotemporal organization of Bacillus subtilis subcellular compartments

All living cells are highly organized and exhibit complex cellular machineries facilitating biochemical reactions. Compartmentalization is a prerequisite to allocate an appropriate environment for these processes. In this work, compartments that are involved in Bacillus subtilis membrane organization and cell division were studied. B. subtilis division site selection is dependent on the nucleoid occlusion and the Min system. The B. subtilis Min system consists of four components. MinC is the act...

Biological role and genetic redundancy within the ebf gene family

Embryonalententwicklung des Zentralkomplexes im Gehirn der Wüstenheuschrecke Schistocerca gregaria

Cognition through the (st-)ages

Cell-cell communication via LuxR solos in Photorhabdus species

Bacteria constantly need to monitor their environment and adapt the bacterial group-coordinated behaviour to changing habitats like nutrition alterations or host variations. Commonly cell-cell communication via acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs)is used to synchronise the behaviour of a bacterial population dependent on cell size. This process is referred to as quorum sensing (QS) and predominantly occurs in Gram-negative bacteria. The typical QS system consists of a LuxI-synthase that synthesises A...

Screening anti-prion compounds and diagnosing prion diseases by amplifying PrPSc in vitro

Studies on polar cell wall growth and antibiotic susceptibility of Corynebacterium glutamicum

Corynebacterium glutamicum is a Gram positive soil bacterium with high industrial importance in ton scale production of amino acids. Apart from that, it becomes more and more important for medical studies, where it serves as model organism due to its close relation to bacteria causing several pathogens such as tuberculosis, diphtheria and leprosy. C. glutamicum, like Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has a distinct cell wall which is composed of a peptidoglycan layer (murein) with covalently bound pol...

Distinction of vasculitis-associated ANCA subsets and their pathogenic role in a new mouse model with the humanized target antigen

Identification of novel candidate genes involved in individual antidepressant treatment response

Notch2 signalling in B cell activation, immune response and lymphomagenesis

Compatibility benefits of social and extra-pair mate choice in the zebra finch

Behavioural ecologists aim at providing insights into the evolutionary and ecological processes that shape animal behaviour. Mate choice is a decision faced by most animals that can strongly affect an individual’s reproductive success, an important fitness component. This behaviour has therefore the potential to show many adaptations which have been the subject of a vivid research interest over the last decades. Studies on mate choice have typically focused on female preferences for traits that ...

A dedicated mechanism for DNA-protein crosslink repair

Functionalization of bacterial magnetic nanoparticles by genetic engineering and encapsulation with inorganic coatings

Role and regulation of TET-mediated DNA modifications in gene expression

In the mammalian genome, cytosine methylation (5mC) plays a central role in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression and has been implicated in a variety of biological processes, including genome stability, imprinting or differentiation. Compared to other epigenetic marks, DNA methylation has been thought to be relatively stable. However, genome-wide loss of 5mC, or DNA demethylation, has been observed in specific developmental stages and in various types of cancer. The discovery of the TET ...

Proxies of extra-pair behaviour

Viele Vogelarten sind monogam, aber es kommt zugleich häufig zu Paarungen außerhalb des Paarbundes (Griffith et al. 2002). In einer großen Zahl von Studien wurde bereits der adaptive Wert der aus diesem Verhalten hervorgehenden „Fremdvaterschaften“, insbesondere für Weibchen, anhand einer Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse auf genetischer Ebene untersucht. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studien haben jedoch bisher nicht zu generalisierbaren Resultaten geführt (Akçay & Roughgarden 2007). Im Gegensatz dazu gibt es ...

Einzelzell-Analyse unkultivierter magnetotaktischer Bakterien

Insects as a model to puzzle out mechanisms of lineage diversification in the Indomalayan / Australasian archipelago

R programming in phylogenetics and evolution

This dissertation addresses the application of the statistical computing language R in the study of evolution and diversification of plants. The topics included range from the worldwide historical biogeography of the cucurbit family and the phylogenetic composition of the Mediterranean Oxalis flora in central Chile to the interplay between population genetics and climatic niche evolution in four Horde- um clades in the Americas. In these studies, I drew on existing methods in R and on java and C...

Sensorimotor postural control in healthy and pathological stance and gait

Postural control during standing and walking is an inherently unstable task requiring the interaction of various biomechanical, sensory, and neurophysiological mechanisms to shape stable patterns of whole-body coordination that are able to counteract postural disequilibrium. This thesis focused on the examination of central aspects of the functional roles of these mechanisms and the modes of interaction between them. A further aim was to determine the conditions of dynamic stability for healthy ...

Regulation der Autoinduktoren von Vibrio harveyi

In Vibrio harveyi induzieren die drei Autoinduktoren (AIs) Z-3-Aminoundec-2-en-4-on CAI 1, N-(3-Hydroxybutyryl)-D-Homoserinlakton HAI 1 und der Furanosylboratdiester AI 2 die Quorum Sensing (QS) Regulationskaskade. So werden unter Anderem Biolumineszenz, Biofilmbildung und Exoproteaseaktivität beeinflusst. Um die Sensorik der QS Kaskade zu verstehen, wurde die Expression verschiedener QS-Zielgene im Wildtyp untersucht. Im Vergleich mit einer AI-negativen Mutante zeigte sich, dass nicht die Zelld...

Ste20-like kinases and regulator proteins in the cytoskeleton of Dictyostelium discoideum

The cytoskeleton in most eukaryotes consists of actin filaments, intermediate filaments, microtubules and specific associated proteins. It determines the shape and the polarity of a cell and is inevitable for the coordination of cell movement. The regulation of this complex structure requires a highly organised and specialised signalling network. Ste20-like kinases and the regulator protein Mo25 (Morula protein 25) are part of this signalling network. The main objective of this work was the func...

The development and molecular characterization of muscle spindles from wildtype and mutant mice

Muscle spindles are complex stretch-sensitive mechanoreceptors that consist of 4-12 specialized muscle fibers. These intrafusal muscle fibers are innervated in the central (equatorial) region by an afferent sensory axon and in both peripheral (polar) regions by efferent γ-motoneurons. Until now little is known about muscle spindle development at the molecular level, especially about the development of cholinergic specializations. My study shows that nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChR) are c...

Expression quantitative trait loci as possible biomarkers on depression

Funktion des Lysintransporters LysP von Escherichia coli in Transport und Regulation

Investigations on the role of Hsp90 in the pathogenic glucocorticoid resistance of corticotroph pituitary adenomas

The main function of glucocorticoids in corticotroph cells is to suppress proopiomelanocortin, the precursor of the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin (ACTH). Cushing’s disease is a rare but severe neuroendocrine condition caused by partially glucocorticoid resistant corticotroph adenomas, which consequently secrete excessive amounts of ACTH in an uncontrolled fashion. The patients suffer from chronic hypercortisolism due to excessive stimulation of the adrenal glands by ACTH to produce glucocor...

Identification and characterization of novel Drosophila melanogaster centromere-associated proteins

Establishment of photosynthetic complexes in the chloroplast

Characterization of the Lotus Japonicus nuclear pore NUP107-160 subcomplex in plant-microbe symbiosis