NOTE: This program is no longer active.
This site is for archival purposes only.
Understanding Protein Function and its Regulation by Post-Translational Modification
Team: Dr. German Rosas-Acosta & Jourdan Harper
In this project we will characterize how a post-translational modification known as SUMOylation affects the function of a protein encoded by a well-known human foe, the Influenza A virus. To this end, we will purify both, modified and unmodified forms of the protein, and characterize the molecular interactions established by each purified form of the protein with other viral and cellular proteins. This will be achieved through a combination of biochemical techniques, molecular biology techniques, and mass spectrometry methods. The data produced will not only provide invaluable insights into the mechanisms by which SUMOylation regulates protein function, but also identify new targets for the development of innovative treatments against the most deadly forms of influenza. Furthermore, this project will also generate data that will be incorporated into a highly interactive class to be given to junior and senior students taking Molecular Cell Biology (BIOL3314). The role of the data will be to provide experimental support to the mechanisms governing protein function and the concept that post-translational modifications play an essential role in modulating protein function, which altogether constitute one of the learning objectives of the course. Finally, because the protein under study is a well-known determinant of viral pathogenicity for influenza virus, the data generated will be published in a high impact international scientific journal.
The results generated during the execution of the experiments proposed in this project will be incorporated into one interactive class to be given during the Molecular Cell Biology (BIOL3314) course. This course is a requirement for all Biology-related majors, except for those in the Ecology/Evolutionary Biology track, and is given three times a year. The PI in this project is responsible for teaching two of the three annual iterations, Fall and Summer. Regulation of protein function and post-translational modifications of proteins are two topics normally covered during two lectures in this course and correspond to one specific learning objective out of four major learning objectives proposed for the course ("Learning objective 3: To understand the different mechanisms regulating protein function and localization within the cell."). The data generated by the proposed research will provide a very specific example of how one type of post-translational modification (SUMOylation) affects the ability of one specific protein (NS1) to interact with other viral and cellular proteins. And this will in turn indicate how SUMOylation potentially affects the main function associated to NS1, the inhibition of the cellular IFN response. Students that attend the interactive lecture resulting from this research will be presented with the experimental data obtained and will be asked to formulate a functional model of how SUMOylation regulates protein function. Then, the models formulated by the students will be compared with the data to see whether their model is consistent with the data.
