Two decades ago archaeologists in northern Africa discovered evidence that an antibiotic was somehow included in diet of ancient peoples, possibly affecting the health of the population. It has been proposed that the causative organisms are Streptomyces aureofaciens - ubiquitous, mold-like, tetracycline-producing bacteria that could have contaminated grain products. Upon consumption, tetracyclines are incorporated into developing or remodeling bone, remaining observable under ultraviolet light for thousands of years. The current project focuses on an analysis of Roman-Egyptian human and animal bone from the Dakhleh Oasis in southwestern Egypt (100 BC to AD 360). Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) is used to determine whether or not the population had been exposed to antibiotics, taking advantage of tetracycline's natural fluorescent properties. Results show that, though nearly every sample shows tetracycline fluorescence described in previous literature, bone from the Kellis I and Kellis 2 cemeteries display distinct differences in florescent patterning. CLSM allows three ­dimensional viewing and high-resolution imaging, lending new perspective and increased accuracy to the analysis. Previously published theories regarding the means of exposure and resulting health affects are reconsidered. Further investigation could have implications that overflow their archaeological context due to the multiple uses modem science has for tetracycline therapy.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study evaluated the effectiveness of bleaching tetracycline-stained teeth by measuring the loss of fluorescent intensity from teeth that were bleached. Nineteen male New Zealand white rabbits, with 58 incisors stained with oxytetracycline and 16 incisors as unstained controls, were used. Three rabbits were sacrificed to determine whether the tetracycline stain was comparable between incisors in the same jaw. Of the remaining 16 animals, 6 were bleached once and 10 were bleached twice. One maxillary and one mandibular incisor were bleached in each jaw with 30 percent hydrogen peroxide and heat for ten minutes per tooth; the other incisors were protected with a rubber dam. The animals were sacrificed 24 hours after the last bleach. The fluorescent intensity of 374 select ground sections 100 ± 5 microns thick from the incisal, middle and gingival thirds of the teeth were measured with an ultraviolet light microscope coupled to a television electronic measurement system. These measurements were statistically analyzed by t-test, and observations correlated. The dentin of tetracycline-stained maxillary incisors which were bleached twice and the dentin in the incisal one-third of the mandibular incisors which were bleached twice had a significantly (P ≤ 0.001, P ≤ 0.005) lower tetracycline fluorescent intensity than the dentin of unbleached tetracycline-stained teeth. The greatest loss of fluorescent intensity of tetracycline occurred in dentin closest to the dentino-enamel junction and varied from about 150 to 350 microns from the outer enamel surface. Clinical Kodachromes indicate that the loss of tetracycline pigment is associated with the loss of tetracycline fluorescence; The ground sections showed that the tetracycline fluorescence was never totally removed by two bleaches.

No description available.

Resistance to the tetracycline antibiotics occurs primarily by efflux and ribosome protection mechanisms, however a tetracycline inactivating enzyme, TetX, was identified 15 years ago, although little is known about this mechanism. The gene encoding this enzyme was identified on a 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 transposon and results from DNA sequence analysis and studies of bacterial culture media suggested that 𝘵𝘦𝘵𝘟's protein product might be a NADPH-requiring oxidase (𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘉𝘚 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘈𝘈. 𝘑 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭. 171(1): 148-153, 1989). We have expressed a copy of 𝘵𝘦𝘵𝘹 gene, 𝘵𝘦𝘵𝘹2, in Escherichia coli, and purified the enzyme to high purity. We showed that TetX2 is a monomeric 44 kDa cytoplasmic protein and UV-Vis and HPLC studies established that TetX contained an FAD cofactor. Continuous and stopped enzyme assays have been developed and established that that the enzyme requires 0₂ and NADPH for tetracycline degradation. Liquid chromatographic mass spectrometry (LC -MS) analysis of TetX reaction products using oxytetracycline (461 Da) as a substrate indicated that the enzyme catalyses the incorporation of one oxygen atom into oxytetracycline, resulting in a compound of 477 Da with no antibiotic activity. Steady state kinetic analysis demonstrated that TetX2 has a broad substrate specificity with the capacity to inactivate several members of the tetracycline family tested. Identification of the inactivated tetracycline product revealed that the tetracycline inactivation process is a TetX2 catalyzes tetracycline oxidation reaction. These studies provide the first biochemical analysis of a tetracycline inactivating enzyme. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Allosteric regulation of proteins by reversible ligand binding is essential for regulation of fundamental biological processes. The mechanism by which a binding event alters the function of a distant site in a protein is only poorly understood. In this thesis, I use the Tetracycline Repressor (TetR) as a model system to study ligand induced allostery. The transcription of genes encoding the resistance to the antibiotic, tetracycline (Tc), is repressed by TetR, which is a homodimeric alpha-helical protein possessing a small N-terminal DNA binding domain (DNB domain) and a larger C-terminal tetracycline binding and dimerization domain (TBD domain). Based on previous structural and thermodynamic studies, the DNB domains are thought to exist in two stable, distinct conformations. One conformation is able to bind the Tc resistance operator sequence (tetO) with high affinity, while the other, which is induced by Tc binding, binds very weakly. While most previous studies on TetR have focused on the effects of Tc binding on the DNB domain conformation, here I have investigated the role of the DNB domain in modulating Tc binding. By introducing destabilizing mutations into the DNB domain I ascertained that the conformation and stability of the DNB domain plays an important role in determining Tc binding affinity. I also discovered that in the absence of ligand, the DNB domain exists in an unstable and flexible state with respect to the TBD domain. However, Tc binding to the TBD domain stabilizes the DNB domain, causing it to fold cooperatively with the TBD domain. I have discovered that the behavior of previously isolated non-inducible mutants is caused by the inability of Tc to stabilize the DNB domain in these mutants. Furthermore, reverse TetR mutants, which bind DNA better in the presence of Tc have an unfolded DNB domain that is only partially stabilized by Tc binding. My work suggests a new comprehensive, Tc induced stabilization and domain cooperativity model that can describe the mechanism of allostery in TetR and previously unexplainable mutants. A practical outcome of this research is the creation of a Tc induced folding switch that can be exploited to control the in vivo degradation of a protein of interest.

Although schizophrenia has been shown to have a substantial component, there is a paucity of known risk alleles. Furthermore, all of the known risk genes are of small effect sizes. Previously it has been shown that a 12 base pair insertional polymorphism in the in the C-terminal, opposite paired (Opa) domain of the MED12 gene known as MED1212bp represents a small but significant risk for a positive syndrome psychosis. In addition, the MED1212bp polymorphism is found in approximately 1.6 percent of X-chromosomes of northern European decent. Studies in zebrafish show that alterations in MED12 reduces staining for monoaminergic neuronal populations, including dopaminergic and serotonergic populations. However, precise mechanisms through which these changes occur are not known. My goal for this study was to use PC6-3 cells as a mammalian cell culture for studying cellular and transcriptional effects of MED12 in a dopaminergic model system. The approach I took was based on studies that have shown that overexpression of C-terminal proline, glutamine and leucine rich (PQL) and Opa domain constructs interact in a dominant negative manner with several transcriptional regulatory proteins that interact with MED12. GFP tagged PQL and Opa domain constructs were placed into a tetracycline inducible T-REx™ regulated expression vector and introduced into a previously generated PC6-3, TR156 cell line that expresses the Tet-Repressor molecule. In this study, I report a selection bias against stably transfected cell lines strongly expressing constructs containing the two C-terminal PQL-Opa protein domains of MED12. I also show that the described low levels of induction of that construct are associated with small, but significant alterations in nuclear morphology, possibly due to nuclear reorganization. Induction of PQL-Opa domains also increases in cell metabolism as measured by a tetrazolium salt assay, typically associated with increases in proliferation compared to the GFP controls or Opa domain alone. Interestingly, the MTS results in the stable cell lines were not reflected changes in cell numbers from direct cell counts performed by light microscopy, or changes in cell cycle distribution as measured by propidium iodide staining and fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS). In addition I also show microarray gene expression data for both the stable tetracycline inducible lines, as well as transiently electroporated PC6-3 cells. For both the stable and transient expression experiments, the arrays were characterized by small fold changes, which were not validated by RT-PCR. The stable arrays did not produce any robust findings. However, gene ontology (GO) data, as determined by GoMiner analysis, from the transiently electroporated cells shows that 9 of the top 31 GO categories are related to changes in proliferation and cytoskeletal reorganization. However, despite this trend, the data from the GoMiner analysis was above the level of statistical significance (á = 0.05), as is indicated by the false discovery rates (FDR > 0.3). Analysis of the directionality of expression proved intriguing and demonstrated significant evidence of skewing in the pattern of differential expression of annotated genes where there was a significant tendency for the most significantly differentially expressed probes belonging to 13568 annotated genes to be more highly expressed genes in the electroporated GFP control construct cells than those with the PQL/Opa construct. This is also consistent with a broad overlap of the expression data with ChIP-seq data suggesting that the dominant negative effect may be spread over many MED12 regulated genes, in which case the low expression levels are particularly problematic. While the data from these experiments do not present a clear mechanism for MED12 function, they are informative in developing models of MED12 alteration, and potential improvements are discussed.

Widespread tetracycline resistance (TcR) has limited the clinical use of Tc for the treatment of bacterial infections. Tet(O) protein is present in many bacteria and is the major transmissible TcR determinant in Campylobacter jejuni, a common cause of acute bacterial diarrhea worldwide. Tet(O) protects ribosomes against the inhibition of protein synthesis by Tc. Tet(O) binds to the ribosome at a similar site as EF-G, a structural homologue of Tet(O) with GTPase activity that is required for protein elongation. EF-G interfered with the kinetics of Tet(O)-mediated Tc release suggesting that EF-G competes with Tet(O) for ribosome binding. Indirect assessment of EF-G and Tet(O) binding to 70S ribosomes by GTP hydrolysis was unable to clearly demonstrate competition for binding. This thesis contributed to the further understanding of the kinetics of Tc release by Tet(O), and may facilitate the development of novel strategies to overcome Tet(O)-mediated TcR in bacteria which cause human infections.

No description available.

Allosteric regulation of proteins by reversible ligand binding is essential for regulation of fundamental biological processes. The mechanism by which a binding event alters the function of a distant site in a protein is only poorly understood. In this thesis, I use the Tetracycline Repressor (TetR) as a model system to study ligand induced allostery. The transcription of genes encoding the resistance to the antibiotic, tetracycline (Tc), is repressed by TetR, which is a homodimeric alpha-helical protein possessing a small N-terminal DNA binding domain (DNB domain) and a larger C-terminal tetracycline binding and dimerization domain (TBD domain). Based on previous structural and thermodynamic studies, the DNB domains are thought to exist in two stable, distinct conformations. One conformation is able to bind the Tc resistance operator sequence (tetO) with high affinity, while the other, which is induced by Tc binding, binds very weakly. While most previous studies on TetR have focused on the effects of Tc binding on the DNB domain conformation, here I have investigated the role of the DNB domain in modulating Tc binding. By introducing destabilizing mutations into the DNB domain I ascertained that the conformation and stability of the DNB domain plays an important role in determining Tc binding affinity. I also discovered that in the absence of ligand, the DNB domain exists in an unstable and flexible state with respect to the TBD domain. However, Tc binding to the TBD domain stabilizes the DNB domain, causing it to fold cooperatively with the TBD domain. I have discovered that the behavior of previously isolated non-inducible mutants is caused by the inability of Tc to stabilize the DNB domain in these mutants. Furthermore, reverse TetR mutants, which bind DNA better in the presence of Tc have an unfolded DNB domain that is only partially stabilized by Tc binding. My work suggests a new comprehensive, Tc induced stabilization and domain cooperativity model that can describe the mechanism of allostery in TetR and previously unexplainable mutants. A practical outcome of this research is the creation of a Tc induced folding switch that can be exploited to control the in vivo degradation of a protein of interest.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Biology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-96). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR32001