Thesis (M.A.)--Central Connecticut State University, 1997. / Thesis advisor: Kathy A. Martin-Troy, Ph. D. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Biology." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 23-24).

Thesis (MS)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mensur Dlakic. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-105).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xv, 327 p.; also includes graphics (some col.) Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-327). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-88). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Botany, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 21-25).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-123).

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Biology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-64). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ99355

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 2007. / Supervisor: Sonya J. Franklin Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-168).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2007 Aug 15.

The discovery of the crucial intermediates and pathway in the process of the reverse transcription was reported using single-molecule spectroscopy and related techniques including single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and confocal imaging. Reverse transcription of the HIV-1 RNA genome involves several complex nucleic acid rearrangement steps that are catalyzed by the HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein (NC), including for example, the annealing of the transactivation response (TAR) region of the viral RNA to the complementary region (TAR DNA) in minus-strand strong-stop DNA. In this dissertation, the research focused on elucidating the mechanism of NC-facilitated TAR DNA/RNA annealing. The single molecule spectroscopic measurements reported that the crucial intermediates as well as the mechanistic insight into the annealing of TAR RNA with TAR DNA mediated by viral NC proteins. The data reveal that NC partially melted the secondary structure of TAR DNA (termed the "YTAR") as well as TAR RNA. In the subsequent studies, various short DNA oligonucleotdies were applied to anneal with the TAR to mimic the initial annealing steps. The data support that the YTAR serves as a nucleation center for the annealing to occur through the multiple sites along the TAR structure. Two major nucleation pathways were observed, which are the annealing through the 3'/5' termini, namely "zipper" pathway and the annealing through the hairpin loop region, namely "kissing" pathway. The annealing mechanism was further explored by performing the annealing of wild-type TAR DNA with wild-type TAR RNA in the presence of NC in vitro. The annealing kinetic data suggest that the nucleation of TAR DNA/RNA annealing occurs in an encounter complex form in which one or two DNA/RNA strands in the "Y" form associated with multiple NC molecules. This encounter complex leads to the multiple nucleation complexes, i.e. zipper or kissing intermediates. The data further indicate that although the two complementary strands nucleate at multiple sites, i.e. any single-strand region of TAR, the annealing of two TAR complements occurs through a common mechanism.