The quaking gene encodes a family of alternatively spliced RNA binding protein isoforms that differ in their C-terminal regions. All of the QUAKING (QKI) proteins contain a single stranded RNA binding domain, KH domain, and are part of the larger STAR (Signal Transduction and Activator of RNA) family. These isoforms have expression patterns that differ spatially and temporally and coincide with development of both central and peripheral nervous systems. The QKI proteins have been implicated in several post-transcriptional mechanisms such as pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA export, mRNA stability and protein translation. Although the QKI protein is known to exist as homo- and heterodimeric forms, the size of its cellular complex and its components are largely uncharacterized. Herein, I have confirmed that QKI indeed forms a large protein complex and in addition defined the size of the complex and identified some of its components. Using a second approach, I also identified the microRNA-processing enzyme Argonaute 2 (Ago2) protein as one of QKI interacting proteins and biochemically validated and characterized its association with QKI in vivo. Furthermore, I generated a qkI-6 and qkI-7 conditional allele that will generate a new mouse model, in order to delineate the correlation between QKI and micro RNA processing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.101721 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Lacroix, Geneviève. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Microbiology and Immunology.) |
| Rights | © Geneviève Lacroix, 2007 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002598758, proquestno: AAIMR32835, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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