Coenzyme Q (ubiquinone or UQ) is a prenylated benzoquinone lipid that is found in membranes throughout the cell, and functions in a wide variety of enzyme-mediated redox reactions. One of the primary roles of UQ is its involvement in respiratory metabolism, where it functions in the inner mitochondrial membrane of eukaryotic cells as a transporter of electrons and protons in complexes II and III. The biosynthesis of UQ involves two separate O-methylation steps. Coq3p which is 40% identical to the Escherichia coli O-methyltransferase, UbiG, catalyzes both O-methylation steps. / In order to elucidate the function of genes involved in UQ biosynthesis, a coq-3 null mutant in the nematode C. elegans has been isolated by mean of reverse genetics. About 3,000,000 haploid genomes have been screened and a deletion in this gene isolated. Many technical difficulties have been encountered and modification concerning the details of the screening protocol was required to bypass them. The loss of coq-3 function in nematodes leads to developmental arrest and sterility, even when the worms are fed with bacteria that produce UQ. This demonstrates that UQ is required for the development and fertility of the worms.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.33762 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Gao, Yuan, 1970- |
| Contributors | Hekimi, S. (advisor) |
| 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 Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001872994, proquestno: MQ78879, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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