The Caenorhabditis elegans gene gro-1 belongs to the Clock group of genes. The four known genes making up this class are believed to be involved in a general mechanism acting to coordinate the time-dependent processes in the organism. Mutation of these genes alter the timing of many disparate processes. This results in the mean lengthening of embryonic and post-embryonic development, as well as in a lengthening of the periods of a number of adult behaviours including pharyngeal pumping, swimming and the defecation cycle. These mutants also exhibit a significantly increased life span. The gene gro-1 has been cloned and encodes a metazoan N6-(Delta2) isopentenyl PPi: tRNA isopentenyl transferase. In S. cerevisiae and bacteria this enzyme has been shown to modify tRNAs that code for codons begining with U. This modification consists of the isopentenylation of the adenine residue at position 37, adjacent to the anti-codon. Interestingly, gro-1 is the fifth member of an operon. Preliminary expression studies with GFP reporter constructs suggest that as in yeast, GRO-1 is expressed in the cytoplasm and mitochondria, as well as in the nucleus.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.21589 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Lemieux, Jason. |
| 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: 001658717, proquestno: MQ50815, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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