Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

5-2016

School/College

College of Science, Engineering, and Technology (COSET)

Degree Name

MS in Biology

First Advisor

Professor Shodimu-Emmanuel Olufemi

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are large classes of conserved small noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) that are generally made up of 18 to 22 nucleotides in length. They coordinate gene expression in unicellular and multicellular organisms at the posttranscription level by impeding translation and promoting degradation of target messenger RNA (mRNA). A single miRNA can modulate multiple mRNAs through binding to the seed nucleotide sequences at the 3' untranslated region (UTR). They control genes expression at the transcription level, which affects different cellular processes, such as cell growth, cell differentiation and cell death. They are involved in many diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Based on deduced computational analysis at the miRDB, miRNAs target numerous mRNAs that are yet to be validated. The focus of this study is to experimentally validate the predicted information at the miRDB that indicates that hsa-miR-1277 targets mRNAs of SPI and deduce the effects of SPI on 1 2 its upstream regulatory target genes. Findings from this study confirmed that hsa-miR- 1277-5p targets mRNA of SPI as predicted, which causes downregulation of SPI protein; and reduced SPI protein expression alters protein expressions of SPI upstream target regulatory genes in PC-3 cells

Download

Share

COinS