Photobiology of lightsensitive transcription factors

• Autor(a) principal: Domingos, Catarina Alexandra Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/30782
• topic: Protein structure and dynamics; Photoreceptors; Protein-DNA interactions; Noncanonical amino acids; Infrared spectroscopy

Protein structure and function is a major research area in life sciences. A novel field emerged since the discovery of proteins that are photosensitive. These photoreceptor proteins undergo light-induced structural changes, performing the most varied tasks and contributing to the operation of a large number of biological processes. The importance of this type of proteins is because in the near future it will possible to use them in different contexts and in a way that is beneficial to humans. The final curricular internship of the Master in Biological and Chemical Engineering was held at the Institute of Biotechnology of the BIOCEV research center located in Vestec, Czech Republic. I was received for a period of 5 months and was part of a multicultural team working on a project entitled Dynamics of Biological Processes . Throughout these 5 months of Master's degree internship, the main objective was to conduct a deeper study on the photoinduced changes of CarH and EL222 proteins. For both proteins, it is important to discover the conformational changes that occur between the dark state and the light state A realistic work plan was developed that is appropriate to the capabilities of both the team and the research center. At the end of the internship period, significant results were obtained . In particular, I demonstrated the possibility of introducing non-canonical amino acids in EL222 with sufficient yield for future infrared spectroscopy experiments. I also showed the feasibility of studying CarH structural dynamics by infrared spectroscopy.