Following transcription of the genes esxB and esxA, encoding these two proteins, a processing event cleaves the portion encoding esxB and esxA from the upstream portion of the transcript. The processed esxB-esxA transcript has a 70 nucleotide, 5Â’ untranslated region (5Â’ UTR) that we hypothesized might increase the stability of the transcript through secondary structure folding resulting in two hairpin loops. We constructed novel reporter plasmids with deletions of the hairpin loops to study their role in transcript stability. It was concluded that the hairpins may not be necessary for transcript stability. Further experimentation is required for a complete understanding of the relationship between 5Â’ UTR sequence, secondary structure, transcript stability, and translation.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• de Rivera, John Henry

Contributors

• Ying, Zhou

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-032516-145748

Advisor

• Shell, Scarlet
• Argüello, José M.

Year

• 2016

Date created

• 2016-03-25

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Biochemistry

Rights statement

• In Copyright