Molecular Biophysics Unit (MBU)
Recent Submissions
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Role of Second (p)ppGpp Synthetase MS_RHII-RSD in Mycobacterium smegmatis
Adaptation to a rapidly fluctuating environment is the key to the survival of an organism. Bacteria sense and respond to stress by an overall reprogramming of the cellular processes to shut down the energy-consuming processes ... -
Role of RNA Polymerase ω Subunit in Metabolism and Stress Response
RNA polymerase (RNAP) is the key enzyme in transcription and it is a multi-subunit enzyme made up of alpha, beta, beta prime and omega subunit in the stoichiometry of α2ββω. Except for the smallest subunit ω (rpoZ), all ... -
Structural Characterization of Biological Macromolecules by Random Conical Tilt Pair Experiments
Structural biology deals with determining the structure of biological macromolecules especially proteins, DNA, RNA. The conformational changes in the structure of a macromolecule helps to decipher its function. This ... -
Structural and Biochemical Studies on Mycobacterial Uracil- DNA N-glycosylase and Mut T1
Maintenance of the genomic integrity of the cell is crucial for the survival and successful propagation of an organism. However, this integrity is under continuous threat from DNA-damaging agents. In addition, errors in ... -
Protein Structure and Mutant Phenotype Prediction from Analysis of Mutant Libraries by Deep Sequencing
Proteins play a central role in all the biological processes. The immense diversity in protein structures and functions despite similar underlying composition is intriguing. The work presented in this thesis aims to provide ... -
Exploration of the Recombination Repair Pathway in Mycobacteria : Identification and Characterization of New Proteins
Genomic integrity is a fundamental requisite for survival and proliferation of all organisms. The genetic material is continuously threatened by a multitude of extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Consequently, the presence ... -
Structural Studies on Non-toxic Homologues of type II Ribosome Inactivating Proteins (RIPs)
This thesis is concerned with structural and related studies on two non-toxic homologues of type II RIPs. Type II RIPs, which are more toxic than type I, contain an additional lectin chain (B-chain) covalently linked to ... -
Structural and Functional Characterisation of Small Heat Shock Protiens from Mycobacterium Marinum M
Small Heat Shock Proteins (sHSP) are ATP-independent molecular chaperones that exhibit diversity in structure, function and mode of action. They are present ubiquitously in all kingdoms of life. They function mainly by ... -
Pranlukast as an Allosteric Inhibitor of M.Tuberculosis Ornithine Acetyltransferase : Implication Towards Novel Combinatorial Therapy
Tuberculosis (TB) is a deadly disease responsible for the death of approximately 1.5 million people each year, with the highest being from developing nations. Tuberculosis affects mostly the lungs, and other parts of the ... -
Biophysical Studies on Mycobacterium Tuberculosis σ Factor – Regulatory Protein Complexes
Adaptation to external environmental conditions is essential for the survival of a bacterial cell. Bacteria have thus evolved multiple mechanisms to sense environmental stimuli and to couple this information into an ... -
Effects of Cyclic Permutation, Glycan Removal and Aspartate Mutagenesis on Conformation of HIV-1 Envelope
It has been decades since Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1) was discovered. The virus has created havoc worldwide. According to the UNAIDS 2014 Gap report, 35million people worldwide are infected with HIV-1 and yet ... -
G-Protein Coupled Estrogen Receptor (hGPER)- Mediated Action of 17β-Estradiol on hTREK-1 Potassium Channel
TREK-1 is a two-pore domain potassium channel that contributes to maintenance of the resting membrane potential of a cell. TREK-1 is involved in several physiological and pathophysiological conditions like nociception, ... -
Theta-band Spectral Selectivity and Gamma-range Coincidence Detection in Spike Initiation Dynamics of Hippocampal Pyramidal Neurons
In the pursuit to understand information processing in the brain, a general question that is often posed is: What is the neuron encoding? This is addressed by assessing feature selectivity in sensory neurons, which informs ... -
(p)ppGpp and c-di-GMP : A Tale of Two Second Messengers in Mycobacterium smegmatis
Nucleotide based second messengers are known to regulate wide variety of processes in all domains of life. Two such bacterial second messengers are (p)ppGpp (guanosine tetra- or pentaphosphate) and c-di-GMP (cyclic dimeric ... -
HIV-1 Immunogen Design : Envelope Protein Minimization, Stabilization and Glycan Removal
Effective vaccines exist for a number of viral diseases. However, despite much effort, there is no successful vaccine against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1). The envelope glycoprotein (Env) of HIV-1 gp120, the ... -
Rational Elicitation of Cold Sensitive Phenotypes
Conditional gene expression and conditional mutants provide a means to modulate the expression of specific genes and to control the activity of their protein products in vivo, so as to be able to study their effects on the ... -
Plasticity of Intrinsic Excitability in Fast Spiking Interneurons of the Dentate Gyrus & Its Implications for Neuronal Network Dynamics
Inhibitory GABAergic neurons, although forming a minor proportion of the neuronal population in the central nervous system, have been reported to be crucial for different physiological states of the brain. Among the vast ... -
Structure- Function Studies on Triosephosphate Isomerase : Some Old Questions, Some New Insights
This thesis describes biophysical, kinetic, structural, and sequence conservation analysis of the glycolytic enzyme triosephosphate isomerase (TIM). TIM catalyses the diffusion limited isomerization of D-glyceraldehyde-3-phospahte ... -
Crystallization and Preliminary Structural Studies on Mycobacterium tuberculosis RuvX
The deadly pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been characterized for its virulence in immense detail. Regardless of this, the capability of M. tuberculosis to combat extreme stress conditions inside the host cell for ... -
Synergistic Influence of Gene Architecture and Promoter Structure on Transcription in Plants : An in silico Analysis
Understanding the structural organisation of genome and insightful information of gene has helped in exploring the regulation and expression of the gene at a molecular and cellular level. In eukaryotes, the gene regulation ...