Biological Sciences thesis and dissertation collection
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Recent Submissions
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Chemical biotechnology strategies for adipic acid synthesis
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-25)Adipic acid is one of the most widely-used and valuable platform chemicals. However, industrial adipic acid synthesis is environmentally damaging, as it produces greenhouse gas and relies on non-renewable petrochemical ... -
Understanding the physiological basis of post-flowering nitrogen (N) dynamics in spring barley to improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE)
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-24)Identifying ways to improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in cereal production is a major international research priority. It has been estimated that globally only around 40% of N from fertilizer is recovered in the grain ... -
Thioredoxins enable selective and reversible redox signalling in plants
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-20)Accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in eukaryotic cells is associated with several biological processes, including environmental stress responses. ROS levels are usually maintained at low levels by an extensive ... -
Investigating the role SUMO plays in heterochromatin formation in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-17)In eukaryotic cells, DNA is organized by histones and associated proteins into a complex that is called chromatin. The fundamental subunit of chromatin is the nucleosome that is composed of eight histone proteins and a ... -
Electrophysiological functions of microbes
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-07-06)Akin to neurons, all microbes maintain an electric potential (a.k.a. membrane voltage) across their membranes. The exact function and generation mechanism of microbial membrane voltage remains elusive. Microbes also maintain ... -
Role of TEX15 in piRNA-directed de novo DNA methylation in the developing male germline
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-12)The PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway instructs DNA methylation of young active transposable elements (TEs) in the male germline via the PIWI protein MIWI2. In the proposed model MIWI2 is recruited to transcriptionally ... -
Post-transcriptional regulation of the circadian clock in Ostreococcus tauri
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-11)The cellular landscape changes dramatically over the course of a 24 h day. The proteome responds directly to daily environmental cycles and is additionally regulated by the circadian clock. Historically, models of the ... -
P1 phagemid-based delivery of Cas9 antimicrobial into Shigella flexneri
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-12-22)A bacteriophage P1 phagemid system allowed efficient packaging of a DNA-sequence specific, Cas9 antimicrobial into transducing particles, which could be used to infect and kill pathogenic bacteria, such as Shigella ... -
Laplace transform in population genetics: from theory to efficient algorithms
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-12-06)Extracting information on the selective and demographic past of populations contained in samples of genome sequences requires a description of the distribution of the underlying genealogies. Using the Laplace transform, ... -
Model reduction, mechanistic modelling and transience in models of stochastic chemical kinetics
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-11-28)Now, it is long known that gene expression and chemical kinetics are subject to random fluctuations. These lead to deviations from deterministic models that do not account for the random nature of biochemical kinetics. ... -
Investigating the role of RNAi and epigenetic modifications in the basidiomycetes yeast Cryptococcus deneoformans
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-11-25)The basidiomycete yeasts from the Cryptococcus neoformans/gattii species complex are major fungal pathogens and are particularly prevalent in the developing world. The species within the complex are rapidly evolving, ... -
Investigating the redundancy and specificity of YTHDF proteins
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-11-24)N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant internal messenger RNA (mRNA) modification. It affects nearly every aspect of mRNA metabolism such as splicing, transport and decay. m6A is a dynamic modification: a “writer” ... -
Mitochondrial dysfunction triggers distinct defects in meiotic chromatin arrangements
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-11-18)The accurate transmission of genetic material in the germline is of vital importance to the offspring since the entire organism is affected. It is therefore critical that chromosomes are faithfully distributed during ... -
Towards a synthetic biology platform for the production of in vitro plant biomass
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-11-16)To meet climatic targets, we require an urgent shift from the petroleum industry, alongside concerted rewilding efforts to sustain vital natural carbon sinks and biodiversity. Sourcing materials and fuels from plants ... -
Synthetic biology approach to engineer novel commercial variants of cyanobacterial pigment proteins
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-11-26)Phycocyanin (PC) is a high-value blue pigment protein obtained from cyanobacteria and red algae. Inside the cell it is mainly responsible for light absorption at 620 nm as part of the light harvesting phycobilisome (PBS) ... -
Single cell analysis provides insight into haematopoietic differentiation of human embryonic stem cells
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-10-19)One of the challenges in regenerative medicine remains generating functional haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) of clinical quantity. Utilizing data from single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of human embryonic stem ... -
Circadian magnesium transport in eukaryotic cells
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-10-18)Circadian clocks have arisen in most eukaryotes and some prokaryotes to anticipate the rhythmic environmental changes imposed by Earth’s daily rotation on itself. These daily timekeeping mechanisms provide a competitive ... -
Novel genome editing technique in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and its underlying DNA repair pathway
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-10-04)The green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is an important model organism, with potential industrial biotechnology applications, including potential for vaccine production (e.g., TransAlgae, Israel) and vegan protein ... -
Fruit softening: demonstration of in-vivo pectate lyase and rhamnogalacturonan lyase action
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-09-29)The programmed softening that occurs during fruit development requires scission of wall and/or middle lamella polysaccharides, especially pectin. Proposed mechanisms include the action of cell-wall enzymes [e.g. pectate ... -
Mechanistic and functional insights into the human kinesin motor CENP-E in cell division
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-09-26)During mitosis, chromosomes align at the spindle equator and biorient in order to equally distribute the genome into two daughter cells. A macromolecular protein complex, known as the kinetochore, facilitates the end-on ...
