Description:

Speaker: Tucker Shriver, PhD Candidate, Ziarek Lab. 

"Interdomain Isoleucines Report on Arrestin 2 Interactions in Solution"

Arrestin’s inherent dynamics are critical to its ability to recognize over 800 GPCRs and communicate their signaling states inside the cell with fidelity, yet this same dynamicism prevents traditional NMR approaches. Herein I use a suite of methyl-based NMR experiments to explore Arrestin 2’s dynamics in apo and show how these methyl groups can be used as a novel probe of Arrestin 2 activation. Such work lays the foundation for further studies with various binding partners and how they influence the dynamic balance of states within this complex signaling protein.

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Speaker: Dalton Jun-da Huey, PhD Candidate, George Lab.

"Inactivating mutations of an upstream open reading frame alleviate translational repression of KCNQ2"
Heterozygous loss-of-function variants in the KCNQ2 gene, which encodes a neuronal voltage-gated potassium channel, can cause severe developmental encephalopathies for which no cure is available. We identified an upstream open reading frame (uORF) within the 5'-UTR sequence of the KCNQ2 transcript that represses translation of the protein. Introducing mutations that inactivate the uORF result in greater KCNQ2 protein levels for both in vitro and in vivo model systems, implicating the uORF as a novel regulator of KCNQ2 translation.