Estudo de polimorfismos genéticos e da sua associaçäo com capacidades de produçäo leiteira em caprinos de raça Algarvia e ovinos de raça Serra da Estrela

Dissertação de mest. em Química Celular, Unidade de Ciências Exactas e Humanas, Univ. do Algarve, 1996

Structure, tissue distribution and estrogen regulation of splice variants of the sea bream estrogen receptor alpha gene

Estrogen actions are mainly mediated by specific nuclear estrogen receptors (ERs), for which different genes and a diversity of transcript variants have been identified, mainly in mammals. In this study, we investigated the presence of ER splice variants in the teleost fish gilthead sea bream (Sparus auratus), by comparison with the genomic organization of the related species Takifugu rubripes. Two exon2-deleted ERα transcript variants were isolated from liver cDNA of estradiol-treated fish. The ΔE2 variant lacks ERα exon 2, generating a premature termination codon and a putative C-terminal truncated receptor, while the ΔE2,3* variant contains an in-frame deletion of exon 2 and part of exon 3 and codes for a putative ERα protein variant lacking most of the DNA-binding domain. Both variants were expressed at very low levels in several female and male sea bream tissues, and their expression was highly inducible in liver by estradiol-17β treatment with a strong positive correlation with the typical wild-type (wt) ERα response in this tissue. These findings identify novel estrogen responsive splice variants of fish ERα, and provide the basis for future studies to investigate possible modulation of wt-ER actions by splice variants.

Gene activation and re-expression of a trypanosoma-brucei variant surface glycoptotein

The expression of the Trypanosoma brucei variant surface glycoprotein AnTat 1.1 proceeds by a mechanism that transfers a duplicated gene copy into a new genomic environment, the so-called expression site, where it will be expressed. We have isolated a genomic fragment containing the region spanning the expression site-transposon junction, and the 5' half of the coding sequence. Comparing this DNA segment with its template copy (basic copy) allowed us to identify the exact breaking point and indicated a base sequence which could be involved in initiating the transposition event. Sequencing data also indicated that the co-transposed segment 5' to the coding sequence is 430 bp in length. The extreme 5' end of the mRNA is derived from a region in the expression site not immediately adjacent to the transposed DNA segment. This particular sequence exists in multiple copies in the genome and is common to the mRNA of all variant surface glycoproteins so far analysed.

Constitutive OGG1 variant together with BRCA mutations display accelerated telomere shortening

Dissertação de mestrado, Oncobiologia, Departamento de Ciências Biomédicas e Medicina, Universidade do Algarve, 2015

Development of gene therapy to deliver the receptor-specific rhTRAIL DHER variant to induce apoptosis in activated hepatic stellate cells for the treatment of liver fibrosis

Dissertação de Mestrado, Engenharia Biológica, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2014

Functional analysis of a transcriptional variant of matrix gla protein (MGP)

Dissertação de Mestrado, Ciências Biomédicas, Departamento de Ciências Biomédicas e Medicina, Universidade do Algarve, 2014