Graduation Year

2021

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Biochemistry

Reader 1

Emily Wiley

Reader 2

Findley Finseth

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© YYYY Jillian M Batiuk

Abstract

Posttranslational modifications on histone H3 affect its interaction with DNA to increase or decrease DNA’s availability to proteins inside the nucleus of a cell. Most modifications are reversible, but an irreversible modification called histone clipping breaks a peptide bond near the N-terminus of H3 to permanently affect the histone-DNA interaction. Histone clipping has been discovered in many organisms, including Tetrahymena thermophila, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and mammalian cells as seen in Figure 1, but the purpose of the clipping is not well understood. Currently, the effects include increasing and decreasing the rate of transcription, inducing senescence, and partially deactivating the nucleus of some cells. Cervical cancer cells display histone clipping, but there is little known about them. A proposal to discover and characterize the epigenetic signature required for proteolysis to occur in cervical cancer, as well as determine where the clipping takes place within the cell is presented. This research can be utilized to begin to understand histone clipping in the context of medicine and determine if therapeutics can be developed from it.

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