Abstract

It is well established that covalent lipid-modification of proteins can play an important role in the spatial and temporal organization of many intracellular signaling proteins. In particular, protein palmitoylation, the thioester linkage of a palmitate moiety to a cysteine residue, plays a critical role in promoting membrane binding. It also serves as a versatile sorting signal for membrane trafficking and precise microdomain partitioning. Classical studies using metabolic labeling have revealed that palmitoylation is dynamic, in which many substrates undergo palmitate cycling, and that turnover is regulated by extracellular signals. As such, the kinetics of palmitoylation cycling is dependent on the interplay between the palmitoyl transferases and thioesterases for efficient and precise localization and activity. Here, I present evidence for the regulation of GPCR signaling via protein depalmitoylation as well as the identification of a novel thioesterase that could potentially mediate this effect.

Committee Chair

Kendall J Blumer

Committee Members

Thomas Baranski, Ron Bose, Michael Bruchas, Phyllis Hanson, Hanson Huettner

Comments

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7KH0KKB

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Author's Department

Biology & Biomedical Sciences (Molecular Cell Biology)

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

Summer 8-15-2015

Language

English (en)

Author's ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9639-2528

Included in

Biology Commons

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