Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Julia De Faria Aildasani, and I am a second-year undergraduate student at Florida State University. I am originally from São Paulo, Brazil, and I’m currently on the pre-med track with a strong passion for chemistry, biology, and medicine. My current research focuses on investigating the role of Csm1 in regulating Ulp2 activity and cell cycle progression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. I am excited to be part of FSU's undergraduate research symposium and to share the findings of our work with a broader academic community.

Investigating the Role of Csm1 in Regulating Ulp2 Activity and Cell Cycle Progression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

In this study we used the organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or better known as budding yeast. The protein ulp2 within our model organism can be described as a peptidase that cleaves Smt3/SUMO-1 peptides from proteins, it contributes to chromosome cohesion at centromeric regions, recovery from checkpoint arrest caused by DNA damage or DNA replication defect, and RNA splicing (Engel, 2024). Moreover, it is a potential substrate of Cdc28p and its human homolog, PML, which is associated with promyelocytic leukemia and can partially compensate for the loss of function in yeast mutants (Engel, 2024). Additionally, ulp2 is recruited to the nucleolus by the csm1-binding domain (de Albuquerque, 2018). We know that csm1 is an essential protein for nucleolar activity; therefore, we expect to see lower ulp2 activity and premature mitotic exit in yeast cells with csm1Δ compared to the wild-type. To test this, a csm1Δ ulp2-myc phosphorylation western blot (G1 arrest) will be performed. The cells will be synchronized in the first cell cycle stage using alpha factor, released, then time points will be taken from 0 to 140 minutes. In the experiment, we expect to see a slight increase in ulp2 phosphorylation over the course of the cell cycle as well as premature ulp2 phosphorylation of S. cerevisiae, for Csm1Δ. This research is significant because it builds upon the foundational knowledge of biochemical pathways relevant to human disease such as chromosome nondisjunction and cancer.

Keywords: Biology, Cell Cycle Progression, Ulp2 activity