GRADUATE PROGRAMS
GUIDELINES FOR PREPARING DISSERTATIONS/ THESIS DEFENSE ANNOUNCEMENT FLYER
1. Take a page in landscape page set-up and divide into two columns. Then fold the paper into half. This will make four half pages (both sides) from a standard A4 size paper. You may use a slightly thick paper.
2. Write your announcement in the format shown in the attached page. Briefly, in the front page, write your dissertation/thesis title, your name etc. In the second page, write the names of your committee members, your publications and future plan. In the third page, provide an abstract of your dissertation/thesis. You may include manuscripts in preparation also under your publications.
3. Prepare this at least one week before the presentation, get your major advisor's approval and send three copies to the Graduate Chair.
4. If you would like Graduate Chair to send these copies to your previous mentors and your biology or chemistry teachers who helped you to come to the MBBE Graduate Program, please provide their addresses.
5. Print it on color papers. Put on the notice board, send to different people as invitations and distribute copies at the time of presentation. Send copies to all those people whom you acknowledge in your dissertation/thesis.
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Page 1
An example of defense seminar announcement flyer
(Print in the landscape orientation on both sides of an A4 paper in two columns)
Oral Public Examination
For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Functions of mid and pyd genes required for mimosine degradation by Rhizobium sp. strain TAL1145
Jonathan David Awaya
2:15 PM
October 13, 2005
Agricultural Science Building, Room 219
Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Page 2
Committee Members
Dr. Dulal Borthakur (Chair)
Dr. Sean Callahan
Dr. Tung Hoang
Dr. John Hu
Dr. Qing Li
Publications
1. Awaya JD, Fox PM, Borthakur D (2005) pyd genes of Rhizobium sp. strain TAL1145 are required for degradation of 3-hydroxy-4-pyridone, an aromatic intermediate in mimosine metabolism. J. Bacteriol. 187 (13): 4480-4487.
2. Awaya J, Fox PM and Borthakur D (2003) Genes encoding a fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase and a fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase are present within the gene cluster for mimosine degradation in Rhizobium sp. strain TAL1145. Plant Soil 257: 11-18.
3. Awaya J, Walton C and Borthakur D. The pydA-pydB fusion gene produces an active dioxygenase-hydrolase protein in Rhizobium and Escherichia coli that degrades 3-hydroxy-4-pyridone, an intermediate of mimosine metabolism (manuscript in preparation).
Future plan
Postdoctoral research at Notre Dame starting on February 1, 2006
Page 3
ABSTRACT
Mimosine and 3-hydroxy-4-pyridone (HP) are toxic aromatic compounds produced in tree-legume leucaena(Leucaena leucocephala). These can be degraded by some leucaena-nodulating Rhizobium strains, such as TAL1145. Previously, a cosmid clone, pUHR263, containing the mid and pyd genes for mimosine and HP degradation, was isolated from a clone library of TAL1145. The aim of this project was to identify genes for mimosine and HP degradation in pUHR263 and determine their functions. Mimosine degradation by Rhizobium involves at least two major steps; in the first step mimosine is degraded to HP, which is then converted to pyruvate, formate and ammonia in the second step. Two structural genes, pydA and pydB, encode a meta-cleavage dioxygenase and a hydrolase, respectively. pydA and pydB are required for degradation of HP, and pydC, pydD and pydE encode proteins of an ABC-transport system involved in the uptake of HP by TAL1145. pydA, pydB, pydC, pydD, and pydE are induced by HP, although pydA and pydB show low levels of expression in the absence of HP. pydA and pydB are cotranscribed while pydC, pydD, and pydE are each transcribed from separate promoters. pydR is located upstream of the pyd genes and encodes a transcriptional regulator for the activation of pydA and pydB in the presence of HP. Elucidation of the HP degradation pathway in Rhizobium sp. strain TAL1145 may provide a useful strategy to genetically engineer leucaena and rhizosphere bacteria to disrupt the biosynthesis of mimosine and for bioremediation of aromatic toxins, respectively.
(End of the defense seminar announcement flyer)
