The SecB protein helps export proteins by:

You plan to synthesize a peptide to be used as a vaccine to treat melanoma, a particularly aggressive form of skin cancer. Normally, gp100, a protein on the surface of melanocytes, activates cell growth when it is bound by its ligand. Activation of the growth pathway depends on the presence of threonine in the ligand. The effective peptide vaccine will mimic the natural ligand, but won’t cause cell growth and division. Below is the sequence of the natural ligand:   LDMKTAG   In order to ensure your newly designed peptide vaccine does not cause cell growth upon binding, you must substitute the Threonine residue at position 5. What amino acid would you replace it with, bearing in mind that the peptide should still be similar enough to bind to the gp100 protein in the surface of melanocytes. Explain your choice. Your vaccine will be administered as a topical cream, and you require your peptide to have an overall neutral charge in order to be functional. At what pH should you formulate…

9. Shown below is a binding pocket for a protein with a ligand bound. The ligand interacts with a serine and a valine side chain. ligand a. Briefly explain, in terms of Ka, the effect of a mutation that replaces the serine residue with a valine residue. b. Briefly explain, in terms of Kd, the effect of a mutation that alters the ligand (as seen below) binding to the original, unmutated, binding site. :0: ligand 2

Expression of a gene, in terms of greater production of the protein it encodes, could be increased by ...   Question 12 options: A)  increasing transcription of that gene. B)  inhibiting proteases that break down the protein it encodes C)  increasing the half life of its mRNA transcript D)  A and C E)  A, B and C