Students Home Current Students Recent Graduates 2001-2002 2000-2001 1999-2000 1998-1999 1997-1998 Selected Graduates from Previous Years Qinghua Wang wang0663@umn.edu University of Science and Technology of China Kylie Walters Lab In the Walters lab, I am using NMR spectroscopy to solve the solution structure of a C-terminal domain of the proteasome subunit S5a. S5a is a component of the 19s regulatory complex of the 26s proteasome and has been reported to bind polyubiquitin chains as well as the N-terminal ubiquitin-like domain of hHR23a. hHR23a is critical for DNA damage recognition and plays an important role in both nucleotide excision repair (NER) and base excision repair (BER). Additionally, hHR23a proteins have recently been implicated in proteasome-mediated protein degradation. The fragment of S5a that I am studying contains two ubiquitin binding segments. After using triple resonance experiments to obtain the backbone chemical shift assignments of S5a, I will map where hHR23a binds and study the complex of these two proteins. This work will provide valuable insights into the relationship between proteasome activity and DNA repair.