Isolation of a cDNA for Drosophila melanogaster manganese superoxide dismutase

• Main Author: Carmichael, Stuart
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/3766

Numerous phenomena in aging animals are thought to result from chemical damage by activated oxygen species. One of the prime candidates for a causative agent in aging is superoxide, a free radical species resulting from single electron transfer to molecular oxygen. Superoxide is produced in normal metabolism by occasional adventitious oxidation of electron carriers higher up in the electron-transport chain (ETC) by oxygen, and by the activities of several oxidative enzymes, such as xanthine oxidase. A cDNA for Drosophila manganese-containing matrix localized superoxide dismutase was cloned and sequenced. To study the effects on Drosophila life span of reducing mitochondrial matrix superoxide levels, protein over expression studies by introduction of extra copies of the gene in a genetically defined background population were planed. A partial gene for a putative manganese superoxide dismutase from an unknown organism was also isolated. Manganese and iron superoxide dismutase protein homology groups and sequence conservation are also explored. === Medicine, Faculty of === Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of === Graduate