Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2023

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department

Oral Biology

Degree Program

Oral Biology, MS

Committee Chair

Potempa, Jan

Committee Member

Bagaitkar, Juhi

Committee Member

Graham, James

Committee Member

Uriarte, Silvia

Author's Keywords

Porphyromonas gingivalis; Gingipains; protein purification; protease purification

Abstract

Porphyromonas gingivalis is a keystone oral pathogen in the progression of periodontal disease and has been implicated in the etiology of many other systemic human diseases. P. gingivalis produces primary virulence factors termed the gingipains, a group of cysteine proteases. There is a high demand for high purity gingipains for downstream in vitro studies where P.g. is implicated, both oral and systemic. Gingipain production candidate mutant P.g. strains were generated to isolate each gingipain for large scale purification and the purified gingipains characterized. Two mutants were determined not to be viable for large scale purification of gingipains, each for different reasons, which may give some insight into novel mechanisms of adaption in P. gingivalis.

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