Inder K. Vijay
Ph.D. - University of California, Davis, 1971
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Professor
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Department of Animal and Avian Science
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University of Maryland
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College Park, MD 20742
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2414A Animal Science, Campus 2311
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Phone: (301)-405-5446
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FAX: 301-405-1407
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E-mail: iv1@umail.umd.edu
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| Research Interests: Developmental regulation of mammary glycoprotein synthesis. |
We are interested in the developmental regulation of gene expression. The experimental
paradigm is the developmental and hormonal regulation of the machinery for the
assembly of the carbohydrate precursor for the biosynthesis of asparagine-linked
glycoproteins during the ontogeny of the mammary gland. Two key enzymes have been
targeted for these investigations. 1, UDP-N-acetylglucosamine: dolichol-P N-acetylglucosamine-1-P-transferase
(GPT); 2, glucosidase I (Glu I). GPT commits the eukaryotic cell and initiates
the dolichol phosphate-linked assembly of the carbohydrate precursor, whereas
GluI triggers the polypeptide-linked maturation phase of all
asparagine-linked glycoproteins. Both of these enzymes have been purified and
their cDNAs and genes have been obtained. GPT expression during the lactogenic
differentiation of the mammary gland appears to be regulated by a repressor. Current
studies on this enzyme are focused on characterizing the repressor, with the goal
to delineate the molecular mechanisms of its action for gene control during lactogenic
signal transduction. Ongoing studies on GluI are focused on defining the architecture
of its active site and the amino acids implicated in its catalytic function. Efforts
are also underway to study the regulation of this enzyme during mammary lactogenesis
and to explore a common regulatory switch with GPT to understand the co-ordinate
regulation of enzymes of protein N-glycosylation during the ontogeny of the mammary
gland.
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