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Vaccinia virus (VACV) is a valuable tool to study host-virus interactions and encodes a plethora of immunomodulatory proteins, among which three, A55, C2 and F3, have a BTB/BACK-Kelch (BBK) structure and are the focus of this study. Proteins containing BTB and Kelch domains function as adapters for the cullin 3 (Cul3)-based E3 ubiquitylation system. VACV BBKs are not essential for viral replication, but they all affect the lesion size induced by infection in an intradermal murine model. Viruses lacking any one of these BBK proteins also induce increased inflammatory cell infiltration into lesions. Deleting A55R or C2L also causes different plaque morphology and cytopathic effect in cultured cells. The mechanisms underpinning these observations were unknown, and hence were the objectives of this study. Besides, the interaction between Cul3 and VACV BBKs, the cellular substrates of A55, C2 and/or F3, and the outcome of targeting these substrates were also investigated. The effect of VACV BBKs on innate immune signalling was studied, and NF-κB was selected as a starting point because the ectromelia virus (ECTV) orthologue of A55, ECTV EVM150, inhibits NF-κB signalling. Consistent with this, A55, C2 and F3 all inhibit NF-κB signalling pathway by diminishing p65 nuclear translocation. Specifically, A55 associates with importin KPNA2 and impairs the interaction between KPNA2 and p65, hence reducing p65 importation into the nucleus. A55 interacts with Cul3 directly and with high affinity, although the ability to inhibit NF-κB is independent of binding Cul3. In contrast, C2 and F3 do not interact with Cul3. However, C2 associates with A55, and via A55, it forms a complex with Cul3. A working model was proposed in which A55, Cul3 and C2 form a complex, in which A55 binds Cul3 and C2 brings in substrates, leading to the ubiquitylation of substrates followed by protein degradation or modification. To examine this working model and to identify novel viral BBKs substrates, an unbiased tandem mass tag (TMT) mass spectrometry was carried out. Three cellular proteins, Fer, Scrib and RASA2, are degraded during infection by wild type VACV, but not by mutant VACVs lacking either C2 or A55. Thus, A55 and C2 function collaboratively. A55 and C2 degrade Scrib, and an interaction between A55 and Cul3 is required for this. Using Scrib knockout (KO) cell lines, it was found that Scrib restricts VACV spread. It was also found that VACV upregulates TGF-β signalling and Scrib influences the pathway. Besides its adaptor protein role in the A55/Cul3 complex, C2 also associates with a small GTPase named Cdc42. Cdc42 is stable during VACV infection, meaning that C2 does not degrade Cdc42 via A55/Cul3. However, Cdc42 is activated by VACV, and this activation is promoted by C2. Overall, this study shows VACV expresses the family of BBK proteins to modulate intracellular signalling and hijack host Cul3-ubiquitin system to target cellular proteins.

Neutron diffraction has become a power tool in studies of multi-phase materials such as Ni-base superalloys, provided that diffraction peak from each phase is distinguishable. However, for γ''-strengthened Ni-base superalloys like Inconel 718, applications of neutron diffraction have been limited to studies associated with γ matrix phase. Problems related to the γ'' phase is rarely investigated using neutron diffraction since the γ'' peaks are hardly discerned in diffraction patterns. The present research is devoted to the development of a novel method using stress-induced variant selection (SIVS) effect to make the γ'' peaks discernible in diffraction patterns, and the application of such a method in researches focused on the γ'' phase in Inconel 718. The three γ'' variants can have preferential growth (selection) by applying a stress during aging heat treatment. This effect leads to an enhanced intensity of a γ'' peak at the expense of the other γ'' peaks, resulting in a discernible γ'' peak that can be fitted with relatively high accuracy in neutron diffraction experiments carried out in the ENGIN-X neutron diffractometer. Using this method, elastic properties of the γ'' phase are studied in tensile loading tests. The γ'' phase is found to be stiffer along its c-axis than along a-axis, as well as stiffer than the γ matrix phase. Constrained misfit strain is measured at various temperatures ranged from room temperature (RT) to 664 °C. Misfit stresses are interpreted using Eshelby's inclusion theory. It is found that the misfit stresses in the γ'' precipitates are 3.0 GPa and 1.7 GPa compressive along the c-axis and a-axis, respectively, at RT. The γ'' phase shows a similar coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of its a-axis to that of the γ phase, while a smaller CTE of its c-axis than that of the γ phase, this leads to the misfit stresses decrease with increasing temperature. Evolution of lattice spacing of both the γ and γ'' phases during aging heat treatment is monitored in situ using neutron diffraction. It is indicated by the evolution of peak width that the majority of γ'' precipitates are formed within the first 1.8 hours of aging. The non-monotonic evolution of lattice strain suggests that the change in chemical composition has a dominant influence on the lattice spacing before 5 hours of aging, then the change in morphology of the γ'' precipitates (coarsening) takes the major role in affecting the lattice spacing. Deformation behaviour of the γ'' phase is studied during tensile loading tests from the lattice strain response to the applied stress. From the evolution of the lattice strain and peak width of both the γ and γ'' phases, it is revealed that dislocation shearing mechanism acts at the early stage of plastic deformation, while dislocation bowing occurs in the later stage. Deformation twinning may also happen in γ'' precipitates with disk-plane parallel to the loading direction. The several studies associated with the γ'' phase in Inconel 718 superalloy reported in this thesis have proven that the SIVS method is a promising approach with broad applications in researches of the γ''-strengthened Ni-base superalloys including Inconel 718 and its derivatives. The presented results also contribute to the fundamental understanding of the γ'' phase in Inconel 718 and benefit the development of such a prominently used material in industry.