The role of the chromosomal passenger complex and condensin complex in meiotic chromosome cohesion and segregation

The canonical mitotic cell cycle is modified in metazoans to achieve a variety of developmental goals. Among these, meiotic divisions reduce the DNA content of the cell, haploid gametes fuse and reenter mitotic cycling, and mitoses of early embryogenesis, in many animals, employ a rapid cell cycle that lacks gap phases. Much less is understood about regulation of these developmentally regulated cell cycles, than about canonical mitosis, because they cannot be studied in tissue culture systems and because mutations that specifically affect these processes are rare. This thesis describes a screen to characterize mutants that display defects in these programs in Drosophila melanogaster. This model system allowed use of powerful tools for genetic and cell biological analyses of these mutants. Nineteen mutants with defects in this developmental window were screened and placed them into five phenotypic classes, including mutants that displayed defects in fertilization, pronuclear fusion, and mitosis and DNA synthesis in the early divisions of embryogenesis. Among these mutations, one was mapped and molecularly characterized as an allele of the passenger complex component incenp.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Biology.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Resnick, Tamar Deborah

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Terry L. Orr-Weaver.

• Biology.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38990

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38990