Functional Roles of the Drosophila gypsy Insulator Components

To investigate the molecular mechanism underlying chromatin insulator activities, we focus our studies on one of the best understood insulators, the gypsy insulator of Drosophila. The gypsy insulator functions through its binding protein complex, which include Su(Hw), Mod(mdg4), Cp190 and other interacting proteins.To understand the underlying mechanism of the locomotive defects in our CP190 mutants, thoracic muscles and motor neurons morphologies were examined. Flight muscle patterns were similar in wide-type adult flies and mutant adult flies. Abnormal motor neuron innervation was observed in CP190 mutants, indicating Cp190 protein is involved in the process of nerve innervation and fles' movement.In search for new molecules interacting with gypsy insulator complex, we performed deficiency mapping to one of the dominant enhancers of mod(mdg4)T6, En(mod)14. We narrowed the mutation to two smaller regions on the left arm of second chromosome, but did not identify the exact mutation locus, indicating existing genetic interaction. Future work will be focused on the identification of mutation and find new potential molecules involved in gypsy insulator function.Work in pds5 and CP190 RNA interference in different cell lines was also documented. By far, dsRNA treatment is effective in S2 cells for both pds5 and CP190 genes, which is ready for transcriptome analysis. Reduction was observed in KC and 167 BG3 cells, but not significant. Future work is needed to test transfection efficiency in the other two cell lines and finally move to the transcriptome analysis.

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's Degree

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Liu, Meng

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Pai, Chi-Yun

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Kidd, Thomas
• Yan, Wei

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright(All Rights Reserved)

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11714/3643

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarwolf.unr.edu:11714/3643