Autoregulation of the Glial Gene Reversed Polarity in Drosophila Melanogaster

Author

Chase Suiter, University of Mississippi. Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Bradley Jones

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Autoregulation is the process where an encoded protein is able to bind to and positively or negatively regulate its own expression. Autoregulatory loops are crucial for sustained gene expression, and such loops have been demonstrated to be important for development in organisms ranging from Danio rerio to Arabidopsis thaliana and Drosophila melanogaster. The cells of the nervous system arise from progenitor cells that eventually adopt one of two fates: neuronal or glial. This decision is controlled by glial cells missing; however glial cells missing is expressed briefly at the beginning development. The glial gene repo is a gene that is activated by gcm. Following activation, repo is expressed for the rest of the life span of the organism. In this study, we present evidence that Repo is capable of sustaining its own expression through a positive autoregulatory mechanism.

Recommended Citation

Suiter, Chase, "Autoregulation of the Glial Gene Reversed Polarity in Drosophila Melanogaster" (2017). Honors Theses. 187.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/187

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