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Major
Biology
Anticipated Graduation Year
2021
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
DNA packaging affects a gene’s availability for transcription. Typically, loosely-packed euchromatic regions are gene rich and exhibit higher levels of gene transcription, while densely-packed heterochromatic regions are gene poor and exhibit less gene transcription. The 4th chromosome, or F Element, of Drosophila is unique, as it contains ~80 genes and is heterochromatic in nature, yet these genes are actively transcribed. Thus, Drosophila species provide an ideal model system for exploring how genes are accessed in heterochromatic regions and how well these mechanisms are conserved over millions of years of evolution. Working alongside the Genomics Education Partnership (GEP), genes of the F Element and the control D Element are being annotated across Drosophila species to identify unique features of genes on the F Element. My work has focused on contig1 of Drosophila ananassae. We have annotated the coding spans (CDS) of contig1, which contains five genes located on the autosomal euchromatic 3L chromosome, including CG4911. While CG4911 encodes 3 isoforms, conservation analysis reveals that the PB isoform is not well-conserved in Drosophila ananassae. This annotation data will serve as control data for comparison to heterochromatic annotation data on the F Element. By performing these annotations, we are contributing data for analysis to understand why the heterochromatic regions of Drosophila’s fourth chromosome are able to be transcribed.
Community Partners
The Genomics Education Partnership
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Jennifer Mierisch, Principal Investigator, Biology Department
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Genome Annotation of Contig1 in Drosophila ananassae
DNA packaging affects a gene’s availability for transcription. Typically, loosely-packed euchromatic regions are gene rich and exhibit higher levels of gene transcription, while densely-packed heterochromatic regions are gene poor and exhibit less gene transcription. The 4th chromosome, or F Element, of Drosophila is unique, as it contains ~80 genes and is heterochromatic in nature, yet these genes are actively transcribed. Thus, Drosophila species provide an ideal model system for exploring how genes are accessed in heterochromatic regions and how well these mechanisms are conserved over millions of years of evolution. Working alongside the Genomics Education Partnership (GEP), genes of the F Element and the control D Element are being annotated across Drosophila species to identify unique features of genes on the F Element. My work has focused on contig1 of Drosophila ananassae. We have annotated the coding spans (CDS) of contig1, which contains five genes located on the autosomal euchromatic 3L chromosome, including CG4911. While CG4911 encodes 3 isoforms, conservation analysis reveals that the PB isoform is not well-conserved in Drosophila ananassae. This annotation data will serve as control data for comparison to heterochromatic annotation data on the F Element. By performing these annotations, we are contributing data for analysis to understand why the heterochromatic regions of Drosophila’s fourth chromosome are able to be transcribed.