Presenter Information

Claire ChaikinFollow

Major

Biology

Anticipated Graduation Year

2021

Access Type

Open Access

Abstract

In Drosophila Melanogaster, the embryonic gonad is composed of somatic gonadal precursors (SGPs) and germ cells (GCs). The coalescence and compaction of SGPs is important for proper embryonic gonad formation.. In Drosophila, mutations in the Alk gene results in a failure of SGPs to undergo cluster fusion and compaction during gonad formation. To explore the role of ALK role in gametogenesis in Drosophila, the GAL4/UAS system was used to manipulate gene expression. Knockdown experiments were conducted using germ-cell specific nanos-Gal4, and result in defects in spermatogenesis in males. Experiments are underway to examine a requirement for Alk in somatic cells.

Faculty Mentors & Instructors

Jennifer Mierisch, Department of Biology

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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The Role of ALK (Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase) in Gonad Development

In Drosophila Melanogaster, the embryonic gonad is composed of somatic gonadal precursors (SGPs) and germ cells (GCs). The coalescence and compaction of SGPs is important for proper embryonic gonad formation.. In Drosophila, mutations in the Alk gene results in a failure of SGPs to undergo cluster fusion and compaction during gonad formation. To explore the role of ALK role in gametogenesis in Drosophila, the GAL4/UAS system was used to manipulate gene expression. Knockdown experiments were conducted using germ-cell specific nanos-Gal4, and result in defects in spermatogenesis in males. Experiments are underway to examine a requirement for Alk in somatic cells.