Novel role of miR-137 in the eye development of Drosophila

Novel role of miR-137 in the eye development of Drosophila

Presenter(s)

Rad Radhika Padma

Comments

Presentation: 11:00-11:20 a.m., Science Center 150

Description

microRNAs (miRNAs) are 18-22 nucleotide short, which constitute a significant fraction of noncoding repertoire of the genome. miRNA regulate the expression of their target gene(s) through post-transcriptional means. These miRNA interacts with 3′ or 5′ UTRs of mRNAs, thereby stopping the translation by degradation of their target mRNA. miRNAs are evolutionarily conserved across taxa and can regulate more than one target mRNAs. We employed a forward genetic screen to look for the miRNA that affects eye development using Drosophila melanogaster eye model. Drosophila compound eye has been extensively used for the genome wide screen as it is easy to score the phenotypes, the genetic machinery to form an eye is highly conserved and it is nonessential for survival. In this screen, we identified a miRNA-137, which affects the eye development. Our investigations showed that the gain-of-function miRNA-137 in the developing eye-antennal imaginal disc significantly reduces the eye size in the larval eye imaginal disc and the adult eye. We employed bioinformatic tools to identify the target(s)of miRNA-137 using targetscan and Diana software. We identified four putative targets for miRNA-137 in the developing eye. We are in process of characterizing the roles of these targets in eye development and to validate that these candidate gene(s) expression is affected by miRNA-137 using molecular genetic approaches. Here we present our characterization of novel role of miRNA-137 role in the developing eye.

Publication Date

4-19-2023

Project Designation

Independent Research

Primary Advisor

Amit Singh

Primary Advisor's Department

Biology

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Institutional Learning Goals

Scholarship

Novel role of miR-137 in the eye development of Drosophila

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