The Role of Retinal Degeneration Gene Crumbs in Alzheimer's Disease

The Role of Retinal Degeneration Gene Crumbs in Alzheimer's Disease

Presenter(s)

Magdalene Amponsah-Mensah

Comments

3:00-4:15, Kennedy Union Ballroom

Description

Magdalene Mensah, Sunanda Yogi, Amit Singh CRUMBS (crb) is a transmembrane protein important for apical-basal polarity and is known to be a negative regulator of the growth regulatory pathway. It plays a crucial role in the morphogenesis of photoreceptor cells. The human ortholog is CRB1 (crumbs cell polarity complex component 1), which has been implicated in retinitis pigmentosa and retinal degeneration. Drosophila melanogaster has a short life cycle and various developmental stages, making it a useful model to study disease progression. We aim to characterize the basic function of crb in the developing eye of Drosophila. There is a single fly gene, crb, which is orthologous to both isoforms of CRB1 and CRB2 in humans, making it an appropriate model system to study mutations in the crb gene. In our lab, we have overexpressed crb (gain-of-function) and downregulated crb (loss-of-function) using the UAS-Gal4 bipartite system. Retinal and neurological degeneration share similar cellular mechanisms, and their mechanistic pathways often coincide. Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that begins with the accumulation of abnormal plaques (Aβ42) and neurofibrillary tangles (Tau) in the brain. In our lab, we have previously modeled Alzheimer's disease by expressing human Aβ42 in Drosophila. This study aims to model retinal degeneration in the context of Alzheimer's disease. I will examine the effect of crb on Alzheimer's and score the resulting phenotypes, analyzing them across various developmental stages. This study could also be further extrapolated to human ocular diseases that result in progressive retinal degeneration.

Publication Date

4-23-2025

Project Designation

Independent Research

Primary Advisor

Madhuri Kango-Singh, Amit Singh

Primary Advisor's Department

Biology

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

The Role of Retinal Degeneration Gene Crumbs in Alzheimer's Disease

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