CRISPR CREam for Fruit Flies: Developing a Genome-Editing Approach to Study the Cis-regulatory Elements that Control the Activities of Genes

CRISPR CREam for Fruit Flies: Developing a Genome-Editing Approach to Study the Cis-regulatory Elements that Control the Activities of Genes

Presenter(s)

Alexandra M Hallagan

Description

Animal genomes possess over ten thousand genes and the number of cis-regulatory elements (CREs) controlling their utilization is perhaps ten times as numerous. Moreover, animal diversity has been prominently shaped by changes in these CREs. Thus, understanding the function of CREs and their evolutionary modification is necessary to grasp how animals develop and evolve. An ideal genetic approach to study CREs is to remove and then replace them with a variant CRE to see how development changes. However, a feasible method does not exist to study the numerous CREs and their variant forms. My thesis sought to develop an approach to delete CREs from a fruit fly genome and subsequently replace them with variant forms by combining the CRISPR/Cas9 system with recombination mediated cassette exchange. Success here should provide a powerful genetic capability for future research in various species and perhaps inspire ways to treatment human genetic disorders.

Publication Date

4-5-2017

Project Designation

Honors Thesis - Undergraduate

Primary Advisor

Thomas M. Williams

Primary Advisor's Department

Biology

Keywords

Stander Symposium project

CRISPR CREam for Fruit Flies: Developing a Genome-Editing Approach to Study the Cis-regulatory Elements that Control the Activities of Genes

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