Faculty
Biology
Supervisor Name
Amanda J. Moehring
Description
In Drosophila, the fruitless (fru) gene encodes an array of alternatively spliced transcription factors, some of which are sex-specifically spliced. The male-specific transcript (fruM) has been previously determined to be involved in male courtship behaviours. The female counterpart (fruF) however, has been assumed to have no function due to the incorporation of a stop codon near the 5' end of the transcript. Interestingly, RNAseq data shows that expression levels of fruF in females exceeds that of fruM in males in the brain and thoracoabdominal ganglion, bringing to question the designation of fruF as a non-functional transcript. Here, CRISPR targeted gene editing is used with the intention of determining if an underlying function of fruF does in fact exist.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the entire Moehring lab for the opportunity to work alongside of them. They have all been tremendously helpful and I appreciate the amount of time they have spent sharing their knowledge with me. I would also like to thank the USRI program for providing me the chance to take on this project, it has been an experience I will not forget and has prepared me for my future more than I could have ever expected.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Document Type
Poster
Investigating the Biological Function of Female-Specific Fruitless Transcripts
In Drosophila, the fruitless (fru) gene encodes an array of alternatively spliced transcription factors, some of which are sex-specifically spliced. The male-specific transcript (fruM) has been previously determined to be involved in male courtship behaviours. The female counterpart (fruF) however, has been assumed to have no function due to the incorporation of a stop codon near the 5' end of the transcript. Interestingly, RNAseq data shows that expression levels of fruF in females exceeds that of fruM in males in the brain and thoracoabdominal ganglion, bringing to question the designation of fruF as a non-functional transcript. Here, CRISPR targeted gene editing is used with the intention of determining if an underlying function of fruF does in fact exist.