Functions of Myc-associated genes in zebrafish ciliogenesis

• Main Author: Ong, Benjamin Wei Quan
• Other Authors: Sudipto Roy
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/67346
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Cilia are filamentous cellular protrusions that are highly conserved amongst eukaryotic organisms. There are two classes of cilia: motile and immotile. This project focus on motile cilia, and uses the zebrafish as the model organism —due to its genetic amenability — to investigate FoxJ1 induced genes (FIG) that are associated with the motile ciliogenic programme, such as mycbp, mycbpap, and maats1. The roles of these Myc-associated genes in ciliary differentiation and function were investigated by carrying out a loss-of-function study as well as expression pattern analysis. The mycbp morphants exhibited a variety of ciliary defect-associated phenotypes including hydrocephalus and curved axis. In the morphants, the loss of mycbp lead to 58% depletion of motile cilia in the zebrafish pronephric duct. In situ hybridization of mycbp showed that it is ubiquitously expressed in the zebrafish embryo. Further work is required for maats1 and mycbpap. Ciliary dysfunction leads to a host of human diseases. By using the zebrafish as a model organism, it is hoped that the study can provide new insights to cilia biology, which might contribute positively to emulating ciliary disease models in humans, whereby suitable treatments may be generated.