Title

Finding dex-1 Phenotype Suppressing Components

Authors

Matthew Barnum, Triton College
Kristen Flatt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Nathan E. Schroeder, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Summer 2018

Abstract

Caenorhabditis elegans is a species of microscopic round worm that has been used as a genetic model for over forty years. When in an adverse environment, C. elegans larvae cease reproductive development and enter the stress-resistant dauer stage.

dex-1 mutants of C. elegans are deficient in this protein, resulting in shortened dendrites and a sensitivity to sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). SDS will kill any non-dauer C. elegans, but wild type dauers will survive well past the standard concentration of 1% SDS. Thus, treatment with SDS is commonly how labs isolate dauers. By contrast, dex-1 dauers (Fig.3) will die when exposed to 1% SDS, but can potentially survive when exposed to less.

The focus of this lab is to characterize the genetic pathways that facilitate morphological changes that occur during the dauer stage by finding potential interactors of dex-1 during dauer when conducting a suppressor screen.

Rights

Copyright is owned by the creator of this work.

Comments

Neuroscience Program and the Department of Crop Sciences, College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, both at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Financial support was provided by the National Science Foundation under grant #NSF REU 1559908/1559929, as part of the Phenotypic Plasticity Research Experience for Community College Students, through the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign Institute for Genomic Biology and Parkland College

Recommended Citation

Barnum, Matthew; Flatt, Kristen; and Schroeder, Nathan E., "Finding dex-1 Phenotype Suppressing Components" (2018). PRECS 2018. 3.
https://spark.parkland.edu/precs_2018/3