Analysis of a Gene Regulatory Network in Early Animal Development

早期动物发育中的基因调控网络分析

• 批准号: 0745875
• 负责人: Charles Ettensohn
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-03-15 至 2011-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0745875&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Analysis; Gene; Regulatory; Network; Early

Charles Alan EttensohnProposal IOS-0745875Analysis of a Gene Regulatory Network in Early Animal DevelopmentThis research project addresses fundamental mechanisms that control the development of animal embryos. Biologists have shown that the program of development is encoded in the DNA of the genome. Although animal genomes contain thousands of genes, only some of these genes are used to construct the embryo. A hallmark of early development is that distinct sets of genes are active (expressed) in different embryonic cells. This occurs through the deployment of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) in different regions of the early embryo. GRNs can be thought of as complex networks composed of interacting genes that influence each other's expression.This project uses the sea urchin embryo as an experimental model to analyze GRNs during development. Sea urchins are closely related to vertebrates, including humans, but have many characteristics that allow biologists to study their embryonic development with relative ease. Recently, the sea urchin genome was sequenced and the complete set of genes identified. The project focuses on a particular GRN deployed in cells that form the skeleton. Molecular biological and embryological approaches will be used to address the following questions: Why is this GRNs activated only in certain cells of the early embryo? What are the various genes in the network and how do they interact? How do signals between cells impinge on the network? How does this GRN eventually activate genes that direct the final physiological functions of the cells? The broader impacts of the project are to a) provide fundamental insights concerning the genomic control of development, and 2) further the training of undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of developmental biology and genomics.

Charles Alan Ettensohn 提案 IOS-0745875 早期动物发育中基因调控网络的分析该研究项目探讨了控制动物胚胎发育的基本机制。生物学家已经证明，发育程序是在基因组 DNA 中编码的。尽管动物基因组包含数千个基因，但其中只有一些基因用于构建胚胎。早期发育的一个标志是不同的胚胎细胞中活跃（表达）的不同基因组。这是通过在早期胚胎的不同区域部署基因调控网络（GRN）来实现的。 GRN 可以被认为是由相互作用的基因组成的复杂网络，这些基因影响彼此的表达。该项目使用海胆胚胎作为实验模型来分析发育过程中的 GRN。海胆与包括人类在内的脊椎动物关系密切，但具有许多特征，使生物学家能够相对轻松地研究其胚胎发育。最近，对海胆基因组进行了测序，并鉴定了完整的基因组。 该项目重点关注部署在形成骨架的细胞中的特定 GRN。分子生物学和胚胎学方法将用于解决以下问题：为什么这种GRN仅在早期胚胎的某些细胞中被激活？网络中的各种基因是什么以及它们如何相互作用？细胞之间的信号如何影响网络？这个GRN最终如何激活指导细胞最终生理功能的基因？该项目更广泛的影响是：a）提供有关发育的基因组控制的基本见解，2）进一步对发育生物学和基因组学领域的本科生和研究生进行培训。