Drosophila male germline clones

果蝇雄性种系克隆

• 批准号: 1146093
• 负责人: Erica Selva
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: University of Delaware
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1146093&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Drosophila; male; germline; clones

The goal of this project is the development of a method that enables the isolation of a population of mutant embryos that does not rely on identification by visible defect. Development is a universal process where a fertilized egg matures into a fully formed organism. In the quest to understand organismal development, it has been the focus of intensive scientific investigation for more than a century. Despite its long history of rigorous study the molecular mechanisms that drive the developmental program are still poorly understood. The study of gene mutation has thus far been one of the best tools to reveal molecular details of the developmental program. However, this approach is limited by the fact that mutant organisms are identified by visible identification of defects caused by the mutation, which are generally apparent well after the underlying molecular causes take place. Although modern technologies exist to examine the molecular changes that occur prior to visible defects, they require isolation of a large population of purely mutant organisms well before defects are apparent. Using Drosophila (fruit fly) genetic techniques, this laboratory has developed a method for generating males and females that produce only mutant sperm and eggs and therefore will create a population of purely mutant embryos that can be molecularly analyzed well before defects are visible. The focus of this project is to develop further this method so it can be broadly used to study the majority of genes in Drosophila and make it available as a general tool for all Drosophila researchers. Since many of the processes that govern organismal development are similar across species information generated using this technique in Drosophila are broadly applicable to the molecular mechanisms that drive development in other organisms, such as humans. This study will also enhance science education and promote the development of future researchers, as graduate and undergraduate researchers will be actively engaged in this project.

该项目的目标是开发一种方法，能够分离突变胚胎群体，而不依赖于通过可见缺陷进行识别。发育是一个普遍的过程，其中受精卵成熟为完全形成的有机体。在探索了解生物体发育的过程中，它已经成为世纪以来科学研究的焦点。尽管其严格的研究历史悠久，但驱动发育程序的分子机制仍然知之甚少。迄今为止，基因突变的研究已经成为揭示发育程序的分子细节的最佳工具之一。然而，这种方法受到以下事实的限制，即突变生物体是通过对由突变引起的缺陷的可见鉴定来鉴定的，这些缺陷通常在潜在的分子原因发生后很久才明显。虽然现代技术可以检测可见缺陷之前发生的分子变化，但它们需要在缺陷明显之前分离大量纯突变生物体。利用果蝇（果蝇）遗传技术，该实验室已经开发出一种方法，用于产生只产生突变精子和卵子的雄性和雌性，因此将产生一群纯突变胚胎，可以在缺陷可见之前进行分子分析。该项目的重点是进一步发展这种方法，使其可以广泛用于研究果蝇中的大多数基因，并使其成为所有果蝇研究人员的通用工具。由于许多控制生物体发育的过程在不同物种之间都是相似的，因此在果蝇中使用该技术生成的信息广泛适用于驱动其他生物体（例如人类）发育的分子机制。这项研究还将加强科学教育，促进未来研究人员的发展，因为研究生和本科生研究人员将积极参与这一项目。