Publication:
A Novel Approach For Stable, Cell-Type Restricted Knockdown of Gene Expression in C.ELEGANS

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorDaniel L Chase
dc.contributor.advisorGerold B. Downes
dc.contributor.advisorJerrold S. Meyer
dc.contributor.authorMaher, Kathryn N
dc.contributor.departmentUniversity of Massachusetts - Amherst
dc.date2023-09-23T09:27:48.000
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-26T14:31:20Z
dc.date.available2014-06-19T00:00:00Z
dc.date.issued2013-02-01
dc.description.abstractRemoval of protein activity by genetic mutation or pharmacological inhibition has been used extensively to understand the normal function of a protein. However, null mutations eliminate gene function in all cells and pharmacological agents can diffuse through tissues to have similar global effects that can obscure the physiological function of a protein. This is a particular problem when studying proteins that function in many cell types or that have different cell-specific activities. The most direct strategy to study the function of a protein is to reduce or eliminate its activity only in specific cell types, rather than in all cells of an organism. The idea of targeting gene knockdown to specific cell types or to individual cells is not new and many strategies aim to do just this. However, these strategies result in variable knockdown efficiencies and can have silencing effects in neighboring cells and therefore knockdown is never cell-specific. We developed a novel method to knock down the expression of any gene and to restrict this knockdown to specific cell types in C. elegans. In this method we replaced endogenous genes with single copy integrated transgenes containing an engineered sequence tag that introduces premature stop codons (PTCs) into transgene mRNA. This tag causes the natural stop codon to be recognized as a PTC by the host's nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) machinery and does not disrupt gene function. In NMD-competent animals, a PTC-containing transgene is degraded and in NMD-defective animals, a PTC-containing transgene is expressed. Therefore, the expression of PTC-containing transgenes can be controlled by cell-specific activation of NMD. Using this technique, we replaced two endogenous genes with PTC-containing transgenes and directed degradation of their mRNA to specific cell types by restoring NMD activity in these cells. The single copy transgenes were expressed at levels comparable to the endogenous genes and were knocked down to ∼10% of endogenous by NMD, resulting in both global and cell-specific null-like phenotypes. This knockdown strategy can be used to cell-specifically knock down essentially any gene in the C. elegans genome and should provide new insights into understanding protein function.
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
dc.description.departmentMolecular and Cellular Biology
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7275/5shm-g864
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/14719
dc.relation.urlhttps://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1436&context=dissertations_1&unstamped=1
dc.source.statuspublished
dc.subjectBiological sciences
dc.subjectCell-type restricted knockdown
dc.subjectGene expression
dc.subjectC. elegans
dc.subjectGenetics
dc.subjectMolecular Biology
dc.subjectNeuroscience and Neurobiology
dc.titleA Novel Approach For Stable, Cell-Type Restricted Knockdown of Gene Expression in C.ELEGANS
dc.typecampus
dc.typearticle
dc.typedissertation
digcom.contributor.authorMaher, Kathryn N
digcom.date.embargo2014-06-19T00:00:00-07:00
digcom.identifierdissertations_1/439
digcom.identifier.contextkey5706207
digcom.identifier.submissionpathdissertations_1/439
dspace.entity.typePublication
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
Maher_umass_0118D_11260.pdf
Size:
21.07 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Name: Maher_umass_0118D_11260.pdf
Size: 21.07 MB
Kind: Adobe PDF
Collections
Dissertations