Naw Sar Do
IUUR STEM Summer Research Program
Major: Microbiology
Mentors: Heather Hundley, Priyanka Mukherjee, and Ananya Mahapatra
Adenosine deaminase that acts on RNA (ADAR) is an RNA binding enzyme that regulate gene expression by gene editing in a form of changing adenosine to inosine. In C. elegans, it is found that the small double stranded RNA could be designed to knock down the expression of a specific gene by feeding the worm with bacteria expressing the small double stranded RNA (dsRNA). When the dsRNA is ingested by the worm, it will bind to the mRNA, which will lead to degradation of the mRNA and no/little protein expressed. The adr-2 is one of the ADARs found in C. elegans, and the goal of this project is to design and test an RNAi vector that allows the dsRNA to form and induce RNA interference pathway for silencing of targeted gene (adr-2). The RNAi vector will be transformed into E. Coli containing IPTG-inducible expression of T7 polymerase. Both the RNAi vector containing E.coli bacteria and empty vector (bacteria without adr-2 vector) are fed to C. Elegans. Egg counting assay was done to test the success of the adr-2 RNAi vector. Our egg counting result from testing the adr-2 vector suggested that the plasmid vector that was designed was not able to silence the target gene, suggesting that the RNAi vector was not successful.
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