Sarina Perez
IUUR STEM Summer Research Program
Major: Biology
Mentors: Heather Hundley, Priyanka Mukherjee, and Ananya Mahapatra
Caenorhabditis elegans serve as a model organism and can be used to understand the function of vitellogenin proteins. In C. elegans, the vitellogenin gene, vit-2, which is expressed as a yolk protein, genetically interacts with adr-2. In a previous experiment, it was found that VIT::GFP lead to decreased egg production. When adr-2 was absent, however, the egg production
was reverted. To evaluate the full impact of VIT-2::GFP on egg production in the C. elegans, we are silencing the expression of vit-2. This will also help assess the regulatory function of ADR-2. In order to evaluate the effect of vit-2 on egg production, an RNAi vector was created to to knock down vit-2 expression. C. elegans were then selected from the RNAi plates and bleached in order to count and assess the number of eggs produced by different strains of worms. Vit-2 knockdown was tested in wildtype, VIT-2::GFP, and adr-2(-) worms. The egg counting assay revealed that the vit-2 knockdown has no effect on egg production in wildtype and VIT-2::GFP C. elegans. In adr-2(-);VIT-2::GFP worms, vit-2 knockdown seemingly leads to an increase in egg production. Vit-2 knockdown also does not impact egg production in adr-2(-)worms.
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