Daisy Robles-Magallanes
LSAMP Scholar
Major: Biology
Mentors: Manuel Baizabal and Sen Xiong
Histone modifications have the ability to modify chromatin structures and either bolster or reduce gene expression. Alterations in the epigenome have the ability to give insight into the specific functions of genes specifically in the neurogenesis of fetal mice. In order to explore the importance of H3K27me3, a repressive epigenetic mark associated with the down regulation of nearby genes, in vivo injections of transgene H3K27M were given to fetal mice at embryonic day 12 via lentiviral infection. Extractions were performed on postnatal day 10.
Analysis of brain sections were performed using immunostaining. While confocal images show successful silencing of H3K27me3 in astrocytes, upper and deep layer neurons, and oligodendrocytes, the majority of cells still showed trace amounts of the genetic marker. Because of sparse and incomplete silencing, impacts of silencing H3K27me3 on neurogenesis cannot be concluded until complete gene silencing is achieved. Further investigations are looking into methods of long term and efficient gene silencing in order to better gage the
effects of gene knockdown. The use of shRNA mediated gene KO are being explored. Technologies using Enhanced Episomal Vectors (EEV) are also being developed in order to mediate the expression of genes long term in the progeny of stem cells.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. IN LSAMP is supported by NSF Award Number: HRD-1618408, 2016-2022.
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