Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2017
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V62
Höfundar / Authors: Samantha Jeng, Helene Nourrit, Hákon Björn Högnason, Arnar Þór Björgvinsson, Robin Morabito, Zophonías O. Jónsson, Sigríður Rut Franzdóttir
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: University of Iceland, Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences and Biomedical Center.
Kynnir / Presenter: Samantha Jeng
Sensory neurons (SNs) are born in the periphery and project their axons into the CNS. Although in Drosophila melanogaster there is no neural crest, the SNs share numerous features with their vertebrate counterparts and can be useful as a model for studying SN cell biology in vivo. For instance, sensory neurons provide an attractive system to study certain aspects of microtubule dynamics. One such aspect is the severing of microtubules during sensory neuron remodeling in metamorphosis. Other examples include microtubule polarization, nucleation and directional transport of dendritic material. As many sensory neurons are superficial in the body-wall, they can be manipulated to express fluorescent proteins and imaged in vivo. We use RNA interference and over-expression of normal and mutant genes to study their role in specific sensory neurons of Drosophila larvae. Briefly, strains expressing double-stranded RNA (or mRNA) of interest under Gal4 regulation are crossed to strains expressing Gal4 in specific neurons. This leads to conditional knock-down/over-expression of the factor of interest in these neurons. To visualize affected cells in the offspring, the fly strains also express fluorescent proteins under Gal4 control. For in vivo studies, intact larvae are imaged through the cuticle. For immunohistochemistry, fillets are prepared and stained with antibodies against the fluorescent marker and selected factors, e.g. microtubules and associated proteins.