Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2021
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E26
Höfundar / Authors: Thejus B. Venkantesh, Nikolas Lee Van Keersbilck, Sunna Bragadóttir, Erna Magnúsdóttir
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: University of Iceland
Kynnir / Presenter: Erna Magnúsdóttir
Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are the founder cells of the germ line and a failure in PGC specification will give rise to sterile animals. It is therefore imperative to understand the specification and development of the germ-line. A group of transcriptional regulators called the Rhox factors (reproductive homeobox on the X-chromosome) in the mouse are clustered on a single locus and constitute the largest homeobox gene cluster found to date. It consists of 33 genes that are found to be preferentially expressed in reproductive tissues and are found to be induced in a sequential manner during and after PGC specification. However, perhaps due to their high similarity, their precise molecular and biological function remains largely unelucidated. As a first attempt to systematically investigate the cis-regulatory function of the Rhox factors, we have undertaken an over-expression study, inducibly expressing Rhox genes in two distinct pluripotent mouse cell lines. Interestingly, the factors tested appear to have highly similar influences on transcription, possibly reflecting their high degree of sequence similarity. However, there are important distinctions between their influences on their ability to induce germ-line genes, that might reflect their distinct expression pattern in the germ line. Loss of function studies are underway to investigate the effect of the factors on the biology of the germ line and a potential role in its specification.