Submission Date

7-21-2022

Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Department

Biology

Faculty Mentor

Rebecca Lyczak

Comments

Presented during the 24th Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 22, 2022 at Ursinus College.

This research was funded by a grant from the NIH.

Project Description

This research is focused on part of the cell cycle that involves the first cell division, otherwise known as mitosis. Regulation of mitosis is very important as mistakes can cause problems such as uncontrolled cell division resulting in cancer. To study this, we use the organism known as C. elegans that are microscopic, transparent worms that serve as a great model organism. Their life cycle is completed within three days, and they are easily maintained on agar plates with bacteria grown on them as their food source. Specifically, the study is on the pam-1 gene and its mutant alleles’ effects on mitosis. pam-1 mutant worms have been found to have defects in meiosis such as delayed exit from the process, as well as polarity issues and a very low embryonic vitality. WEE-1.3 is an inhibitory kinase that interacts with PAM-1 regulating the progression of oocyte maturation in meiosis. Based on the interaction in meiosis, we wanted to test if there is also an interaction between wee-1.3 and pam-1 in mitosis. That goal was completed by recording time lapse images of mitosis on the confocal microscope to see GFP tagged histones in wildtype, pam-1 mutants, and pam-1 with wee-1.3(lz5) strains. This allows us to track the chromosomes and time the phases on mitosis. From the data collected, mitosis takes significantly longer in pam-1 and pam-1;wee-1.3 compared to wildtype. With the videos collected defects during mitosis were recorded and wee-1.3 appears to partially rescue the amount of pam-1 mutant defects. Through DIC imaging incubation periods of 30hrs allow the CDK-1 RNAi phenotype to be expressed. Preliminary gonad antibody staining shows higher levels of inactive CDK-1 in wildtype compared to pam-1 worms.

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