Melissa Spear Phillips Lab Mentor: Rose Reynolds SPUR 2011 Evolution of Genetic Networks Controlling Cellular Stress Response and Longevity
Aging How do we age? -Damage to cells Why should we care? -Age related diseases -Ways to put off? What is aging?
The Stress Theory What is stress? The oxidative stress theory of aging Harman (1956) Free radicals Does all evidence support this theory? Huang (2000) Van Remmen (2003) Cellular stress response determines the rate of aging
Investigation 1. Create a stress resistant population 2. Are there changes in longevity response? 3. Are there changes in the genetic networks that control stress response?
C. remanei as a Model Organism Similar to C. elegans Controlled environment Ability to freeze Larger genome Greater genetic variation
Stress Selection Acute Heat Acute Oxidative No Acute Stress Control Chronic StressAcute StressBlocks *Also tested ancestor population
Progress
Testing for Genetic Expression Total RNA extraction mRNA purification mRNA Total RNA
Testing for Genetic Expression Synthesized single and double stranded DNA Library Creation
RNA Seq What is it? High through-put DNA sequencing method that maps and quantifies transcriptomes Benefits Expression of different alleles of a gene Detect post- transcriptional modifications Identify gene fusions
RNA Seq Processing Samples Illumina Data
RNA Seq Results Figure 1
Examples of RNA Seq Results Stress SelectedControl
Future Directions Determine responsible pathways Genetically engineer worms
Acknowledgements Rose Reynolds Kristin Sikkink Patrick Phillips Phillips Lab Cresko Lab SPUR Program