508C Poster - 06. Regulation of gene expression
Saturday April 09, 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Authors:
Georgia McClain; David Loehlin

Affiliation: Williams College

Keywords:
p. cis-regulatory logic; n. other (Copy number variation)

The ways in which a gene’s position in the genome and the surrounding genomic contents can affect its expression is not well understood. Tandem duplicate genes are a good model for studying these phenomena, as previous studies have demonstrated evidence of a nonlinear relationship between gene copy number and protein expression. Furthermore, there are several known examples of human diseases associated with copy number variation and relative gene overexpression, so a better understanding of gene duplication and its effects may provide valuable information in addressing the specific causes of these disorders. The Loehlin lab is attempting to investigate the characteristics of tandem Adh gene duplicates in Drosophila melanogaster that contribute to deviation from two-fold expression.
We are investigating two qualities of synthetic tandem Adh duplicates: distance between duplicates, and regulatory element duplication. To do this, we inserted FRT constructs on either side of the Adh gene of Drosophila melanogaster and used them to create recombinant flies. To test whether the distance between tandem Adh copies affects relative protein expression level, we designed recombinants with Adh genes at different distances from one another. To test whether the duplication of Adh regulatory elements affects expression, we keep the distance between the duplicates the same, but vary whether or not the regulatory region was duplicated. We can then measure the ADH enzyme levels in the flies in order to determine whether ADH expression is influenced by distance between the gene duplicates and/or duplication of regulatory elements.
Preliminary results show that our method successfully creates recombinant Drosophila melanogaster individuals that have tandem duplicate Adh genes, and that these duplicates have higher expression levels relative to individuals with a single copy.