Eye Disc and Wing Disc Cell Proliferation in Third Instar Drosophila rtel Knockdowns (2016)

Undergraduates: Hailey Gosnell, Lydia Morris (Post-Doctoral Fellow)

Faculty Advisor: Jeff Sekelsky
Department: Biology

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Recombination in somatic cells can cause deterioration of DNA by eliminating necessary cell division regulating elements, sometimes resulting in the development of cancer. The aim of my project was to understand how recombination is controlled in somatic cells of Drosophila melanogaster. My work focused on rtel (Regulator of Telomerase Elongation), a gene thought to be responsible for preventing cross-overs in somatic cells. This analysis was divided into two approaches: creation of an rtel fly stock and implementation of a florescent genetic construct. I first created flies with a nonfunctional version of rtel in cells of the eye, a ssential structure that is developmentally easy to monitor. Frequencies of cell death and division events were compared for rtel and wild-type flies. Second, I implemented a florescent genetic construct to identify the genetic status of cells in the eye tissue. The method was designed such that only cells that had functional rtel (one or two copies) would show up. Dark areas in the tissue would contain cells with only non-functional rtel. The cell progeny would form groups with measurable color discrepancies called twin spots. No differences were found in cell division events in rtel and wild-type eye discs. Wild type individuals had less staining than rtel counterparts. However, the genetic construct resulted in twin-spots of rtel deficient and wild-type cells that can be used for intercellular genetic comparisons in future studies.