Investigating Jagn1 Role in Trafficking of Prospero, aPKC, and Numb during Drosophila melanogaster Embryogenesis
Frank Wu
Department of Biology
Faculty Supervisor: Blake Riggs
In humans, JAGN1 is a gene crucially linked to severe congenital neutropenia (SCN), a rare genetic disorder characterized by abnormalities in neurodevelopment, skeletal development, and organ dysfunctions. Past studies involving the Drosophila ortholog, Jagnul (Jagn), have shown that Jagn is involved in the asymmetric partitioning of the endoplasmic reticulum and in the development of the central nervous system. However, how Jagn drives CNS development and the partitioning of cell fate determinants during asymmetric cell division is poorly understood. We hypothesize that Jagn acts as a platform for inheriting cell fate determinants during cell differentiation. We will be focused on Jagn interactions with other cell fate-determining factors, like aPKC, Numb, and Prospero, using immunostaining to illuminate how the distribution of cell fate determinants will change in Jagn-deficient embryogenesis. We expect that the cell fate determinant will exhibit different distribution patterns across the developing embryo. As a result, Jagn would be identified as a contributing factor in determining how cell fate determinants are distributed and provide more information on how JAGN1 contributes to SCN.