Determining the Synthetic Lethality of Cancer Related Mutations with Methyl and Ethyl Paraben in Drosophila melanogaster
By: Zainab Rizik and Nicole Banuelos
Department: Physiology
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Blake Riggs
The aim of our project is to determine the synthetic lethality of methyl and ethylparaben on Drosophila melanogaster with cancer-causing related mutations, specifically tumor suppressor mutations. Parabens are found in our everyday lives and act as xenoestrogens that cause the over-proliferation of cells. There has been a clear increase in incidences of cancer cases due to the increased exposure of these parabens and chemicals, which account for 42% of all cancer cases. Also, 50% of all cancer cases are due to mutations in tumor suppressor genes. Tumor suppressor genes are genes that code for tumor suppressor proteins that maintain the role of preventing the over-proliferation of cells. When there is a loss of function in a tumor suppressor gene, cells excessively divide. In our research, we are analyzing two specific tumor suppressor genes. These genes are Brca2 and P53. Brca2 is a tumor suppressor gene that provides instructors for making a tumor suppressor protein and is involved in repairing DNA damage. P53 is also a tumor suppressor gene that prevents the over-proliferation of cells. To study this, the survivability of Drosophila larvae with tumor suppressor mutants in varying concentrations of paraben-infused fly food was determined. Overall, there is no concentration-dependent survivability found in tumor suppressor mutants with methylparaben.