Actomyosin regulation in the germline versus somatic gonad in C. elegans

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Hugo Manuel Freitas Sousa e
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/17534
• topic: C. elegans; Actomyosin; Genes; Gonad; RNAi; Emo phenotype

The gonad of an adult hermaphrodite of Caenorhabditis elegans is an excellent model system for studying the processes related to actomyosin contractility. In a previous study in our lab we analysed the depletion of 135 genes related to actomyosin networks, with the aim to characterize phenotypes in the gonad. This study identified a group of 25 genes whose depletion caused the formation of diffuse DNA masses in the oocytes and / or in the uterus (Emo phenotype). The experimental work of this thesis focused on determining whther these Emo phenotypes were due to rolos in the somatic or germline gonad. For this purpose we used starins od C. elegans where RNA interference is triggered specificaly in somatic or germ cells and we analyzed the number of progeny and embryonic viability. To characterize in more detail the effects on the gonad morphology, we combined high resolution microscopy in real time wiyh the ability to specifically deplete proteins in the somatic or germ cells. We found that the anillin ANI-1, whose depletion leads to Emo phenotype, predominantly affects the somatic gonad.