Abstract
Microexons, which are unusually short (<31 nucleotides) exons, have recently emerged as highly conserved features of genes expressed in the nervous system. Generally, microexons have been thought to be included (spliced in) in neuronal cells and skipped (spliced out) in non-neuronal cells. However, in our lab, we have discovered that certain microexons are included in certain neuronal cells but skipped in other neuronal cells, which reveals more complexity to microexon regulation. Therefore, I performed a forward mutagenesis screen that takes advantage of a bicolor splicing reporter in the unc-13 gene expressed in olfactory neurons to discover regulatory effects by which microexons can be skipped in specific neuron types.
Degree Date
Spring 5-11-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S.
Department
SMU Department of Biological Sciences
Advisor
Adam Norris
Second Advisor
Amy Brewster
Third Advisor
Zhihao Wu
Number of Pages
62
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Ali, Saad, "A Genetic Screen to Identify Cell-Specific Inhibitors of Microexon Splicing in the unc-13 Transcript in C. elegans" (2024). Biological Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 25.
https://scholar.smu.edu/hum_sci_biologicalsciences_etds/25
