Poster #058
Understanding gene expression regulation in choanoflagellate
Mentors: Adriana Guajardo, PhD candidate (Mentor), David Booth, PhD (PI)
Choanoflagellates are unicellular organisms that represent the closest extant relatives to animals. The choanoflagellate species Salpingoeca rosetta share genes with animals that are important for animal development. Additionally, S. rosetta has different life stages, such as swimmers and thecates, that express different genes. Thecates expresses an iron transporter gene, named cytb561a, that is functionally distinct and specific to this cell type. My project aims to determine the regulation of gene expression in S. rosetta using cell-type reporters. To understand the cell type expression of cytb561a we first generated a fluorescent reporter plasmid fused to this gene. We then used the CRISPR-Cas9 system to integrate the reporter plasmid into the genome. This will provide insights on the temporal expression of cytb561a in S. rosetta. Future directions include FACS sorting transfected cells and live imaging to visualize gene expression as S. rosetta transitions between life stages.