Regulation of sumoylation by dTopors during male meiosis in Drosophila melanogaster

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Avik Mukherjee (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
John Tomkiel

Abstract: The Topors protein is a tumor suppressor in human that associates with and regulates a number of cell cycle regulators that including topoisomerase I and p53. It possesses both ubiquitin and SUMO ligase activity and its mutation or downregulation has been associated with some human cancers and diseases. The Drosophila homologue, dTopors, is an ubiquitin E3 ligase. We have investigated the role of Dtopors in sumoylating proteins in the male germ line. Although nuclear lamin localization is disrupted in dtopors mutants, we find no evidence of lamin modification by Dtopors. We observe an increase in the overall sumoylation of testis proteins and a corresponding decrease in the pool of free SUMO in homozygous dtopors versus heterozygous dtopors flies. Based on this result, we propose a model explaining the role of dtopors in altering germline sumoylation. We have constructed a SUMO-GFP transgenic protein to investigate how dtopors is altering the pool of SUMO in the cell. We demonstrate that this transgenic construct can rescue smt3 mutant flies and is expressed in spermatocytes. This tool will allow one to measure SUMO synthesis and processing, and how these aspects of SUMO dynamics are affected by dtopors during meiosis in D. melanogaster males.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2009
Keywords
dtopors, GFP, Meiosis, SUMO, Biology, Genetics, Biogeochemistry, Biology, Molecular
Subjects
Cancer $x Genetic aspects $x Research.
Proto-oncogenes $x Research.
Meiosis.
Spermatogenesis.
Cancer $x Gene therapy $x Research.

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