| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 分子醫學研究所 === 90 === Growth—arrest—specific gene 8 (Gas8) was originally identified to be expressed preferentially during serum starvation or growth contact inhibition in NIH3T3 cells. The Drosophila Gas8 gene was identified by a BLAST search to Drosophila EST database. Sequence analysis of the Gas8 cDNA clone LD14709 found the Gas8 encodes a 55kDa protein. The Western and RT-PCR result confirmed that the Gas8 protein and mRNA express during the Drosophila embryogenesis. The expression pattern and timing of Gas8 mRNA was revealed by the whole mount RNA in situ hybridization. The Gas8 mRNA was expressed predominantly in the trachea region of stage 13 to 16 embryos. During those stages, the primary branch of the trachea system began to elongate and the secondary branches started emerging from the primary branches. Furthermore, the cytoskeleton of the trachea cells is heavily rearranged in the process to form the primary and secondary branches. Together with and the fact that the mouse Gas8 protein is found to be expressed in the cilia of epithelial cells from the pulmonary bronchi as well as in the tail region of sperm, Gas8 may play a role in the rearrangement of the cytoskeleton. Besides, the fact that total number of tracheal cells did not increase as the primary branches grew and the secondary branches formed also support the notion that Gas8 is a gene preferentially expressed during growth arrest conditions. In order to further characterize the function of Gas8 in Drosophila, the strategy to generate a Gas8 gene knockdown fly using the newly developed RNAi method is also discussed in this thesis.
|
|---|
