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Attempted Cloning Of A Wnt Gene From Botrylloides Violaceus, Manasa Chandra, James Tumulak

Biological Sciences

Botrylloides violaceus is a colonial ascidian with the ability to undergo sexual and asexual reproduction as well as regeneration. The canonical pathway starts with the extracellular protein Wnt and ends with β-catenin, a transcription factor, which also functions in cell adhesion. The Wnt signaling pathway is involved in embryogenesis and regeneration in a variety of other species. In our studies we attempt to isolate and sequence both a Wnt gene and from Botrylloides via degenerate primer design and PCR. Using bioinformatic methods we aligned sequences from other organisms, as the Botrylloides genome has not yet been sequenced. Using mouse, Ciona, …