Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Commons^™

Mushroom Body-Specific Gene Regulation By The Swi/Snf Chromatin Remodeling Complex, Kevin Cj Nixon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Over the lifetime of an organism, neurons must establish, remodel, and maintain precise connections in order to form neural circuits that are required for proper nervous system functioning. Disruptions in these processes can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders such as intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorder. Mutations in genes encoding subunits of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex have been implicated in ID, yet the role of this complex in neurons is poorly understood. In this project, I established cell-type specific methods to examine the effect of SWI/SNF subunit knockdowns on gene transcription and chromatin structure in the memory-forming neurons of …

The Leucine-Rich Domain Of Rgnef: A Modifier Of Tdp-43 Toxicity In Drosophila Melanogaster., Benjamin Martin Withers

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive degeneration of motor neurons. Rho Guanine Nucleotide Exchange factor (RGNEF) like other RNA-binding proteins, has been observed to form inclusions in the spinal cord motor neurons of both sporadic and familial cases of ALS. RGNEF has been determined to be a pro-survival factor under stress conditions. When comparing expression of different constructs of RGNEF in HEK293T cells, a Leucine-rich domain containing fragment of RGNEF (L-Rich) was found to form aggregates under metabolic stress that co-aggregated with TDP-43, another ALS-linked RNA-binding protein.

In this thesis, I used both …