|
Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Center
Research Projects (Non-Federal Funding)
Project Title:
Regulation of dFMR1 Activity
Principal Investigator:
Jerry Yin, PhD
Molecular and
biochemical techniques will be used to determine if the
Drosophila Fragile X protein (dFXR) interacts with the atypical
PKC protein (DaPKC), or its truncated derivative, DaPKM. Because
these proteins show biochemical and genetic interactions during
oogenesis, it is likely that they will also recapitulate these
relationships in adult neurons. It is not known, however, if the
interactions are direct. One of the tests is to determine if dFXR
is directly phosphorylated by DaPKM. The proper localization of
translation in neuronal processes is likely to underly long-term,
activity-dependent, synapse-specific strengthening of neuronal
circuits. It is critical that these events are synapse-specific,
since strengthening of ectopic synapses could potentially lead to
linkage of unrelated circuits, and this could be one of the
fundamental problems in a number of neuronal dysfunctions, including
fragile X syndrome. In other cell types, mutation in either dFXR or
DaPKC/M leads to ectopic translation of various mRNAs.
Although this
project emphasizes work in Drosophila, the project is now
extending into mouse models.
|
