Title page for ETD etd-11082007-101913

Type of Document

Thesis

Author

Li, Xianhui

Author's Email Address

hui.li@med.fsu.edu

URN

etd-11082007-101913

Title

Gene Expression and Regulation in Early Vertebrate Development

Degree

Master of Science

Department

Biological Science, Department of

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name	Title
Curtis Altmann	Committee Member
Hank Bass	Committee Member
Hengli Tang	Committee Member
Wu-Min Deng	Committee Member
Yoichi Kato	Committee Member

Keywords

Gene Expression and Regulation
Pax6
LTBP4
Development

Date of Defense

2007-10-18

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

Gene expression and regulation in early vertebrate development has been examined in Xenopus laevis, a model organism for embryonic developmental biology. Two related projects were carried out and they are described in separate chapters. The first chapter describes the expression and functional analysis of Latent TGF-β Binding Protein 4 (LTBP4) in early development. LTBP4 is expressed in the organizer which is located in the dorsal mesoderm and induces a secondary axis upon overexpressed on the ventral side. The data indicate that LTBP4 enhances the nodal signaling pathway which induces mesoderm in the early development. The second chapter describes the identification and characterization of downstream targets of Paired Box Gene 6 (Pax6) in early eye development. Three groups of Pax6 upregulated genes, identified from a DNA microarray screen, are confirmed by real time PCR. Among the Pax6-activated genes are transcription factors, the genes that are involved in Wnt signaling pathway which is network of proteins implicated in embryogenesis and cancer, and receptor genes. Importantly, seven different genes have been identified as direct targets of Pax6 based on their mRNA accumulation patterns. In addition, functional analysis of some Pax6 regulated genes such as Xiro3 and LRP11 is presented in the second chapter.

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