Well done with your poster and presentation! You seem to know a lot about the TWI2 gene. I was wondering, what is tetrahymena thermophila and why is it important for their pathways to be repaired by this gene?
Tetrahymena thermophila is just the model organism used for this particular experiment. Its easy to use, fairly robust in lab conditions, and not particularly virulent in terms of human exposure. In addition, we already have its genome sequenced, giving a large amount of insight into the genes and functions of said genes.
Now that it is confirmed that Twi2 is related to DNA repair in some way, further research will likely go into things like determining exactly how the gene repairs DNA, and what sorts of DNA damage it repairs more than others.
Ideally? Possible use in humans to deal with gene damage. Given that so many disorders and cancers are caused by gene damage, figuring out more ways to deal with said damage is always a good thing.
Essentially, when DNA damage occurs, Twi2 is activated, causing it to both become unmethylated, and starting the transcription translation cycle. This means that in undamaged cells, the gene is likely methylated and far more difficult for primers to access.
Why is DNA repair an important topic for research? Knowing the mechanisms is really cool but in the bigger picture, what are we hoping to accomplish with this research?
In terms of BIG big picture, DNA damage is the main factor that leads to many age-related illnesses, and if that can be solved at the root, many old-age maladies could be dealt with in a broad and wide reaching way. In more of a slightly less big picture, DNA damage is extremely common in all factors of life, and finding ways to mitigate it is always a topic that is studied, as the less it happens the less we need to worry about a very wide range of disorders and issues.
Awesome presentation! How would the quality and quantity of the DNA relate to your conclusions regarding the PCRs? I notice they have relatively low quality in all the figures.
Thankfully, the quality wasn’t really a major issue in this. We were using the PCRs in order to amplify specific genes, so the primers did most of the heavy lifting. Perhaps the quality would be more of an issue if we were trying to sequence the genes, but in this case the genes were already sequenced.
Possibly, but we only measured gene expression in this experiment, so that’s all that we saw. Other results that may have occurred, but were not measured could have been T. thermophilla reproduction rate or cell vitality.
There is a possibility, but it would heavily depend on what exactly the product of the gene is. Without knowing exactly how the gene repairs DNA, we would not be able to put it into human trials. This could be done by using the protein/RNA product of said gene, and possible gene therapy, even though that technology is still in the very early stages in human trials.
How would comparing Twi2 to known protein products show what process in the DNA repair process it relates to? What is protein crystallization? Why is it important to know the specific DNA repair process it’s involved in? Thanks!
curesymposium.org 
Well done with your poster and presentation! You seem to know a lot about the TWI2 gene. I was wondering, what is tetrahymena thermophila and why is it important for their pathways to be repaired by this gene?
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Tetrahymena thermophila is just the model organism used for this particular experiment. Its easy to use, fairly robust in lab conditions, and not particularly virulent in terms of human exposure. In addition, we already have its genome sequenced, giving a large amount of insight into the genes and functions of said genes.
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Great job! What are some possible implications of this work?
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Now that it is confirmed that Twi2 is related to DNA repair in some way, further research will likely go into things like determining exactly how the gene repairs DNA, and what sorts of DNA damage it repairs more than others.
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If further research shows TWI2 is a critical component of DNA repair, what might be applications of this outcome?
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Ideally? Possible use in humans to deal with gene damage. Given that so many disorders and cancers are caused by gene damage, figuring out more ways to deal with said damage is always a good thing.
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How does DNA expression increase after it was damaged? I am curious how that works because I would assume it would be the opposite result!
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Essentially, when DNA damage occurs, Twi2 is activated, causing it to both become unmethylated, and starting the transcription translation cycle. This means that in undamaged cells, the gene is likely methylated and far more difficult for primers to access.
LikeLike
Why is DNA repair an important topic for research? Knowing the mechanisms is really cool but in the bigger picture, what are we hoping to accomplish with this research?
LikeLike
In terms of BIG big picture, DNA damage is the main factor that leads to many age-related illnesses, and if that can be solved at the root, many old-age maladies could be dealt with in a broad and wide reaching way. In more of a slightly less big picture, DNA damage is extremely common in all factors of life, and finding ways to mitigate it is always a topic that is studied, as the less it happens the less we need to worry about a very wide range of disorders and issues.
LikeLike
Awesome presentation! How would the quality and quantity of the DNA relate to your conclusions regarding the PCRs? I notice they have relatively low quality in all the figures.
LikeLike
Thankfully, the quality wasn’t really a major issue in this. We were using the PCRs in order to amplify specific genes, so the primers did most of the heavy lifting. Perhaps the quality would be more of an issue if we were trying to sequence the genes, but in this case the genes were already sequenced.
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Did DNA damage procure any other results besides the increase in gene expression?
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Possibly, but we only measured gene expression in this experiment, so that’s all that we saw. Other results that may have occurred, but were not measured could have been T. thermophilla reproduction rate or cell vitality.
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Once TWI2’s role in DNA repair is determined and confirmed, could it possibly be used to treat diseases caused by damaged DNA? If so, how?
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There is a possibility, but it would heavily depend on what exactly the product of the gene is. Without knowing exactly how the gene repairs DNA, we would not be able to put it into human trials. This could be done by using the protein/RNA product of said gene, and possible gene therapy, even though that technology is still in the very early stages in human trials.
LikeLike
How would comparing Twi2 to known protein products show what process in the DNA repair process it relates to? What is protein crystallization? Why is it important to know the specific DNA repair process it’s involved in? Thanks!
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