My only question is what future experiments do you think you could do to get a more clear understanding of genes in DNA repair or what kind of candidate genes would you conduct this experiment on?
As I mentioned briefly, I think that the best kind of future experiment to do is to simply repeat the same experiment on other candidate genes with a similar motivation to the gene Hycop in this experiment. This means genes that, like Hycop, share similar expression to known DNA repair genes during conjugation, or share domains or sequences with known DNA repair genes in some way. There are also other ways that we can study gene expression on either this gene or other candidate genes, such as qPCR and other methods that detect RNA levels without PCR (Northern blotting, RPA, etc.)
What would you differently if you could do the experiment again? Or specifically, since you know that the function is still unknown, what is one step that you would take to continue this experiment?
If I could repeat this experiment again, I would maybe choose a different gene to study. This gene was just one large exon and aside from gene expression peaking similarly to known DNA damage repair genes during conjugation, this gene had no known domains, or relations to other genes that we already know about. I would have preferred to start with a gene that had a little bit more justification first! To continue this experiment, it would be worth learning more about Hycop’s role in conjugation more broadly. This is out of the scope of this class, so I’m not entirely sure what kind of experiments we could set up, but we could still likely measure expression levels in comparison to other known genes playing a large role in conjugation, or maybe genes involved in another specific mechanism like DNA damage repair.
Other genes I could study instead of Hycop are other genes that show similarities to known DNA damage repair genes. Hycop was found by looking at gene expression peaks during conjugation. We could easily look through other T.thermophila genes for other genes expressing these same peaks using websites such as Ciliates.com. We could also look for candidate genes in other candidate organisms.
How could other functionalities of the Hycop genes be tested, here obviously you assessed the DDR response but how is gene function broadly assessed in the lab?
In this lab we specifically compared Hycop to DNA damage repair genes to study whether it has a function in the DDR, but we could similarly compare Hycop to other genes involved in other mechanisms to determine its affect in other mechanisms. Comparing gene to gene collectively is a way to broadly understand gene function in a lab.
My only question is what future experiments do you think you could do to get a more clear understanding of genes in DNA repair or what kind of candidate genes would you conduct this experiment on?
As I mentioned briefly, I think that the best kind of future experiment to do is to simply repeat the same experiment on other candidate genes with a similar motivation to the gene Hycop in this experiment. This means genes that, like Hycop, share similar expression to known DNA repair genes during conjugation, or share domains or sequences with known DNA repair genes in some way. There are also other ways that we can study gene expression on either this gene or other candidate genes, such as qPCR and other methods that detect RNA levels without PCR (Northern blotting, RPA, etc.)
What would you differently if you could do the experiment again? Or specifically, since you know that the function is still unknown, what is one step that you would take to continue this experiment?
If I could repeat this experiment again, I would maybe choose a different gene to study. This gene was just one large exon and aside from gene expression peaking similarly to known DNA damage repair genes during conjugation, this gene had no known domains, or relations to other genes that we already know about. I would have preferred to start with a gene that had a little bit more justification first! To continue this experiment, it would be worth learning more about Hycop’s role in conjugation more broadly. This is out of the scope of this class, so I’m not entirely sure what kind of experiments we could set up, but we could still likely measure expression levels in comparison to other known genes playing a large role in conjugation, or maybe genes involved in another specific mechanism like DNA damage repair.
What other genes could you use to study instead of Hycop?
Other genes I could study instead of Hycop are other genes that show similarities to known DNA damage repair genes. Hycop was found by looking at gene expression peaks during conjugation. We could easily look through other T.thermophila genes for other genes expressing these same peaks using websites such as Ciliates.com. We could also look for candidate genes in other candidate organisms.
How could other functionalities of the Hycop genes be tested, here obviously you assessed the DDR response but how is gene function broadly assessed in the lab?
In this lab we specifically compared Hycop to DNA damage repair genes to study whether it has a function in the DDR, but we could similarly compare Hycop to other genes involved in other mechanisms to determine its affect in other mechanisms. Comparing gene to gene collectively is a way to broadly understand gene function in a lab.