This is a great presentation! I was wondering, what about Tetrahymena thermophila causes its reproductive cycle to naturally induce DNA damage and repair?
Hey Dhruv, thanks! To answer your question about Tetrahymena, I’m not entirely sure what exactly. From what I know, I believe it’s the recombination process during Tetrahymena’s reproductive cycle that may induce DNA damage, which then would lead to a cascade of responses for the DNA to be repaired.
You mentioned that the RFC1 gene has a homologous counterpart in humans and that this research could have potential application there. Provided both genes encode for DNA repair pathways, would those not be significantly affected by the different quantities and varieties of proteins in human cells or would it be a stepping stone for future research to use?
Hey Aurora, I think there is a lot more research that needs to be done to confirm that RFC1 and its human homolog does contribute to the DNA repair pathways. I think to confirm whether those genes would be significantly affected by different quantities and varieties of proteins. Other forms of studying gene expression would need to be implemented. Specifically, I think we could use RNA-seq as a way to determine RFC1’s context in the DNA repair pathway first, or how this gene is related to or affecting other genes/proteins. If we confirm that first, more different studies on RFC1’s gene expression would to need to be implemented to even confirm perhaps clinical studies.
You mentioned at the beginning that there are different ways of manipulating pathways, so do you have any ideas for doing further testing on this that could produce interesting results?
Hey Sidney, I think an interesting way to do further testing on this would be to use some gene editing techniques like Crispr/Cas9. However, I think to manipulate these pathways we can run RNA-seq to determine possible what RFC1 is interacting with the most and, from there, we can use Crispr/Cas9 to see how RFC1 interacts with essential genes to the DNA repair pathway. If can figure out how RFC1 works, we can either upregulate, downregulate, or even silence the gene to see how it effects related genes/proteins of the DNA repair pathway.
This is a great presentation! I was wondering, what about Tetrahymena thermophila causes its reproductive cycle to naturally induce DNA damage and repair?
Hey Dhruv, thanks! To answer your question about Tetrahymena, I’m not entirely sure what exactly. From what I know, I believe it’s the recombination process during Tetrahymena’s reproductive cycle that may induce DNA damage, which then would lead to a cascade of responses for the DNA to be repaired.
You mentioned that the RFC1 gene has a homologous counterpart in humans and that this research could have potential application there. Provided both genes encode for DNA repair pathways, would those not be significantly affected by the different quantities and varieties of proteins in human cells or would it be a stepping stone for future research to use?
Hey Aurora, I think there is a lot more research that needs to be done to confirm that RFC1 and its human homolog does contribute to the DNA repair pathways. I think to confirm whether those genes would be significantly affected by different quantities and varieties of proteins. Other forms of studying gene expression would need to be implemented. Specifically, I think we could use RNA-seq as a way to determine RFC1’s context in the DNA repair pathway first, or how this gene is related to or affecting other genes/proteins. If we confirm that first, more different studies on RFC1’s gene expression would to need to be implemented to even confirm perhaps clinical studies.
You mentioned at the beginning that there are different ways of manipulating pathways, so do you have any ideas for doing further testing on this that could produce interesting results?
Hey Sidney, I think an interesting way to do further testing on this would be to use some gene editing techniques like Crispr/Cas9. However, I think to manipulate these pathways we can run RNA-seq to determine possible what RFC1 is interacting with the most and, from there, we can use Crispr/Cas9 to see how RFC1 interacts with essential genes to the DNA repair pathway. If can figure out how RFC1 works, we can either upregulate, downregulate, or even silence the gene to see how it effects related genes/proteins of the DNA repair pathway.