Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Walstrom, Katherine

Area of Concentration

Biochemistry

Abstract

Caenorhabditis elegans are ~1 mm long transparent worms producing as many as 1,200 progeny when fertilized by males. To achieve such impressive numbers, C. elegans must have a highly efficient reproductive system. The C. elegans spermatheca is a tube made up of smooth muscle tissue in which fertilization of oocytes occurs. Entrance of the egg initiates a stretch-sensitive signaling pathway, resulting in the release of Ca2+ from the sarcoplasmic reticulum and contraction of the spermatheca. Because mitochondria play a role in the modulation of Ca2+ in regions (microdomains) of high Ca2+ concentration, the ramifications of knocking down genes that are putatively important in shuttling mitochondria to calcium microdomains were noted in this study. To do this, I used a fluorescent compound microscope to determine the effects of RNAi knockdown of several motor protein genes, including osm-3, dylt-3, and dlc-5, on egg transit through the C. elegans spermatheca. Our results show that OSM-3, which is a purported component of kinesin, and DYLT-3 and DLC-5, which are reported to be components of dynein, affect egg transit and might be important to the shuttling of mitochondria to Ca2+ microdomains throughout the cell. This is supportive of my thesis’s original hypothesis and could be extended to the study of how objects are pushed through other systems.

Download

Share

COinS