Biology

Dr. Sonal Nagarkar - Jaiswal
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Minos-Mediated Integration Cassettes (MiMIC), a novel Minos transposase based tool, allowsprecise genome modifications in Drosophila. MiMICs inserted in coding intron function as gene traps and severely disrupt gene function. These insertions also allow endogenous gene tagging with a desired tag via Recombinase Mediated Cassette Exchange. Using this tool, we have generated a resource of ~ 7,500 MiMIC insertions, and established >700 endogenously EGFP tagged genes. Besides studies of expression pattern, these EGFP tagged genes permit conditional knock down of proteins using the deGradFP, a recently developed method for protein knockdown, in a tissue specific, temporal and reversible manner. I am using these resources and techniques to explore the mechanisms underlying maintenance of neural stem cells, the neuroblasts, in developing and adult brain. I am also developing tools for knockout of genes and knockdown of proteins specifically in quiescent adult neural stem cells and post-mitotic cells.