Title: Characterizing the Role of SPE-6 in Spermatocyte Detachment
Department: Biology
Description: Gene transcription halts early on in meiosis, the process through which sperm and egg cells are formed, in order to protect genetic material This leaves the control of the following divisions up to pre-existing proteins - meaning kinases like SPE-6 are integral to controlling the maturation of spermatocytes into sperm. SPE-6 is crucial to diverse aspects of spermatocyte development, including detachment from the central body of cytoplasm they mature along (the rachis). In the absence of SPE-6, spermatocytes detaching for the rachis are abnormally large and multinucleated - leading to male infertility. In female oogenesis, there is a well-defined control of this process: two anillins - myosin-binding proteins - work in competition to time detachment just right. When one of those anillins is knocked down, we see the same phenotype as before: oocytes that are abnormally large and multinucleated. This project will define anillin control in spermatogenesis of the model organism C. elegans and aim to determine the genetic interactions between SPE-6 and the anillins. These studies will be crucial to our understanding of spermatocyte detachment, SPE-6, and anillins with significance to male infertility.
Hometown: Broadlands, Virginia
Advisor: Diane Shakes
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