Date of Award

5-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

College/School

College of Science and Mathematics

Department/Program

Biology

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Carlos A. Molina

Committee Member

Reginald Halaby

Committee Member

Vladislav Snitsarev

Abstract

Inducible cAMP early repressor or, ICER, acts as a tumor suppressor with ovarian specific properties and moderates cAMP anti-proliferative actions. In this study, CYP19A1 was selected out of the four previously cloned ovarian specific promoters (CYP19A1, FSH, ZP3 and GDF9). The purpose of this experiment was to test whether a -500 bp fragment of the CYP19A1 can function in the ovaries as a specific promoter that can be used to express transgenes in the ovaries. For this study, we generated transgenic Zebrafish that expressed Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) with the CYP19A1 promoter and proceeded to characterize by four different methods which were western blot, direct fluorescent visualization of tissue, immunohistochemistry, and PCR. The results of the study show that CYP19A1 was successfully expressed in the ovaries which also indicates that the selected promoter region of CYP19A1 can be an ovary specific promoter. This promoter can then be used in future experiments for the expression of relevant genes such as ICER, in the ovaries. If successful, overexpression of these promoters in the ovaries of Danio rerio causes an increase in ovulation, this can have significant implications for future research for increasing the production of fish.

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