Functional analysis of circadian clock genes in Drosophila melanogaster

Nirav THAKKAR, MSc.

Doctoral thesis

Abstract:

This PhD thesis focuses on the functional analysis of circadian clock genes in the versatile model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Application of molecular methods and bioinformatics analysis enabled us to investigate the evolution of clock proteins, create and characterize novel functional mutants of clock genes and explore the temperature compensation property of the clock. Furthermore, this thesis also focused on the advancement of precise genome editing tool in Drosophila, by examining CRISPR base editors for germline editing and using them a novel substitution mutant of the core clock gene timeless was made. The results presented in this thesis are divided into three parts, (1) Phylogenetic and functional analysis of DOUBLETIME and its vertebrate homologs Casein kinase I delta (CKI) and epsilon (CKI), (2) Investigating germline editing in Drosophila using CRISPRCas9-based cytosine and adenine base editors (3) Exploring the role of core clock gene timeless in temperature compensation of the circadian clock.

Keywords

Circadian, rhythm, Base, editor, Drosophila, melanogaster, Timeless, Doubletime, Casein, Kinase, I, Cytidine, Adenine

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 31. 1. 2024

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedúci: Mgr. David Doležel, Ph.D.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH BOHEMIA IN ČESKÉ BUDĚJOVICE

Faculty of Science

Doctoral programme / odbor:
Molecular and Cell Biology / Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics