C Elegans

Abstract By understanding how components within certain cells confer their ability to regenerate or antagonize cellular differentiation into specific cell types, we can change these components to make our cells have regenerative properties. To understand this, we examine cells of the germline, called germ cells. These "parent" cells of sperm and egg cells have the ability to become any cell type of each subsequent generation, and are thereby totipotent. This totipotency essentially makes germ cells immortal and comes in part from special cellular components called germ granules. Germ granules are small masses of proteins and RNA that are found just outside the nucleus of germ cells (Updike and Strome, 2010). It is thought that these germ granules influence the totipotency and identity of germ cells. (Hanazawa et al., 2011) Here we address whether the depletion of ribosomal protein and translation factors (RPTFs) during early developmental stages result in the expression of germ granules in the larval intestine. We hypothesized that this phenotype would be common to the depletion of other RPTFs. After testing 93 RPTFs, our observations suggest that the somatic misexpression of germ granules is caused by the depletion of a small subset of RPTFs and not depletion of RPTFs in general.

Introduction The purpose of the our research is to look into whether or not germ cellʼs ability to become any type of cell could be used to improve healing. By understanding how components within germ cells confer their ability to regenerate or antagonize cellular differentiation into specific cell types, we hope to alter these components in order to make human cells have regenerative properties. Germ granules within these germ cells also appear to serve as a protection against various types of cellular stress . Specifically, we are studying germ granules to see if their expression in non-reproductive cells is occurring in specific genetic backgrounds. Germ granules are small