Sex-specific alternative splicing in the head of Drosophila melanogaster and its underlying regulatory mechanisms

• Applicant: Dr. Giorgos Pyrowolakis, since 1/2016
• Subject Area: General Genetics and Functional Genome Biology
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 243069362

Alternative splicing (AS) acts on almost every human gene generating multiple RNAs being a major contributor to proteome diversity. Thus, alternative splicing introduces another level of complexity to differential gene regulation. It is therefore not surprising that deregulation of this process has been associated with a wide range of diseases. With the advances of new technologies such as Next Generation Sequencing, the scientific field has gained much knowledge of how much, where and when AS occurs but our knowledge on how alternative splicing is regulated and how developmental processes impact on the process is still very limited. We use Drosophila melanogaster as a model system to study the influence of sexual dimorphism on AS regulation in the head/brain. A combination of Next Generation Sequencing, cell culture and in vivo work will be applied to describe sex-specific AS events in the brain, localize this splicing-regulation and characterize underlying regulatory mechanisms. Especially in vivo methods such as the localization of the endogenous AS pattern and RNAi screens provide the unique possibility to obtain new information in this research field. The results gained from this study will be a proof of principle for the techniques and tools applied and the basis to study the biological role of sex-specific AS in the Drosophila brain in the future.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Dr. Britta Hartmann, until 12/2015