Identificació de serina proteases implicades en l’activació localitzada del receptor Torso tirosina cinasa a l’embrió de Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Identifying serine proteases involved in the localized activation of the tyrosine kinase Torso receptor in the Drosophila melanogaster embryo. Abstract: This Degree Final Project focuses in genetic experiment using Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. More specifically, the project is framed within one of the aims of the laboratory lead by Dr. Jordi Casanova in the Institut de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona (IBMB) which aims at identifying the mechanisms involved in the localized activation of the Torso receptor in the Drosophila embryo pulse. More specifically, in identifying a serine protease that is involved in the activation through proteolytic processing of an essential ligand towards the activation of the receptor, called Trunk. The Torso receptor is the responsible for the formation of the terminal structures of the embryo. In Drosophila there are over 200 serine protease and to be able to identify the protease involved in the processing of this ligand, the phenotype produced by the lack of function of each of the different serine proteases inactivating their function using the interference RNA technique (RNAi). By doing so, inferring in the function of a specific protease and, from the germ phenotype observed, generic interactions can be established. In order to do so, an experimental method was designed so as to test the inactivation of every protease. In order to check that the screening strategy was really the most convenient one, and so to check that the experimental design was valid and able to spot a protease involved in the terminal system, RNAi from well-known elements in the route of the Torso receptor were checked. The result showed that this strategy worked. Nevertheless, no protease has been found involved in the Trunk processing so far, since no germ phenotype related to the lack of terminal structures has been observed