BDRC SEMINAR SERIES
Rodrigo Young
Developmental Biology & Cancer Programme, ICH
29th January 2016, 1pm
June Lloyd Seminar Room (PUW4)
Tcf3 dependence and eye robustness of eye
formation in zebrafish
Abstract
My research is centred on eye specification and early development. I have focused my work
on studying the Wnt transcription factor tcf3a, and found that even though tcf3a mutant
embryos develop eyes, they do because of a process involving tissue robustness but not
genetic compensation by redundancy. Essentially, the specified eye primordium in tcf3a
mutants it 50% smaller then the wild type counterpart, but in the long term develops to a
normal sized eye. We also know now that because of the smaller eye field, tcf3a mutants are
sensitised to generate eyeless phenotypes in combination with other mutations. This
prompted me to perform a modifier screen over tcf3a mutant background looking for
mutations that induce eye phenotypes. After screening 340 families I have isolated 6 eyeless
families, and 4 eye degeneration lines in which the eye forms but later degenerates
prematurely. This is the first enhancer screen of the kind performed in zebrafish and any
vertebrate. I am now in the process of identifying the mutations and studying one of the
enhancer of tcf3a I have already mapped to a gene.