Date of Award

1-1-2018

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Content Description

1 online resource (xxi, 191 pages) : color illustrations.

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Prashanth Rangan

Committee Members

Marlene Belfort, Melinda Larsen, Paolo Forni, Jeremy Nance

Keywords

Germline stem cells, piRNAs, Rho GTPases, Transposons, Wnt signaling, Drosophila melanogaster, Stem cells, Germ cells, Drosophila, Cell differentiation, Cellular signal transduction, Chromatin

Subject Categories

Cell Biology | Developmental Biology | Molecular Biology

Abstract

Stem cells have the unique capability of self-renewing into stem cells and differentiating into several terminal cell types. Loss of either of these processes can lead to aging, progression towards degenerative diseases and cancers. Insight into how self-renewal and differentiation are regulated will have tremendous therapeutic impact. Drosophila is an excellent model system for stem cell study due to the availability of various mutants, markers and RNAi technology. In order to study stem cell biology, we use female Drosophila gonads, whose stem cell population – the germline stem cells (GSCs) gives rise to gametes.

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