Pria Chang image

 

Betty Jo Loving Butler '58 Endowment for Undergraduate Research Scholarship and Farrell Summer Research Scholarship

Birth defects can be acquired during morphogenetic processes. RhoA signal transduction plays a role in many embryonic morphogenetic processes in vertebrate and mammalian development. This summer I analyzed RhoA signal transduction, which is responsible for the actin-myosin cytoskeleton contractions that enable intracellular and intercellular shape changes in morphogenesis.  An actin-binding GFP-moesin fusion protein was expressed in  Drosophila  melanogaster  embryos to visualize the actin cytoskeleton during the morphogenetic process of head involution in wild type and mutant embryos. The exact effect of RhoA on head involution was analyzed through the use of time-lapse confocal microscopy.

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