Sass' fly group uses Drosophila's unique qualities for genetic research
with emphasis on:
| (i)
|
Composition and modification of chromatin; structural organisation
of polytene chromosomes
|
| (ii) | Identifying novel genes of Drosophila melanogaster with gene trap vectors pHS155 and pHS160 |
| (iii) | Genome evolution |
| (iv) | Mechanisms of gene regulation at the cellular and molecular level including a fly model to study human diseases |
| (v)
|
The gene ontology project, a interdisciplinary collaboration under
the guidance of the philosopher (Wolfgang Paul award winner) Prof. Barry
Smith (http://www.ifomis.uni-leipzig.de).
Since April 2004 the project „Formen des Lebens. Philosophische Dimensionen der aktuellen biomedizinischen Forschung“ is supported by the VolkswagenStiftung (http://db.uni-leipzig.de/aktuell/index.php?modus=pmanzeige&pm_id=1458). |
The research reports of the Genetics group 2007 and of the
Faculty of Bioscience, Pharmacy and Psychology 2007 review the various projects.
| (i)
|
The connection between genes and proteins is the genetic basis of many human diseases. With the confirmation that Drosophila is a model biological system to study human diseases we express human genes linked to Alzheimer's disease in transgenic Drosophila melanogaster. Work focuses on the speculative question whether the human protein folding enzyme peptidyl-prolyl-cis/trans-isomerase Pin1 (hPin1) is connected to this neurodegenerative disorder. |
| (ii)
|
The aim behind the insertion mutagenesis with transposable gene trap vector pHS155 is the identification of novel genes including neurospecific genes and the analysis of their expression. The cloning and characterisation of neurospecific genes routes to a better understanding of the neuron and / or nervous system function. We use the brain of Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. |
| (iii)
|
The gene ontology project. A major goal of our interdisciplinary collaboration with the philosopher Prof. Barry Smith is to consider genetic / biological data from a new perspective (http://ifomis.org). |
The research
report surveys the various projects.
| (i)
|
Connections between structure and function of the histone methyltransferase Su(var)3-9 (Krauss and Reuter 2000, Schotta et al. 2002, Ebert et al. 2004, Krauss et al. 2006, Krauss 2007). Comparative evolutionary analysis helps to understand the function of this gene silencing enzyme, which is also in humans an important research topic. A comprehensive review of histone H3K9 methylation in eukaryots is found in Krauss 2008. |
| (ii) | Evolution of Su(var)3-9-homologous methyltransferases in plants (Baumbusch et al. 2001, Naumann et al. 2005) |
| (iii)
|
Evolution of the „composite gene“ mod(mdg4) in Diptera and Lepidoptera (Dorn and Krauss 2003, Krauss und Dorn 2004). Trans-splicing is an efficient pathway to express a lot of different regulated transcript variants from a relatively small area of the genome. |
| (iv) | Gene structure evolution of the highly conserved subunit gamma of the translation initiation factor eIF2 (Krauss et al. 2005) has lead to the genome-wide collection of intron positions to use it for phylogenetic analysis. This is accomplished by determination of the relative timing of intron gain and will be important to evaluate the mechanism of intron gain (Krauß et al. 2008, note that this is a toll-free link for non-commercial usage only). |
| (v) | Structure, evolution and function of the Dip1 gene |