Organisms frequently direct stationary cells to become migratory in order to build various structures throughout their body. One such migratory cell type, the neural crest, gives rise to portions of the heart, components of the gut and sensory nervous systems, skin pigment cells, and the craniofacial skeleton. The formation of migratory neural crest cells is mediated, in part, by the activity of a protein called Snail2. The central goal of this research project is to delineate the role of Snail2, and the genes Snail2 regulates, during neural crest cell migration. To address this question, various molecular and biochemical experiments will be performed to examine the role of two putative Snail2 target genes, alpha-N-catenin and cingulin, in the neural crest. The results of this work will reveal the distribution and function of alpha-N-catenin and cingulin in the developing embryo, as well as define the mechanism by which Snail2 regulates alpha-N-catenin and cingulin.
The broader impacts of this proposal include: 1) the integration of research and teaching at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, 2) the support of female scientists through participation in the University of Maryland, College Park chapter of the Association for Women in Science, and 3) the generation of important reagents that will be available to the scientific community. Collectively, this project will help better prepare the next generation of scientists for careers in both academic and non-academic settings, and the proposed experiments will shed light on the processes regulating neural crest cell migration and the fundamental molecular mechanisms controlling the directed movement of cells during embryonic development.
