Stephenson 9630705 The eggs of most animals are asymmetric, and this asymmetry establishes the pattern of the embryo during early development. In the best understood case, a localized mRNA, that of the bicoid gene, is localized to the anterior margin of Drosophila (fruit fly) eggs, and directs the development of anterior embryonic structures. While the development role of bicoid mRNA is fairly well understood, the mechanism by which it is localized is not. The work in this application is directed toward obtaining a better understanding of the localization of bicoid mRNA and the roles of molecules that participate in this process. One emphasis will be to determine the function of the swallow gene, whose protein product is required for bicoid mRNA localization. To this end Dr. Stephenson will try to identify and characterize other proteins that associate with the swallow protein in vivo and in vitro. He will also determine the subcellular distribution of swallow protein by fusing it to the fluorescent protein GFP. These experiments should give him a more complete view of the localization mechanism and of the specific role of swallow. A second emphasis will be to identify other proteins that interact with bicoid mRNA during the localization process. There is circumstantial evidence that bicoid mRNA is associated with the egg cytoskeleton, and he will explore this association in more detail and characterize some of the molecules that participate in it.
