Although meiosis and mitosis are programmed events which accurately separate the appropriate chromosomes into the appropriate eukaryotic daughter cells at the appropriate times and are, thus, central to the genetic program which ultimately produces progeny, little is known of the actual mechanisms involved. Investigations carried out in the protozoan, Tetrahymena thermophila, suggests that the ends of chromosomes, telomeres, are involved in the ordered movement of chromosomes during miosis and mitosis. Such information would be more easily obtained using Tetrahymena since the formation of the macronucleus from the micronucleus involves a large amount of DNA fragmentation and resealing of chromosome ends with telomeric DNA. Telomeric DNA mutants of Tetrahymena will be used in molecular and cell biology studies with the following two goals. 1) To determine telomere function during mitotic anaphase by analyzing the telomere repeat sequence and telomere structure of a mutant displaying a particularly severe defect in anaphase chromatid separation. 2) To investigate the role of telomeres in chromosome alignment and localization during meiotic prophase using cell biological approaches and utilizing Tetrahymena telomeric mutants. Undergraduate students will perform laboratory experiments and exceptional ones will have the opportunity to serve as laboratory course advisors. On-going laboratory research will be incorporated into a molecular genetics laboratory course which will culminate in each student writing an original manuscript based upon the work done in the laboratory course. A partnership between the Lake Forest College Biology Department and the Waukegan school district will also be established based upon the model developed by the University of California Medical School at San Francisco.
This work will not only produce information basic to the understanding of genetic mechanisms but will also serve as a means of introducing undergraduates to the excitement of basic biological research.
