Abstract
Polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases are inherited fatal neurodegenerative disorders caused by expansion of trinucleotide cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) repeats, encoding abnormally long glutamine tracts in respective disease proteins. Currently, there are nine polyQ diseases- including Huntington’s disease and a number of Spinocerebellar ataxias. Interestingly, expanded polyQ proteins are prone to aggregate, and this aggregation may underlie neurodegeneration. In this study, we investigate the expression and localization of FAM171B (a novel polyQ protein) in the brain. Western blotting reveals that FAM171B protein is indeed expressed in the developing and adult mouse brain. Furthermore, immunohistochemical analyses suggests widespread localization of FAM171B to many brain regions - with pronounced expression in the hippocampus, cerebellar Purkinje cells, and cerebral cortex. As a novel polyQ protein that is expressed in the brain, our observations suggest that FAM171B can be considered a candidate gene for as yet molecularly uncharacterized neurodegenerative diseases.
Advisor
Geoffrey Goellner
Committee Member
David Sharlin
Committee Member
Rachel Cohen
Date of Degree
2017
Language
english
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Biological Sciences
College
Science, Engineering and Technology
Recommended Citation
Tran, Q. (2017). Expression of FAM171B Protein in Mouse Brain Tissue [Master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/757/
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