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Brandon Oberlin
Biology

William Roberts, Mentor

Gene Structure and Expression of CtBP2/RIBEYE in Zebrafish

Certain synaptic structures unique to specialized neurons that require sustained neurotransmission are called ribbons, and are contained in the photoreceptors of the retina. Among the several proteins known to make up ribbons is RIBEYE. The RIBEYE protein is an NAD+ binding protein that is exclusively expressed in vertebrate ribbons. It is an unusual gene in that it has a transcript variant, CtBP2, that is unrelated to ribbons and is a transcription repressor. The goal of this research is to determine the structure and expression of the CtBP2/RIBEYE gene in zebrafish. Database searching will help to piece together uncharacterized shotgun fragments from other sequencing projects while a computer will perform alignment and homology data analysis. In-house sequencing, PCR, and cDNA library screening, will make it possible to obtain the sequence and structure, while in-situ hybridization will make it possible to determine its expression pattern and contrast RIBEYE with CtBP2.