Date of Award

4-14-2017

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.Sc.

Department

Biological Sciences

Keywords

eye development, pax6, rax1, six3, transcription factor

Supervisor

Crawford, Michael

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

Three homeobox transcription factors were studied for their importance in eye development - rax1, pax6, and six3. Rax1 encodes transcription factors that regulate genes necessary for the development of the eye. I show that perturbation of rax1 expression via morpholino mediated translational knockdown has no affect on the shape of pax6 and six3 expression domains at early stages. Significant pax6 expression changes were only seen at later stages of development. This inverts the hierarchal model of these transcription factors in early eye development. Furthermore, to confirm the position of these genes in our model we examined the relationship of significant eye field markers - namely, foxe3, �-crystallin, pitx3, mafA, and otx2. By knocking down rax1 and observing the outcome on the eye field markers I established that rax1 is a major contributor but downstream to the overall process of eye development.

Share

COinS