Brittany M. Jack
@bmichellej87
My name is Brittany Jack, and I recently finished my first year of graduate school at the University of Kansas Medical Center. I joined the Avasthi Lab in the Anatomy and Cell Biology Department. We study the kinetics and regulation of cilia assembly using Chlamydomonasreinhardtii as our model organism. My project centers around actin redundancy in Chlamydomonas and its role in cilia assembly. I was awarded an NSF graduate research fellowship as an undergraduate in March of 2017. I graduated from Rockhurst University in May 2017 with a B.S. in Biochemistry. As part of my NSF fellowship, I am involved in creating/providing undergraduate research opportunities to students from Rockhurst University at KUMC.
American Society of Cell Biology
December 2018
UPCOMING EVENTS
GRC Plant and Microbial Cytoskeleton
August 2018
MY LATEST RESEARCH
Flagella of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii are nearly identical to cilia of mammalian cells and provide an excellent model to study ciliogenesis. These biflagellated cells have two actin genes: one encoding a conventional actin (IDA5) and the other encoding a divergent novel actin-like protein (NAP1). Previously, we described a role for actin in regulation of flagella-building intraflagellar transport machinery and now probe how actin redundancy contributes to this process using a nap1 mutant Chlamydomonas strain. Treatment with Latrunculin B, a potent actin polymerization inhibitor on the nap1 mutant background acutely disrupts all filamentous actins in the cell. We find that actins are an absolute requirement for flagellar growth when the pre-existing pool of flagellar precursors is depleted. Nap1 mutants treated with Latrunculin B also showed reduced protein synthesis during regeneration. Finally, loss of functional actins reduced the incorporation of existing flagellar proteins as well as caused mislocalization of a key transition zone gating protein, NPHP-4. These experiments demonstrate that each stage of flagellar biogenesis requires redundant actin function to varying degrees, with an absolute requirement for actin in incorporation of newly synthesized flagellar proteins.
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Jack B, Mueller DM, Fee AC, Tetlow A, Avasthi P. Actin Redundancy in Chlamydomonas is Required for Flagellar Protein Synthesis and Gating. BioRxiv [Preprint]. 2017 November 30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/227553.