The Role of Kinetochores in Mammalian Neural Development

Author: Prabhutendolkar, Aditee Amit

Year: 2024

Degree: Senior thesis (Major)

Advisors: Kennedy, Mary B.; Schwarz, Thomas l.; Zhao, Guoli

Committee Member: None, None

Option: Computation and Neural Systems

Abstract

The kinetochore is a protein complex found at the centromere of chromosomes. It plays an essential role in mitosis, but our lab is investigating the role of the kinetochore in a surprising post-mitotic setting. Specifically, we are focusing on the presence of kinetochores in the synapses and axons of mammalian nerve cells, implying that kinetochores play a key role in neural development.

Here we have engineered strains of mouse embryonic hippocampal nerve cells with certain kinetochore-encoding genes knocked out, and then fluorescently imaged their axonal growth cones. To quantify the change in dynamicity of the growth cones after gene knockout, we used image classification and machine learning techniques and found statistically significant results between the knockout and wildtype strains of nerve cells, indicating that kinetochores are essential to functional axon growth.