Christine Dutt
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Research Mentor(s): Benjamin Allen
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Cell and Developmental Biology / Medicine
Program:
Authors: Hannah Dear, Haeyoung Park
Session: Session 1: 9:00 am – 9:50 am
Poster: 53
Abstract
Vertebrate organisms utilize distinct forelimbs and hindlimbs to accommodate their niche within the animal kingdom— humans have hands and feet, birds have wings and claws, fish have fins. Surprisingly, these seemingly disparate limbs are patterned by the same set of signaling cues during development, raising the following question: How do the same signals within one organism result in a hand or foot, wing or claw, or fin across species? The Hedgehog (HH) pathway is one signal controlling both digit specification and long bone growth in developing fore- and hindlimbs. I hypothesize the HH transcription factors, GLI1/2/3, contribute differently to forelimb versus hindlimb development. To test this hypothesis, I have deleted GLI1/2/3 using a limb-specific CRE driver mouse, Prx1CRE, crossed with, Gli1-/-;Gli2FLOX/FLOX; Gli3FLOX/FLOX, mice. In line with previous research, GLI3 was confirmed to be the main contributor of digit specification. However, our data suggests that all three GLIs are contributing to long bone growth. Further, we find the phenotypes in for- and hindlimb are different. For example, loss of GLI1/2/3 in the radius results in the most severe shortened phenotype; however, tibial loss of GLI1/2/3 is less severe than GLI2/3. This result suggests GLI targets are different in forelimb and hindlimb.
