By Victoria Ashton and Madeline Brunt
Faculty mentor: Dr. Ginny Morriss
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a disease that affects organisms by causing severe weakening and wasting of muscles. The disease is caused by an increased number of trinucleotide CTG repeats in the DMPK gene, where a larger number of repeats causes more severe and earlier onset phenotypic changes. Using the Gal4/UAS system in Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies), we will express expanded CUG-repeat RNA to determine the extent to which each driver causes severe phenotypes in the flies. Two behavioral assays were used to observe phenotypes, a climbing velocity test and a flight test. Significant differences between the CTG60 control flies and CTG480 experimental flies indicate muscle wasting.
