A Butterfly Transposon Mutagenesis Screen for the Study of Wingless Signal Transduction

PI: Jeffrey M. Marcus – Western Kentucky University

Project Summary I propose to develop techniques for genetic transformation using transposons in the buckeye butterfly, Precis coenia . I then plan to use these techniques to introduce a transposon carrying an enhancer trap construct or stable sources of transposase into the different strains of Precis and to use these strains to conduct a genome-wide enhancer trap mutagenesis screen. In this screen, we will focus on new insertions which either modify the orange bar phenotype associated with Wingless expression on the wings of the butterflies, or which have enhancer trap expression patterns which show similarities to Wingless expression patterns. Flanking sequences of transposon insertions will be characterized, and mutant genes will be identified by comparison to sequence databases. The effects of these mutations on wingless mRNA expression patterns will be examined by in situ hybridization. These new mutations will allow the further study of the Wingless signal transduction pathway in the butterfly wing, and may permit us to identify previously unidentified members of the pathway. Further, because this pathway plays a role in cancer formation in humans, our findings may identify new genes that the broader research community can use as targets for the development of therapeutic agents in the treatment of cancer.