Mentor: Paul James, Ph.D.

Epigenetics is the study of how alterations to DNA structure without alteration to the genomic code alters gene expression. This field has expanded greatly in the last 30 years as we began to understand the importance of how surface and structural changes regulate gene expression. Examples of structural epigenetic factors include histone modifications, chromatin remodeling, and DNA methylation of cytosines commonly found in clusters upstream of the transcription start site known as CpG islands.

>Our lab is currently focusing on the effects of DNA methylation on promoter and CpGIs of two subfamilies of transmembrane proteins known as SLC9C and SLC9B, each of which have two subfamily members. Previous research in our lab has shown that methylation of the CpGs in the promoter region of SLC9C1 causes reduced expression of the protein NHE10 causing infertility in male mice. Our goal is to determine if this is the case in a genomic context within a cell line to conduct further experiments and determine how demethylation of these regions will affect expression. To do this we need to first determine the methylation status in the promoter and CpGI regions of SLC9C1 as well as determining its expression of NHE10.

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