Investigating the role of neuronal translation elongation factor alpha 2(eEF1A2)in zebrafish*

N.J Idigo, D.C Soares and C.M Abbott

Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (IGMM), University of Edinburgh

eEF1A2 plays a key role in protein synthesis. Mutations in eEF1A2 has been implicated in epilepsy, autism and intellectual disability in humans. I am investigating this using the zebrafish. Expression of eEF1A2  was characterised at the mRNA level as no previous information for zebrafish was available. Result shows eEF1A2 is not expressed until later during development and abundantly expressed in the brain of adult zebrafish. We genetically disrupted eef1a2 in zebrafish using CRISPR-Cas9 system. Mutation of eEf1a2 shows a significant reduction in mRNA expression in adult brain and muscle.  Further analysis is being carried out to decipher what role this protein plays in the zebrafish system.

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Funded by: PRESSID

* entered into the PhD student poster competition