In vivo structurele en functionele analyse van de atonal transcriptie factor.

The experiments proposed herein constitute the first time an extensive structure-function analysis in the endogenous locus has been carried out for a proneural genes. The very high efficiency with which we are able to replace the Atonal locus, means that generating the various necessary chimeras in the locus will be achieved with minimum effort. This allows us to focus most of our efforts on the functional analysis of these variants. We are confident these analyses will generate not only novel, but also unexpected insights into the functional properties of the Atonal proneural gene and proneural genes in general. Given the role of Atonal as a tumor suppressor gene for the one of the most prevalent causes of cancer deaths in the world - 11% of all cancer deaths annually are due to colorectal cancer alone - the importance of understanding the molecular and genetic mechanism of Atonal function are difficult ot exaggerate.

Trefwoorden:Neurogenetics, Molecular biology, Analysis of the Atonal transcription fac