Mandip KC
Undergraduate Student
Department of Biological Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Denver
Email: mandip.kc@du.edu
Education
B.S. in progress, Molecular Biology, Chemistry. University of Denver, 2008.
Research Interests
Transposable elements, also known as “jumping genes,” are segments of DNA that have the ability to use cellular mechanisms to move to different locations in the genome. “Chicken Repeat 1” or CR1 are types transposable elements that make RNA copies of themselves and reinsert somewhere else in the genome. As the new copies reinsert themselves in to the new location, it is an irreversible event and remains in that location of the genome thereafter.
Even though the complete CR1 element is around 4.2 kb, due to the inefficiency of the enzyme this element uses, the most reinserted elements are only a few hundred base pairs (about 200 bases).These smaller fragments of CR1 elements can be isolated and used to find phylogenetic relationships between different waterfowl species. For example, if a transposable element landed in a new location within the genome of a bird at some point in the evolutionary past, it would be inherited in that same location in all species that evolved from that ancestral one. My research goal is two-fold in the lab. First and foremost, to examine the phylogenetic relationship between specific waterfowl species, I will isolate and compare different CR1 loci in waterfowl. I have focused on Brazilian teal to isolate CR1 and looked at different bird species that are closely related to it. My second goal is to attempt to isolate a full length CR1 from coscorba. This is a waterfowl species in which a recent CR1 insertion was discovered (St. John, et al, 2005), indicating that there could potentially be an active element somewhere in its genome.