| dc.description.abstract | Alternative splicing is a eukaryotic mRNA processing mechanism in which exons within a pre-RNA transcript are joined differently or skipped entirely, yielding multiple protein isoforms from a single gene. This project studied the effect of alcohol treated brains in regards to alternative splicing of exon 8a in the Lysine-specific histone demethylase 1A (LSD1) gene. LSD1 is a flavin-dependent enzyme that demethylates mono or dimethylated lysines, and more specifically it removes histone H3K4me2 and changes it to either H3K4me1 or H3K4me0. The inclusion of exon 8a has been noted to create a docking site that helps the conversion of LSD1 into H3K9 demethylase during neuronal differentiation. The expected outcome was that alcohol exposure alters the splicing of LSD1 and, thus, decreasing H3K9me2 activity. In this study, ethanol exposure was examined on neurospheres, which are culture systems clusters of neural stem cells, under control, 0.16 g/dL, and 0.24 g/dL alcohol conditions. Based off of the obtained data there was no clear indication that the inclusion or exclusion of Exon 8a affected the intensity of LSD1 gene expression with increasing levels of alcohol concentration. Rather, it seems that the increasing alcohol concentration overall correlated with a decreasing number of copies amplified of the LSD1 gene during PCR, regardless of the inclusion or exclusion of Exon 8a. | en |
