Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Wise, Dwayne

Committee Member

Gordon, Donna

Committee Member

Kent-First, Marijo

Date of Degree

5-2-2009

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Biological Sciences

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Abstract

We have used Chinese hamster ovary (CHO)-human hybrid cells containing chromosomes 16, 18, X, and 21 to test the ability of human kinetochores to successfully bind to spindle microtubules and to be distributed to the daughter cells. We have established the intrinsic rate of non-disjunction among these human chromosomes noted above and compared these rates with those in cells presented with mitotic challenges such as taxol, nocodazole, and mitosis with unreplicated genomes (MUG). Cells were grown on culture slides, fixed and processed for immunofluorescence and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Daughter pairs were identified by staining with anti-á-tubulin to identify midbodies. Human centromere DNA probes were used for FISH in order to test for the successful passage of human kinetochores to daughter cells during anaphase. Our data indicate that different human kinetochores vary in their ability to properly engage the spindle and to be successfully distributed. In addition, mitotic challenges have been shown to affect the rate of non-disjunction. The mechanism of this effect is not yet known.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15042

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