Project 1 - Loss of an RNA binding protein ELAV, leads to degeneration in photoreceptor neurons through apoptosis in Drosophila melanogaster AND Project 2 - Factors affecting regulation of AcrAB-TolC efflux system in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

Neurodegenerative disorders cost billions every year and put huge burden on the health care system of nations. Because of lack of thorough understanding of mechanisms behind these diseases, there are hardly any treatments available that increase the concerns even more. Recent evidence suggests that RNA binding proteins play major role in neurodegenerative diseases because of their ability to bind RNA targets in sequence and position dependent manner and in regulating alternative splicing. Moreover, specific tissue types along with expressing transcription factors can tailor their proteome by expressing, RNA binding proteins in tissue specific manner. In this study we investigated the role played by ELAV, first identified member of RNA binding protein superfamily, in neurodegeneration by using model organism \(Drosophila\) \(melanogaster\). We show that loss of \(elav\) leads to degeneration of photoreceptor neurons in \(Drosophila\). Also, the degeneration of neurons occurs through apoptotic pathway. We confirmed apoptosis by expressing inhibitor of apoptosis gene \(p35\), which suppressed the degeneration of photoreceptor neurons completely. We further investigated the expression of pro-apoptotic genes and observed that \(hid\) expression is increased in dying photoreceptor neurons; this increased expression due to loss of \(elav\) may be responsible in activating the apoptotic mechanism