Date of Submission

Fall 2016

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Biology

Project Advisor 1

Michael Tibbetts

Abstract/Artist's Statement

ABSTRACT

Hair cells in the inner ear are essential for hearing and balance. Without them we would be deaf or disoriented. If hair cells are damaged in any way, we suffer permanent hearing loss or balance degeneration. However, although mammals do not have the ability to regenerate new hair cells when they die or get damaged, many non-mammalian vertebrates have the capability to regenerate dead hair cells through the mantle support cells that surround the hair cells in the neuromast. Danio rerio, or Zebrafish, are one of those species. Currently, there are no models that suggest that a potocadherin protein Protocadherin10 is involved regulating cellular polarity and adhesion, a function that is important in hair cell function. This study investigates the importance of Protocadherin10 and its role in planar cell polarity in zebrafish hair cells. Immunofluorescence staining of Protocadherin10 proteins found that Protocadherin10 was localized in the mantle cell within the neuromast which shows that it may have a role not only in hair cell development, but in hair cell polarity. In addition, although knockdown of protocadherin10 was not done, I hypothesize that in morphant fish, polarity will be non-existent. I propose zebrafish Protocadherin10 as a potential target to study the role of hair cell development and planar cell polarity.

Open Access Agreement

On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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