Analyzing ATP Synthetase F1 Expression in Heat-Exposed Tetrahymena thermophila
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Authors
Gardner, Kevin
Lorang, Ian
Otto-Hitt, Stefanie
Date of Issue
2018-07-01
Type
paper
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Abstract
In this study, we investigated the effect of temperature on expression of the ATP1 gene in the organism Tetrahymena thermophila. We hypothesized that expression of the ATP1 gene would increase as we increased temperature. ATP1 is a highly conserved gene in Tetrahymena that codes for the alpha subunit of ATP Synthase, an enzyme that generates the energy molecule ATP. We decided to use heat treatment based on studies performed on ATP1 in Alaskan Cod showing increased expression in response to increased temperatures (Michael et al., 2015). We used reverse transcription and semi-quantitative PCR to analyze expression of ATP1 in our heat-treated Tetrahymena cultures. We predicted that ATP1 expression would be up-regulated as temperature increased.