Date Thesis Awarded
5-2024
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Science (BS)
Department
Biology
Advisor
Jennifer Bestman
Committee Members
Lisa Landino
Stephanie Caligiuri
Abstract
Premature neurogenesis in the developing brain can have detrimental impacts on neurodevelopment that give rise to diseases such as microcephaly. Cell proliferation in the brain is controlled by radial glial neural progenitor cells (NPCs) which are essentially the stem cells of the brain. Symmetric division serves the purpose of expanding the progenitor pool by resulting in two NPCs. The progressive differentiation of the brain occurs when NPCs begin to divide asymmetrically to result in a daughter neuron each division while maintaining the progenitor identity. It has been found that the mitochondrial system in stem cells throughout the body contributes to the fate of cells, but this relationship is unclear in NPCs. The mitochondrial network in NPCs is a dynamic system where the organelles are constantly undergoing fission and fusion, and in stem cells with larger and more continuous networks, symmetric division is favored. Even though one of the main roles for mitochondria is energy production through oxidative phosphorylation, NPCs do not rely on this process and instead use glycolysis in the cytosol. It remains a mystery why the NPCs spend resources and energy to transport the mitochondria around the cell. In this thesis, the relationship between the cell’s fate and the movement and localization of its mitochondria is explored. To observe the movement and behavior of mitochondria, they were tagged with a photoactivatable green fluorescent protein (paGFP). Mitochondria in select cell compartments were photoactivated with UV light, so they could be visualized, and the whole NPC and its mitochondria were imaged over multiple days. The distribution of mitochondria within an NPC was analyzed, and my data suggests there are not distinct populations of mitochondria that are controlled independently of each other.
Recommended Citation
Kettelberger, Maggie, "Characterizing mitochondrial movement and distribution in radial glial neural progenitor cells" (2024). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 2142.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/2142
