Transcript What Makes the “Blue” in Blueberries?

What Makes the “Blue”
in Blueberries?
-The Truth about Myb
Dylan Coughtrey
Laboratory Methods in Genomics
Spring 2011
What is Myb?
• Acronym taken from myeloblastosis
• First recognized as an oncogene in avian
myeloblastosis virus
• Currently being studied to further identify
genetic factors in cancer patients
What does it do?
• Myb transcription factors regulate gene expresion by binding
directly to DNA
• Localizes to recently replicated DNA in mitotically cycling and
endocycling cells
• Absence of Myb has been shown to cause increases in:
• Mitotic arrest
• Abnormal chromosome number
• Faulty spindle formation
http://www.stanford.edu/group/lipsick/whatsmyb%20short.htm
What does it do?
• Myb factors regulate production of anthocyanins
• Change with pH (give the fruit its blue color)
• Potentially great health benefits, positive effects against:
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Cancer
Aging and neurological diseases
Inflammation
Diabetes
Bacterial infection
Protein Structure
• Myb proteins are defined by the Myb Domain
• Sequence of approximately 50 amino acids
• Can be repeated up to three times
• Repeat domains are imperfect, but highly conserved
• The Myb Domain allow the protein to bind to DNA and
regulate transcription
My Progress
• Blasted for known Myb nucleotide sequences from Vitis
vinifera (grape) and Arabidopsis thaliana
• Found nothing
• Knew that there had to be Myb factors in blueberry
• Found my miracle paper:
• Analysis of the grape MYB R2R3 subfamily reveals expanded
wine quality-related clades and conserved gene structure
organization across Vitis and Arabidopsis genomes
• José Tomás Matus, Felipe Aquea, and Patricio Arce-Johnson
Finally Found!
• BLASTed consensus sequence using tblastn
• Searches for amino acid sequences in genomic DNA
• Found 29 potential Myb genes in the Illumina data
• Contained various portions of the conserved sequence
• Some fully conserved and others only partially conserved
Further Steps
• Identifying gene structure of Mybs in blueberry
• Determine patterns in chromosomal arrangement of Myb
genes
• Compare each of these to that of closely related plants
• Examine various Myb genes in the genome to determine
significant differences that could affect function
Works Consulted
• http://www.stanford.edu/group/lipsick/whatsmyb%20long.htm
• http://pcp.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2007/05/26/pcp.pcm0
66.short
• http://www.stanford.edu/group/lipsick/pdf/Dubendorff%20and%20
Lipsick%20Oncogene%201999.pdf
• http://www.gentcare.com/EnProductShow.asp?ID=52
• http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/osusfn030507.php
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2507771/?tool=pub
med