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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Cyclooxygenase-2, COX-2, chicken, A549 cells, human lung adenocarcinoma

College

Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Abstract

As described in the proposal, my goal was to further understand the mechanisms of mRNA processing of the chicken gene called Cyclooxygenase (COX)-2. There are many mechanisms by which mRNA molecules are modified in order to produce proteins that fulfill the needs of a given cell. The mechanism I chose to study was called alternative splicing, a process through which sequences are removed from the mRNA thereby altering the structure and function of the protein to be translated from its sequence. In brief summary splicing mechanisms, the cells possess machinery that recognize certain sequences, called splice sites, as a guide for determining which sequences to retain and which to remove. Previously, I had shown that in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells the chicken COX-2 gene could produce two distinct mRNA molecules (Lane 1 of Figure 1). At the beginning of 2013, I sought to determine how human cell lines, namely human osteosarcoma (U2OS) cells and human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cells, would splice the chicken COX-2 gene. I found that the same splicing event occurs in A549 and U2OS cells. We also learned more about how the chicken COX-2 mRNA is processed in U2OS cells. Herein, I report that mutation of splice sites alone is not sufficient to govern alternative splicing of the chicken COX-2 mRNA and propose, although without evidence, that signals from within the cell are additional requirements for splicing.

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