What is chemical genomics?
Chemical genomics involves studying the effects of small molecules on the function of a gene and protein's function [1]. Chemical genetic screens can be performed to identify small molecules that are influence the function of a protein and or the phenotype produced by the protein. It is possible to discover drugs in a chemical screen that may be of use in treating a disease or disorder.
What does a chemical genomics screen look like?
Figure 1. An example of a chemical genomics screen involving a Zebrafish carrying a mutation in the OPA3 gene. Embryos and small molecules are combined into a plate before being assayed. In this figure the trait of interest is mitochondrial membrane morphology and the goal of the experiment would be to find small molecules that rescue the mutant phenotype (defects in mitochondria) into looking more like the normal phenotype.
Unfortunately, no chemical genetic screens have actually been performed on OPA3 Zebrafish. This is an area of research that must be explored as ADOA has no treatments or cure.
This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 564, a capstone course at UW-Madison.
Unfortunately, no chemical genetic screens have actually been performed on OPA3 Zebrafish. This is an area of research that must be explored as ADOA has no treatments or cure.
This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 564, a capstone course at UW-Madison.
References
[1] Asad, Z., & Sachidanandan, C. (2020). Chemical screens in a zebrafish model of CHARGE syndrome identifies small molecules that ameliorate disease-like phenotypes in embryo. European Journal of Medical Genetics, 63(2), 103661. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmg.2019.04.018
Figure 1. Created in Biorender https://app.biorender.com/
Figure 1. Created in Biorender https://app.biorender.com/