Long, QuanYang, GuangKopp, Drayden2021-09-282021-09-282021-09Kopp, D. (2021). Understanding the roles for CELF2 in post-transcriptional regulation for the fate of neural stem cells (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.http://hdl.handle.net/1880/113974The development of the mammalian brain is built by neural stem cells (NSCs) which differentiate into neurons, glial cells and will self-renew to grow the NSC population. The balancing of self-renewal and differentiation is precisely orchestrated as the brain develops. The fate of NSCs are achieved by intrinsic gene regulation along with extrinsic environmental factors. As gene regulation is an essential process for all cells, understanding its coordination is important to understand how the fate of cells are determined. Gene regulation can occur at three main levels: transcriptional, post-transcriptional and post-translational. Regarding NSCs, transcriptional and post-translational regulation have been studied extensively, while post-transcriptional regulation has had limited research. An understudied post-transcriptional regulator, CELF2, has been found to be associated with neural developmental disorders. Further studies from our lab found that CELF2 is essential for NSC fate decisions. My thesis aims to understand what transcripts are targeted by CELF2 using bioinformatics analysis. With this data, the targeted genes can be categorized into groups based on their functionality. Using this data, I aim to determine what genes and what cellular functions are most impacted by CELF2. Furthermore, as the CELF family is not well studied evolutionarily, I wish to construct a phylogenetic tree to understand how the family may have evolved in association with complex animals. With these findings, I am to expand the field of post-transcriptional regulation and its impact on the developing brain.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.neurodevelopmental disordersCELFBioinformaticsNeuroscienceBiochemistrymaster thesis10.11575/PRISM/39286