We are searching for a highly motivated candidate who is interested in studying the molecular mechanisms controlling stem cell maintenance and cell fate determination in the model organism Drosophila. The project deals with the functional analysis of target genes regulated by the Tip60 chromatin remodeling complex of the fruit fly Drosophila. We found that the ATPase Domino, the histone acetyl transferase Tip60 and several other members of this protein complex including the transcription factor Myc are required for maintenance of neural stem cells in the larval fly brain (Rust et al. 2018). More recent data show that the Tip60 complex is also required for stem cell maintenance in the larval gut of the fly. By using the DamID method we have identified target genes of the Tip60 complex in the gut and aim to functionally analyze their contribution to tissue homeostasis. We have also pursued single nucleus RNA sequencing of the wild type and domino knockdown larval gut and are in the process of assembling a cell atlas of the larval gut based on these data and on electron microscopic
imaging. Further information on the research activities of our group can be found on our homepage: http://www.anatomie.uni-koeln.de/21614.html.
