Browsing by Author "Turan, Merve Gül"

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BBSome regulates ARL13B-dependent joint elongation of two distinct cilia in Caenorhabditis elegans
(Abdullah Gül Üniversitesi / Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2023) Turan, Merve Gül; AGÜ, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Biyomühendislik Ana Bilim Dalı
Cilia or flagella are interchangeably used to refer to the hair-like organelles extending from the cell surface to communicate with environmental signals or triggers. Cilium, the singular form of cilia, and its components are well-conserved structures throughout evolution and are divided into motile and primary cilium. The primary cilia of different cells are seen to form joint cilia by extending in parallel. For instance, PHA and PHB primary cilia in C. elegans protrude from the ends of the dendrite but extend parallel to one another and intersect in the middle portion of the cilia, reaching the same length. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms underlying how parallel cilia get similar lengths remain mysterious. In this thesis, we used C. elagans as a model organism to examine the molecular mechanism associated with the cilia direction. We generated various single, double, and triple mutants to examine PHA and PHB cilia for phenotype and length. We found that a Joubert syndrome protein, ARL13B, is required for determining cilia direction in PHA & PHB cilia and ASE & ASI cilia.
CiliaMiner: an integrated database for ciliopathy genes and ciliopathies
(OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2023) Turan, Merve Gül; Orhan, Mehmet Emin; Cevik, Sebiha; Kaptan, Oktay I.; 0000-0001-5783-7168; 0000-0002-1757-1374; 0000-0002-0935-1929; 0000-0002-8733-0920; AGÜ, Yaşam ve Doğa Bilimleri Fakültesi, Biyomühendislik Bölümü; Turan, Merve Gül; Orhan, Mehmet Emin; Cevik, Sebiha; Kaptan, Oktay I.
Cilia are found in eukaryotic species ranging from single-celled organisms, such as Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, to humans, but not in plants. The ability to respond to repellents and/or attractants, regulate cell proliferation and differentiation and provide cellular mobility are just a few examples of how crucial cilia are to cells and organisms. Over 30 distinct rare disorders generally known as ciliopathy are caused by abnormalities or functional impairments in cilia and cilia-related compartments. Because of the complexity of ciliopathies and the rising number of ciliopathies and ciliopathy genes, a ciliopathy-oriented and up-to-date database is required. Here, we present CiliaMiner, a manually curated ciliopathy database that includes ciliopathy lists collected from articles and databases. Analysis reveals that there are 55 distinct disorders likely related to ciliopathy, with over 4000 clinical manifestations. Based on comparative symptom analysis and subcellular localization data, diseases are classifed as primary, secondary or atypical ciliopathies. CiliaMiner provides easy access to all of these diseases and disease genes, as well as clinical features and gene-specifc clinical features, as well as subcellular localization of each protein. Additionally, the orthologs of disease genes are also provided for mice, zebrafsh, Xenopus, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis elegans and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. CiliaMiner (https://kaplanlab.shinyapps.io/ciliaminer) aims to serve the cilia community with its comprehensive content and highly enriched interactive heatmaps, and will be continually updated.