Taujale, Rahil, Asif, Muhammad Zaka, Benveniste, Maci, Chism, Kyra, Tucker, Niyelle, Watkins, Rockford, Edison, Arthur, Nicolas, Bailey, Levin, Ari, Johnson, Aleya
[
International Worm Meeting,
2021]
Caenorhabditis elegans are simple non-parasitic nematodes with a relatively short life cycle and a wealth of genomic information across multiple databases, making them ideal model organisms. However, little is known about the UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) responsible for their innate detoxification response. UGTs are a large family of phase II enzymes responsible for the glycosylation of small molecules across organisms, thus interacting with small molecules such as toxins in the worms' immediate environment. The Edison Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Computational Team is a group of undergraduate students who are working to identify the diversity that exists in UGTs across C. elegans isolates from different geographical locations found in the Caenorhabditis elegans Natural Diversity Resource (CeNDR) database in order to make inferences about their evolutionary relationships and functions. The CeNDR database is a collection of wild isolates of C. elegans and their genomic data found globally used by researchers worldwide. Out of the 250 glycotransferases are responsible for transferring sugar molecules to various substrates, there are about 79 UGTs that transfer sugar molecules to small molecules including toxins. Two approaches were implemented to identify UGTs and make inferences based on their variation. First, we created a catalog of UGTs in the N2 reference strain and used them to create a phylogenetic tree that allowed us to depict the relationships between the UGT protein sequences. For our second approach, we quantified UGT variation using the strains found in the CeNDR database. The results and inferences from this research will help us explore possible functions of UGT genes and improve our understanding of UGT variation in C. elegans.