When odd results are good (first time round)
On Thursday I was doing some fluorescent microscopy on "project Y" (I started project X earlier in my postdoc) and I got an unusual result. My first reaction was to dismiss the whole thing as a "fuck up" but then I did some pondering. I'll try and explain without mentioning specific names because who knows who may be reading. That's another weird thing in acadmia too, the whole concept of knowledge being "free" when in reality it couldn't be further from the truth - you can only do another postdoc (or apply to be a group leader) with some good publications under your belt and you can only publish something that is novel. It's a fundamental flaw with the system and it seems that paranoia about such things is worse now there's a smaller pot of cash for everyone to fight over.
Back to the weird result. In a normal cell there is a protein red that's always on the "righthand" side of the cell. If you overexpress GeneE then then protein red is inside the cell. If you remove GeneE then protein red goes all around the edge of the cell. When you mess up the localisation of proteinred you wind up with a fly that has a round wing as opposed to an ovel wing.
or GeneE normal = protein red on the right edge of cell (membrane)
GeneE increase = protein red in the centre of cell (cytoplasmic)
GeneE decrease = protein red all around the edge (membrane)
Now "mygene" when removed has round wings so my theory was that proteinred localisation is messed up. When I look at proteinred in a "mygene" mutant proteinred seems to localise quite happily (or at least not obviously affected) to the right edge of the cell. This is not so good.
Mygene decrease = protein red on right edge of cell (normal)
I do know that if I combine an increase of GeneE with a decrease in Mygene then the wing becomes far rounder than either alteration on their own. This suggests the two things can genetically interact. I decided to have a look at where protein red is in this type of double mutant. What I expected, given the individual results was for it to look like GeneE increase on it's own (as Mygene decrease has no obvious effect on proteinred)
GeneE increase + mygene decrease = protein red in centre of the cell.
The observed result is:
GeneE increase + mygene decrease = protein red all around the edge = GeneE decrease
Now that's pretty damn curious how by adding something which on it's own has no effect on protein red can effectively reverse the result in GeneE increase. My thought is that GeneE and Mygene are intrinsically linked. In a normal scenario the reduced function of Mygene is still enough to behave normally. However if I have too much GeneE then the reduced levels of mygene simply can't handle things and the whole thing falls apart. If this is the case then the project is suddenly looking back on track.
This is science though and i've only seen the result once. Anyone who knows how fickle science is will understand that i'm deeply skeptical of this result until I see it again. Fingers crossed I will as it's a little beacon of hope in getting the project to look lively again.
EDIT: Cartoons would help make this ramble a lot clearer :)
Back to the weird result. In a normal cell there is a protein red that's always on the "righthand" side of the cell. If you overexpress GeneE then then protein red is inside the cell. If you remove GeneE then protein red goes all around the edge of the cell. When you mess up the localisation of proteinred you wind up with a fly that has a round wing as opposed to an ovel wing.
or GeneE normal = protein red on the right edge of cell (membrane)
GeneE increase = protein red in the centre of cell (cytoplasmic)
GeneE decrease = protein red all around the edge (membrane)
Now "mygene" when removed has round wings so my theory was that proteinred localisation is messed up. When I look at proteinred in a "mygene" mutant proteinred seems to localise quite happily (or at least not obviously affected) to the right edge of the cell. This is not so good.
Mygene decrease = protein red on right edge of cell (normal)
I do know that if I combine an increase of GeneE with a decrease in Mygene then the wing becomes far rounder than either alteration on their own. This suggests the two things can genetically interact. I decided to have a look at where protein red is in this type of double mutant. What I expected, given the individual results was for it to look like GeneE increase on it's own (as Mygene decrease has no obvious effect on proteinred)
GeneE increase + mygene decrease = protein red in centre of the cell.
The observed result is:
GeneE increase + mygene decrease = protein red all around the edge = GeneE decrease
Now that's pretty damn curious how by adding something which on it's own has no effect on protein red can effectively reverse the result in GeneE increase. My thought is that GeneE and Mygene are intrinsically linked. In a normal scenario the reduced function of Mygene is still enough to behave normally. However if I have too much GeneE then the reduced levels of mygene simply can't handle things and the whole thing falls apart. If this is the case then the project is suddenly looking back on track.
This is science though and i've only seen the result once. Anyone who knows how fickle science is will understand that i'm deeply skeptical of this result until I see it again. Fingers crossed I will as it's a little beacon of hope in getting the project to look lively again.
EDIT: Cartoons would help make this ramble a lot clearer :)