UC San Diego

The Dual leucine zipper kinase (DLK) is an upstream kinase in the MAPK signaling pathway, and is involved in various neuronal processes, including neuronal development, regeneration, and cell death signaling. DLK is activated in response to stress and triggers a phosphorylation cascade that leads to the activation of downstream proteins. DLK has been shown to play context-dependent roles in neuronal morphology, such as promoting axon outgrowth and migration. However, its role in hippocampal glutamatergic neuron development remains unclear. In my Master's thesis, I aim to investigate the effects of DLK on hippocampal neuron morphology using a DIV2 primary neuron culture. I utilized DLK conditional knockout and overexpression models in hippocampal glutamatergic neurons to examine various aspects of neuronal morphology, including gross morphology, soma morphology, and axon specification. The results of my study showed no notable differences in gross neuronal morphology, axon outgrowth, branching complexity, total neurite outgrowth, soma morphology, or axon specification across different genotypes. I did not detect any effect of DLK on hippocampal neuron morphology, however, DLK may still affect hippocampal neurons in ways I could not detect due to limited sample size, high variability observed among individual neurons and cultures, and focusing solely on a single time point (DIV2).