The post-translational methylation of histone proteins regulates several biological processes including transcription, DNA repair, and cellular differentiation. Histone methylation, once considered a stable modification, is now known to be a dynamic process that is regulated by several histone demethylase genes. The JmjC-containing JARID1 protein family facilitates the di- and tridemethylation of histone H3 at lysine 4, which regulates transcriptional repression of Hox genes in mammalian cell culture. In C. elegans, RBR-2 is the only homolog of JARID1. RBR-2 was previously shown to affect vulval development, as the loss-of-function mutant,
rbr-2 (
tm1231), causes both vulvaless and multivulva phenotypes. However, the exact role of RBR-2 in vulval development remains elusive. Therefore, we propose to more thoroughly characterize the role that
rbr-2 plays in vul val development. Based on the in vitro role of the JARID1 protein family in Hox gene regulation and the nature of the vulval phenotype in
rbr-2 mutants worms, we hypothesize that
rbr-2 is acting on the Hox gene,
lin-39, possibly in connection with the Wnt pathway to regulate either the competence or induction of vulval precursor cells (VPCs). The results of cells fate, expression, and epistasis analyses will be reported.