Does CRISPR Gene Silencing Phenocopy Exposure to Phthalates in Drosophila?

Our research group is interested in studying the effects of phthalate exposure on the Drosophila model. According to the literature, the Akh gene are disrupted by exposure to phthalates, which disrupts insulin-signaling (Williams et all., 2016). Our molecular biology lab recently performed CRISPR experiment (BioRad, 12012608EDU). We hypothesize that if we disrupt the same insulin signaling gene using CRISPR, we will not phenocopy the phthalate exposure results. CRISPR Cas9 is an advanced gene editing tool, that allows the detection and disruption of a target sequence in DNA. Biorad CRISPR experiment uses E. coli to demonstrate what happens when the X-gal gene is shut off, and the phenotype of the bacteria changes. We are interested in examining any differences between exposure from an epigenetic perspective and direct manipulation of genes.