WRNexo is not required to maintain normal sex ratios in Drosophila: A CURE-Based Investigation.

Abstract

WRNexo and Blm , Drosophila orthologs of human WRN and BLM RecQ helicases, play crucial roles in DNA replication and repair. Using a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) in an introductory Biology course, we investigated whether WRNexo ^Δ mutants exhibit a progeny sex-bias similar to Blm mutants. Chi-square analyses revealed no deviation from expected Mendelian ratios or sex-bias among WRNexo ^Δ offspring. These findings suggest that WRNexo does not affect sex-specific survival and may not be essential for replication of highly repetitive DNA sequences. Our study demonstrates that CUREs effectively engage students in hypothesis-driven research while contributing meaningfully to genomic stability studies.