REPU MAGAZINE N 3
2017 REPU Research Projects
2017
Luz Saavedra - Harvard University
Yang Laboratory, USA
One of the most fascinating problems in biology is how the complexity of
multicellular organisms arose. Every multicellular organism came from
one cell, a single cell that proliferated and differentiated into a wide array
of cells that constitute the different body organs and tissues. However, to
form an organism, having a bunch of specialized cells is not enough. To
lead to a functional organ, tissues need to acquire a particular shape and
a precise organization of cells. Although it is not fully understood how this
happens, there is evidence that many individual and group cells polarize,
reorientate, migrate and move during embryonic development. For
instance, when the limbs are developing, cartilage cells first proliferate
and consequently need to rearrange and intercalate so that there is only
one direction of growth. The Yang Laboratory studies how these cells
communicate between them to sense how they must orientate, migrate,
and follow the defined direction of growth. Their research is focused on
elucidating the role of the Wnt/PCP pathway as a key regulator of these processes. During her internship, Luz
worked with murine genetic models to test the participation of new components inside of this signaling
pathway.
Johnny Sandoval - Harvard University
Pfister Laboratory, USA
Morchella is a genus of mushrooms highly valuable in the market around
the globe, with multi-millionaire industries developed around this resource.
Although it is distributed worldwide, there is still a lack of information when
it comes to the systematics of this taxa: around 90% of the recognized
species are not formally described. Countries like China, USA and
Canada have developed intensive research about phylogenetics of this
genus; South America is still a mystery to unravel. Pildain et al. (2014)
worked on this genus in Argentina, finding some new phylogenetic
species. However, this fungus has been reported in some other countries
in this continent. This summer, Johnny's project focused on the
phylogenetic species of Morchella from the southern Chile using the
nuclear region ITS (internal transcribed spacer) -known as DNA barcode
for Fungi-. Furthermore, he made cultures of ascospores, proposing a
non-invasive way to identify these mushrooms.
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