Archive for the ‘news’ Category
What Can Fish Sounds Tell Us About Artificial Reefs?
Doctoral student uses noninvasive method to determine species found on reefs
Grunts, purrs, barks and knocks – it may be surprising to learn that these noises can come from fish. Known as fish vocalizations, these sounds are the subject of a new study at the University of Mississippi Department of Biology.
Kayleigh Mazariegos, a third-year doctoral student in biology, is leading a project to determine whether fish vocalizations can identify fish species. The Acworth, Georgia, native is focusing her research on artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I’m interested in artificial reefs because I used to fish them,” Mazariegos said. “Research on artificial reefs is limited. While people are able to catch fish on them, we don’t know their ecological role. We don’t know if they help increase fish and their relationship with ecological processes.”
Mazariegos received funding from the American Museum of Natural History and the university’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Research to conduct this work.
The research seeks to apply the principle of island biogeography to reefs, said Richard Buchholz, professor of biology and Mazariegos’ adviser. The theory examines why some islands have a certain number and diversification of species and others do not. However, specific challenges coincide with exploring this in the Gulf.
“The problem with the Gulf of Mexico is that you can’t put cameras down there because the water is too turbid and cloudy,” said Buchholz, who is also CBCR director.
“An alternative to catching is using acoustic sampling. It is a sophisticated method that has been used in animals like bats and birds for 10-15 years but hasn’t been widely used in aquatic habitats.”
This summer, Mazariegos partnered with the Mississippi Aquarium in Gulfport to record the sounds of various species. She then placed small recording devices – about the size of a GoPro – on 12 reefs off Cat Island, a Mississippi barrier island.
Mazariegos is conducting a complex analysis of data from those weeklong recordings with help from the National Center for Physical Acoustics at Ole Miss.
“For some fish, you can get down to a specific family or genus, and others you can see that it’s this specific fish,” she said.
Despite just beginning to learn how to analyze acoustic data, Mazariegos expects her preliminary data set to spawn results by December.
An important element to the project is utilization of the GulfSeeLife app. The UM-developed app, funded via a RESTORE Act grant from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, allows “citizen scientists” to record observations about plants and animals in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mazariegos is using the community science feature of GulfSeeLife to collect fish capture data that can be compared to the diversity of fish identified through acoustic recordings on the reefs.
The researcher said that her favorite aspect of the project is the noninvasive nature of this approach.
“The usual way is capturing them or using cameras,” Mazariegos said. “You could miss a lot because there are a lot of species that are more cryptic – they may be scared away or too small to be caught on hook and line.
“With vocalizations, you don’t have to have an eye on them, and you can tell what’s there based on how they are behaving naturally. I think it’s a good idea to make these data more accessible and easier to collect.”
The Gulf is still feeling the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, plus consequences from unprecedented warm waters and the influx of tourists to its beaches, Buchholz said. Mazariegos’ efforts to determine the role of artificial reefs could have important conservation implications in the face of those challenges, he said.
“Artificial reefs could be constructed in a way that is helpful to biodiversity – to things that fish eat and even things that eat fishes,” Buchholz said. “If you can maintain that food web in the face of all those challenges to living things in the Gulf, then we can protect that biodiversity.”
This research is supported by the Lerner-Gray Fund for Marine Research of the American Museum of Natural History.
Scientist Works to Develop Pest-Resistant Soybean
Biology chair investigates wild soybeans for resistant properties
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OXFORD, Miss. – A devastating pest for soybean farmers may soon be a problem of the past, thanks to research conducted by a University of Mississippi biologist.
Sixue Chen, chair of the Department of Biology, is collaborating with researchers nationwide to combat a microscopic roundworm that causes up to 50% of a soybean crop’s yield loss.
“We are trying to solve a real-world problem – the soybean is a very important legume crop,” Chen said. “It supplies more than half of the vegetable oil in the world and is a significant source of protein, contributing to foods like tofu.”
Harvest season for the soybean – Mississippi’s second-most valuable agricultural commodity – began in mid-August. Mississippi farmers planted nearly 2.3 million acres of soybeans in 2023, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Funded by a five-year Plant Genome Research Program award from the National Science Foundation, the research is targeting resistance to the soybean cyst nematode, or SCN.
“Soybeans are challenged by the soybean cyst nematode, the most devastating pest worldwide causing over $1.5 billion yield loss annually in the U.S. soybean production,” said Bao-Hua Song, lead researcher and biology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
“Deploying SCN-resistant soybean varieties is the most efficient and environmentally friendly strategy for managing this damage.”
This approach is challenging, however. SCN populations evolve rapidly, resistance varies by SCN type and current resistant soybean cultivars are losing their resistance due to very limited genetic variation, Song said.
“It’s a tug of war – sometimes farmers will win the war and sometimes the pathogens,” Chen said. “Recently, the variety that farmers are growing has started to lose the war.
“The nematode evolves very fast, and cultivated soybeans have lost a lot of diversity during the domestication process. Breeders really care about yield, and they overlook defense capabilities.”
To tackle this, the research team is “going back to the wild,” Chen said.
“We know there are wild soybeans that maintain a lot of genetic variation, and they are resistant to nematodes,” he said. “We will try to learn from the wild soybean and see what they have in their genetics that gives them a broad spectrum of resistance. That’s what we need in the cultivated soybean.”
The scientists are using modern tools to evaluate wild soybeans and compare their genetic makeup to cultivated ones. These methods take significantly less time than traditional genetics, which could take decades, Chen said.
“We have a tool in the lab that we can screen for the functions of these genetic parts of the plant,” he said. “They get generated really fast – within a few days, we know this part is important and it shows a promising effect.”
Once these parts are determined, the team will give these traits back to cultivated soybeans and optimize them so the plants will both defend against the nematode and produce seeds.
Results of the study will deepen the understanding of the molecular basis underlying nematode defense and ultimately enable the development of new and diverse soybean varieties with broad-spectrum SCN resistance, Song said.
“This will positively affect soybean farmers by increasing their yields with less pest spray, which is significant to agriculture and environmental sustainability,” she said.
This project is personal to Chen, who values the opportunity to contribute to solving food insecurity challenges in Mississippi.
“In our state, almost a quarter of people go to bed hungry,” he said. “That is shocking to me. I grew up on a farm really poor in China, and I experienced these issues.
“Half a century has passed since I grew up – and now in the No. 1 country, in the beautiful state of Mississippi, children are still hungry.”
An additional aspect of the grant involves educational outreach that will target college students, as well as train public school teachers in modern biology technologies, such as those used in this research.
“We want to ensure that students from low-income households, first-generation students and minorities have the opportunity to pursue career paths in sciences and make sure they have a better future,” Chen said.
“When I write proposals, I always think of the challenges our state has. Because we work at a university, I think we have a responsibility to our community, our state.”
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2318746 via subaward from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte under 20230623-01-UMS.
Dr. Sixue Chen Receives Five-Year Award
Dr. Sixue Chen, Professor and Chair of Biology, has received a five-year Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP) Award from the National Science Foundation. The project title is: Uncover new molecular mechanisms of cyst nematode resistance in wild soybean with systems biology and genome editing. The total award amount is $2,816,109, and Dr. Chen’s portion is $798,630. It is a collaborative project with Univ. North Carolina (Dr. Baohua Song, PI) and Univ. Alabama (Dr. Shahid Mukhtar, co-PI).
Awards and Achievements
Undergraduate Awards
Goldwater Scholarship
Christian Boudreaux
Noah Garrett
Alyssa Stoner
James Meredith Changemaker Award Finalist
Logan Thomas
Leaders for Tomorrow National Scholarship
Brady Bass
Destiny Kirksey
Norquist Scholarship
Daniel Cuenca
Kayla Morgan
Simon Nguyen
Trent Smith
Shoemaker Scholarship
Jessy Gardner
Graci Porter
Grace Thompson
Camryn White
Sigma Xi Grant
Gabrielle Morris
Taylor Medal
Zynub Al-Sherri
Thomas Berry
Sarah Brownlee
Andrea Cleveland
Rylie Mangold
Anna Robertson
Alyssa Stoner
Undergraduate Publications
Nicole Jones published “Sleep Duration is Associated with Caudate Volume and Executive Function” in Brain Imaging and Behavior’s Online Edition
Graduate Students’ Degree Completion 2022- 2023
Josh Rangel – MS, Summer 2022 – Advisor: Dr. Glenn Parsons
Laura West – MS, Summer 2022 – Advisor: Dr. Lainy Day
Clement Agyemang – MS, December 2022 – Advisor: Dr. Brad Jones
Ruric Bowman – MS, Spring 2023 – Advisor: Dr. Chris Leary
Griffin Williams – Ph.D., Spring 2023 – Advisor: Dr. Steve Brewer
Xia Li – Ph.D., Summer 2023 – Advisor: Dr. Erik Hom
Graduate Student Features
Savannah Draud – Ph.D., featured on Good Things on SuperTalkTV for her outreach program to public schools. https://youtu.be/odfgwksdcCQ
Graduate Student Awards Spring 2023
Neuroscience Research Showcase
Matthew Thibodeaux – MS, – Advisor: Dr. Lainy Day
NASA/ Mississippi Space Grant Consortium Graduate Research Fellow
Patrick Allison – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Ryan Garrick
Jessi Stamn – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Richard Buchholz
Wild Animal Initiative Grant
Laney Nute – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Richard Buchholz
American Museum of Natural History’s Lerner-Gray Fund for Marine Research – $2400
Kayleigh Mazariegos – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Richard Buchholz
Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research – $1000
Laney Nute – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Richard Buchholz
Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology Leonard and Deborah Ferrington Graduate Research Award
Sara Lucia Anaya Morales – Ph.D., – Advisor Dr. Michel Ohmer
Katherine S. McCarter Award from the Ecological Society of America
Alicia Arrington-Thomas – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Steve Brewer
McRight Scholarship
Prabin Dawadi – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Erik Hom
Sara Lucia Anaya Morales – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Michel Ohmer
Bowen Tan – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Sixue Chen
Steve and Mary Ann Cockerham Scholarship
Prashanna Koirala – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Joshua Bloomekatz
Harini Saravanan – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Joshua Bloomekatz
Anupa Wasti Thapaliya – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Yongjian Qiu
Doctors Wong-Bridges Scholarship
Sabnam Ojha – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Sarah Liljegren
Georgia St. Amand Laboratory Teaching Assistant Scholarship
Gayatri Sharma – Ph.D. – Advisor: Dr. Patrick Curtis
Reginald Ott Memorial Scholarship
Madleyn Jewess – MS, – Advisor: Dr. Steve Brewer
UM Graduate School Summer Research Fellowship
Rabina Shrestha – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Joshua Bloomekatz
Tahmina Akter – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Sixue Chen
Laney Nute – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Richard Buchholz
CBCR Summer Graduate Research Grant
Savanna Draud – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Jason Hoeksema
Maddie Jewess – MS, – Advisor: Dr. Steve Brewer
Kayleigh Mazariegos – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Richard Buchholz
UM Graduate Achievement Award
Abhishesh Bajracharya – Ph.D., – Advisor: Dr. Yongjian Qiu
Faculty Awards
Melinda and Ben Yarbrough M.D., Senior Professor Research Award for Natural Sciences
Dr. Jason Hoeksema
Cora Lee Graham Award
Dr. Becky Symula
Human Anatomy and Physiology Society Secretary elected
Dr. Carol Britson
HAPS 2023 First Timer Award
Dr. Joshua Schmerge
Faculty Features and Publications
Dr. Richard Buchholz featured in UMToday “Biologist, Students Promote Research on Sustainable Ecotourism” September 2022
Dr. Jason Hoeksema featured in New York Times’ “Are Trees Talking Underground? For Scientists, It’s in Dispute” published November 7, 2022
Dr. Erik Hom’s “Mutualism-Enhancing Mutations Dominate Early Adaptation in a two-species Microbial Community,” published in Nature Ecology and Evolution January 2023
Dr. Mika Jekabsons’ “Breast Cancer Cells that Preferentially Metastasize to Lung or Bone are More Glycolytic, Synthesize Serine at Greater Rates, and Consumes Less ATP and NADPH than Parent MDA-MB-231 Cells” published in BMC journal January 2023
Dr. Jason Hoeksema’s “Positive Citation Bias and Overinterpreted Results Lead to Misinformation on Common Mycorrhizal Networks in Forests” published in Nature Ecology and Evolution February 2023
Dr. Yongjian Qiu presents “Reveal the Internal Networking of Plant Thermal Responses Using Microdevices” at TEDX Conference hosted at the Ford Center, University of Mississippi February 23, 2023
Dr. Patrick Curtis received 2022 Outstanding Article for “The Transcriptional Regulator CtrA Controls Gene Expression in Alphaproteobacteria Phages: Evidence for a Lytic Deferment Pathway” published in Frontiers in Microbiology
Dr. Tamar Goulet coauthored “Building Consensus Around the Assessment and Interpretation of Symbiodiniaceae Diversity” published in PeerJ March 2023
Dr. Clifford Ochs’ “Rivers of the Lower Mississippi Basin,” published in chapter six in Rivers of North America, volume 2
Dr. Ryan Garrick appeared on Henry Stewart Talks and presented “Principles of Phylogeography and Landscape Genetics” that was broadcast April 30, 2023 Principles of phylogeography and landscape genetics | HSTalks
Dr. Steve Brewer and Dr. Jason Hoeksema co-hosted “Invasions and Ecosystems-Ecosystem Functional Consequences of Plant and Fungal Invasions, and How Dynamics and Management of Invasions are Affected by Global Change and Extreme Climatic Events” at Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University in Australia from May 15-28, 2023
Dr. Tamar Goulet and Dr. Colin Jackson coauthored “Systematic Review of Cnidarian Microbiomes Reveals Insights into the Structure, Specificity, and Fidelity of Marine Associations” and the manuscript has been accepted
Faculty Grants
National Science Foundation Career Award $1,000,000
Dr. Yongjian Qiu
National Institutes of Heath Award $411,969
Dr. Joshua Bloomekatz
National Science Foundation—Plant Genome Research Program $798,630
Dr. Sixue Chen
Mississippi Based RESTORE Act Center of Excellence $615,000
Dr. Colin Jackson
UM Institute for Data Science Grant $30,000
Dr. Richard Buchholz with
Jessi Stamn, Lance Yarbrough,
Yili Jiang
Faculty Promotions
Dr. Lainy Day promoted to rank of Full Professor
Post Doctorate Grants
National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology
Dr. Jenny Cocciardi – Advisor: Dr. Michel Ohmer
Staff Teamwork Award
Tyler Flynn, Gwen Rogers, Candece Stewart, Lance Sullivan, Adam Thebeau
Events:
October 2022 Open House accompanied by Shoemaker’s 1st haunted lab
April 2023 Earth Day at Avent Park assisted in part by Dr. Steve Brewer
May 2, 2023 Multicultural Night hosted by BGSS at Thad Cochran Research Center
Biology Professor Receives NSF CAREER Award
Yongjian Qiu awarded $1 million to find biological solutions to agricultural challenges
The National Science Foundation has awarded University of Mississippi biologist Yongjian Qiu a $1 million grant to further his research into the effects of global warming on crops.
Designed to help new teacher-scholars establish their research programs, the NSF CAREER grant will help Qiu conduct more in-depth analysis of the processes that alert plants when to absorb sunlight: phytochrome-interacting factors and HEMERA protein signaling.
“This project is highly relevant to plant growth, development and crop yield under the changing climate,” said Sixue Chen, UM professor and chair of biology.
Qiu’s lab, which focuses on biological solutions to agricultural challenges, is working to solve a problem caused by increasing temperatures due to global warming: a plant stem grows too fast, damaging the plant’s biomass and leading to severe crop reductions. Their goal is to develop climate-smart crops.
To conduct the study, they are evaluating plant growth in controlled warm, nonstressful environments, a process known as thermomorphogenesis.
“We try to see how plants can cope with this warmer climate,” Qiu said.
While many scientists focus on how plants respond to high-temperature heat stress, Qiu’s team is instead studying the effects of using slightly warmer than normal temperatures, which can have a dramatic effect how fast a plant grows, when it flowers and the density of the stomata.
Qiu had previously discovered that plants cannot grow their stem in warm temperatures without the presence of the HEMERA protein. To advance his research, Qiu needed to isolate parts of the plant to determine their individual reactions to rising temperatures.
Using an Early-concept Grant for Exploratory Research, Qiu worked with Yiwei Han, UM assistant professor of mechanical engineering, to develop micro-heaters, only 1 millimeter-by-1 millimeter in size. Produced using a 3D printer, the micro-heaters are used to elevate the temperatures of certain plant areas, such as leaves, to isolate how plants adjust to varying environmental conditions.
Their results, detailed in a TEDxUniversityofMississippi talk earlier this year, offer some promising possibilities.
“When a leaf is exposed to extreme heat, a heat-shock protein is highly induced, not only in that leaf but also in distal leaves and the stem,” Qiu said. “There is some signal – communications – between the organs stem, leaf, roots.
“We want to see if some sort of signaling molecules can be delivered.”
To develop results on a cellular level, the two researchers are collaborating again to develop even tinier wireless micro-devices that can be placed onto organs and into the cells of plants.
“We want to make an easier, more consistent way to generate heat,” Qiu said. “Also, we want to see whether we can place the heater into the cell, micrometer size. This is very challenging.
“Inside the cell, there is fluid, the cytoplasm, so the heater may move, even rotate. We plan to address this challenge, and once we do, it will be a significant advancement.
The goal is to discover exactly how PIF4/HMR-mediated thermomorphogenesis happens in plants.
Qiu and his Ole Miss team are using a plant called Arabidopsis thaliana, a type of cress in the mustard family.
“It is the best study model plant because it has a smaller genome, and it can produce seeds in large amounts and within a relatively short period,” he said. “Its lifespan is usually two to three months, and again makes tens of thousands of seeds in one single plant.
“The genome is very small – only five chromosomes. It is difficult but readily transferable results that transfer to crop studies like vegetables because they share a lot of conserved genes.”
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 2239963 and 2200200.
Three UM Students Win Goldwater Scholarships
Prestigious STEM scholarships awarded to Mississippi natives
April 3, 2023 by Erin Garrett
For the second year in a row, three University of Mississippi students have been awarded Goldwater Scholarships in a single year.
All native Mississippians, Christian Boudreaux, of Oxford; Noah Garrett, of Madison; and Alyssa Stoner, of Gulfport are the university’s 22nd, 23rd and 24th students to receive the coveted scholarships.
“As a cohort, these students are amazing,” said Vivian Ibrahim, director of the UM Office of National Scholarship Advisement. “They are scientists who care passionately about their research. They have all presented their work, so they can make complex scientific data accessible and understandable to the public.”
This year, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation awarded 413 scholarships from a pool of 1,267 undergraduates nominated by 427 institutions.
The Goldwater is one of the oldest and most prestigious national scholarships in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics in the United States. It identifies and supports exceptional sophomores and juniors who show promise of becoming the nation’s next generation of research leaders in these fields.
Boudreaux is a sophomore biology major with a specific interest in marine biology.
“For me, there is no other biome or scientific topic on Earth that holds as much intrigue as the ocean,” said Boudreaux, who is also a Stamps Scholar. “The wealth and diversity of life that exists there is endlessly fascinating to me and is something that I want to devote my life to better understanding.”
Turning his passion into action is a priority for Boudreaux.
“Barely a semester into his college career, Christian instigated and founded Aqua Culture, an environment conservation student organization,” said Tamar Goulet, professor of biology. “Christian’s conservation initiative, so early in his college career, speaks volumes about how capable Christian is and his huge potential.”
Aqua Culture works to protect and conserve marine and freshwater environments, while introducing Ole Miss students to waterways that surround the campus. Members participate in trash clean-ups, invasive species removal, water testing and a range of other service projects relating to protecting the aquatic environments throughout Mississippi.
Boudreaux is studying abroad in Ecuador as part of a comparative ecology and conservation program.
“It has been incredible, and we have learned a great deal about the ecology of Ecuador,” he said. “I am living with a host family, so my Spanish has improved a great deal. In a few weeks, we will be leaving for our independent study project period where I will either be working in the Amazon or the Galapagos conducting a project of my own creation.”
After graduation, Boudreaux plans to apply to graduate school to study marine biology with the eventual goal of working as a researcher and professor at a higher education institution.
Garrett is a junior studying chemistry and mathematics. He was initially drawn to these degrees for their applications in research.
“I find math and problem-solving intriguing, so it has been a very rewarding experience studying these subjects at Ole Miss,” Garrett said.
Garrett is conducting research under the advisement of Ryan Fortenberry, associate professor of chemistry, in his computational astrochemistry lab.
“We’ve had four Goldwater Scholars in a row from our research group, and I’m so excited that Noah was able to continue that for us,” Fortenberry said. “Noah is a wonderful student and a dedicated researcher. He is one of the most easygoing people that I’ve ever worked with.”
Garrett said the Goldwater will help him continue his research as well as set him up for future scholarships and National Science Foundation grants.
“Becoming a Goldwater scholar has been a goal of mine since I first joined my research lab, and by obtaining such a prestigious award it has become one of the proudest moments of my life for myself, my family and my mentors,” he said.
“It is an amazing feeling to win an award that will reflect my years of research experience and hard work in all of my classes, as well as my future aspirations towards research and science.”
Garrett plans to ultimately obtain a doctorate in theoretical chemistry while continuing to perform computational research and studying many aspects of computer science.
Stoner is a junior biology major who is interested in molecular biology.
“I love researching the processes behind life,” Stoner said. “I enjoy putting together the different pieces of life and thinking about them on a genetic level. I feel almost like I’m doing a puzzle.”
As a supplemental instruction leader for genetics, she mentors her peers in this historically challenging subject. In this role, she facilitates student learning by designing mini lesson plans, discussing topics covered in the class and creating practice problems, among other tasks.
“Alyssa also serves as a supplemental instruction mentor in addition to her SI leader responsibilities,” said Hannah Glass, program manager for supplemental instruction. “This involves her in our marketing efforts.
“She is very dedicated to the program as a whole and dedicated to the success of the students who are in her courses.”
Stoner is working on her thesis for the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College under the advisement of Yongjian Qiu, assistant professor of biology. Following graduation, Stoner plans to pursue a doctorate in molecular biology and conduct research at an academic institution, biotechnology company or museum.
“The Goldwater will be a great addition to my resume when I apply to a Ph.D. program,” Stoner said. “I hope it shows that research is something that I want to dedicate my life to. I am committed to it, and I have the capability as well.”
For more information on the Goldwater Scholarships and how to apply for them, contact the Office of National Scholarship Advisement at onsa@olemiss.edu.
Study Could Provide Insight Into Origin of Heart Defects
UM biologist receives National Institutes of Health award to study heart formation
OXFORD, Miss. – A University of Mississippi biologist is asking big questions about the development of the human heart, and a new National Institutes of Health grant may help him find the answers.
“When I think about life’s big picture, I think one of the great mysteries is how we go from a single cell to a whole human being,” said Joshua Bloomekatz, assistant professor of biology. “Our research looks at how the heart develops – how embryos go from a group of amorphous cells to having a pumping, beating heart.”
The NIH awarded Bloomekatz $411,969 to conduct a new study that could help scientists understand why congenital heart defects, or CHDs, occur. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CHDs affect about 40,000 births per year. This is caused by defects in the heart’s development, Bloomekatz said.
“This is fundamental biology in the sense that if we learn how things normally happen – how cells form and how cell movement happens – we can take this knowledge and use it when things go wrong,” he said.
“If we can understand the basic fundamental processes that create form in the heart, we can hopefully contribute to the understanding of how congenital heart defects occur.”
The study investigates how cardiac cells rearrange themselves to form structures of the heart, specifically the heart tube.
To answer this question, Bloomekatz and his team will observe zebrafish embryos. Surprisingly, this freshwater fish’s heart has similar processes to human hearts.
“The cool thing about the zebrafish embryo is that development happens externally outside of the maternal body,” he said. “We can film the development in real time as the cells move.”
The study uses a high-resolution microscope at the GlyCORE Imaging Core. The core gives investigators access to a wide range of advanced microscopy instrumentation.
Bloomekatz said another important aspect of this project is an emphasis on educational research experiences. He has invited both undergraduate and graduate students to participate in the innovative study.
Rabina Shrestha, fifth-year biology doctoral student from Kathmandu, Nepal, is studying intercellular signaling that regulates the movement of myocardial cells during heart tube formation. She said that this knowledge could have broad applications.
“Collective cell migration occurs at several stages of cardiac development, including during heart tube assembly, valvulogenesis, the initiation of trabeculation and it is also important during directional migration of several other organ progenitors such as the mesoderm and neural crest cells,” Shrestha said.
“Thus, our findings are likely applicable to a broad range of developmental processes and disease.”
Christian Miller, a senior biomedical engineering student from Bentonville, Arkansas, is assisting Bloomekatz by 3D-printing molds that hold and orient the zebrafish embryos so that they can be imaged as they develop.
“This is meaningful research because of the impact it has on our own understanding of heart development, and this understanding’s contribution to helping stop the leading cause of death in the United States: cardiovascular disease” Miller said.
Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award No. R15HD108782. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.