Thinking

Thinking

Preparing a year long research project. This will take up 3 credits a quarter for the next 3 quarters.

Generally, going to look at how gene expression in pacific oysters is altered by different environmental conditions. Will sample every week or so from the hatchery this fall to get samples from different life stages.

Things to be figured out: which environmental conditions, which genes to look at.

One thing I am curious about is how oysters would respond to multiple stressors, either simultaneously or sequentially, though the oysters would likely not fare well.
Warmer temperatures should be one of the stressors. So should desiccation. Another could be acidic conditions. I would also like to stress the immune systems of the oysters but am unsure of how to achieve that. (polyIC?)

in terms of genes, i’m still unfamiliar with the genome of oysters. I will need to do some research.