—Sarah Nicholls (Mentor: Matthew MacManes)
As extreme environments like deserts expand due to global climate change, biologists are looking to the weird and wonderful creatures that live within them to instruct conservation efforts. The cactus mouse is one of the most hardcore desert specialists: It has adapted to be able to live its entire life without drinking water, and the MacManes evolutionary genomics lab at Ò×ʤ²©¹ÙÍø, where I’ve worked for the past three years, is dedicated to finding out how. For my Honors senior thesis in biochemistry, supported by a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, I conducted a transcriptomic study to investigate the root instigator of the dehydration response, the brain. Transcriptomics examines levels of gene expression, or the conversion of genetic information into biological function, by determining the amounts and molecular sequences of mRNA, an intermediate molecule between DNA and proteins, present in various tissues. As the brain is not commonly analyzed in the context of the dehydration response, my study compared the transcriptomic activity of five major brain regions in cactus mice with and without access to water. I have been able to determine several critical biological functions associated with the brain’s dehydration response and look forward to deeper analysis.
