Marisol Lauri

mlaurimail.fresnostate.edu

When the same strains of the nematode Caenorhabditis briggsae are crossed, the resulting generations experience normal development. For example, when an AF16 male is crossed with an AF16 hermaphrodite, the progeny will have normal growth. However, certain strains of C. briggsae exhibit developmental delay when they are crossed. For example, when the AF16 strain is crossed with the HK104 strain, about 20% of the F2 generation experiences developmental delay. It is possible to create cytoplasmic hybrids, or cybrids, of C. briggsae by combining the mitochondrial genome of the AF16 strain with the nuclear genome of the HK104 strain. Researchers have discovered that this combination creates mitochondrial dysfunction in the resulting cybrids.   The goal of my project is to determine whether there is a connection between the developmental delay experienced in the F2 generation of AF16 x HK104 worms and mitochondrial dysfunction in AF16 x HK104 cybrids.