cDNA Synthesis for Killifish Gills!
Author: Rachel Baltz | Major: Biology | Semester: Spring 2023
My name is Rachel Baltz and I am an upcoming senior in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. I am a Biology major on the Pre-Optometry track. My undergraduate research is in the Biology department under Dr. Christian Tipsmark which occurred in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. After I graduate, I plan to go to Optometry school, obtain my OD, and return to Arkansas to spread the message of eye health and care, especially in small towns with little access to such resources.
While my research is in a field that quite frankly is far from optometry, this year in research has provided me with more opportunities to expand my knowledge than I ever thought possible. Being part of the Tipsmark lab has allowed me to truly understand the research process and what goes on beyond so many lectures. I was able to learn the intricacy of procedures like cDNA Synthesis and Nanodrop testing, as well as the ethics involved with keeping the killifish alive during their long-term acclimation to different salinities. My research will be part of many different scientists’ work as we try to understand just how the phenotypic plasticity works of teleosts such as the killifish. This is an area with generally little that is known, so it is very exciting to know we are all working together to one day be much farther in the knowledge of this and other species.
The topic of my research found me rather than I found it. I met with Dr. Tipsmark in the beginning of my junior year and knew his lab was the best fit for me and what I wanted to get out of a research experiment. Our lab team met many times to go over the basics of the field since I came in with virtually no knowledge on the subject, and over time the topics of gill epithelium and how hormones affect it intrigued me. Atlantic Killifish are a brackish water organism and have the ability to adapt to freshwater or seawater through the changing of different ion transporters and claudins found in many organs, but especially the gills. During the year, I was able to conduct 2 large scale experiments. One dealt with letting the killifish acclimate to seawater, brackish water, or freshwater for 3 weeks. After this, I was able to extract mRNA from the gills and eventually test for different target genes present for the various environments and what channels should be present. The other experiment dealt with exposing the gills to hormones Prolactin, Cortisol, and a combination of both. Through this, I learned how the different hormones aid in the changing of the ion transporters present in the gills.
Being able to do all this was incredible, but it did not come without its challenges. I was eager to learn everything I could about the subject, but life kept me from spending every free moment on it. Instead, Dr. Tipsmark and others on the lab team like senior Karma Hines helped me learn along the way. They would explain how the NKCC transporter worked in the cell or how the pH balancing worked with many ions going in and out through cotransport. There was time made to teach me each step of the testing process and just how to get the perfect 1 microliter pipette. As much as I feel I have learned, I know there is so much more to know. I now feel I have a solid foundation in how to do research with this subject, and now there is much to test. My senior year will be filled with loading many well plates, interpreting data I have and will collect, feeding the killifish, and hopefully learning new procedures to expose more than we did not know yet. While it is daunting to think about how much is out there to still learn about teleosts, I can’t help but look back and be proud of how I started at level 0 and have progressed.