| Description |
Despite being critical to life on Earth, sunlight is also highly damaging to DNA. Some organisms have developed methods to mitigate this damage, such as the production of gadusol, a natural sunscreen-like compound generated by many fish. However, much of our current knowledge of UV responses in eukaryotes stems from cell culture experiments; we do not understand all the changes in an organism's genome in response to UV exposure in-vivo. My research addresses this gap and provides further applications in understanding UV-B exposure response pathways by employing zebrafish as a model organism. This research identifies changes to zebrafish embryo gene expression as a result of UV-B exposure, with and without gadusol. RNA sequencing reveals highly upregulated DNA damage response (DDR) and apoptotic pathways gene expression levels, indicating high levels of damage causing insurmountable developmental damage to embryonic fish. My research also aims to better understand the various factors conferring protection in fish to mitigate this damage. Ventral exposures to sunlight reveal that gadusol might be differential localized than melanin, another important protective factor. |
