{"id":20037,"date":"2025-02-04T09:20:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T14:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/?p=20037"},"modified":"2025-02-05T10:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T15:20:22","slug":"hlywa-and-zorner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/news\/hlywa-and-zorner\/","title":{"rendered":"Biological Sciences Students Win Grant to Study Immunolabeling in Moss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Katherine Hlywa and Emma Zorner, both biological sciences majors, are spending the spring semester researching how gene mutations introduced to moss influence cell wall growth thanks to an undergraduate research grant from URI\u2019s Office of Undergraduate Research and Innovation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their work, titled \u201cImmunolabeling in Physcomitrium patens<\/em>,\u201d is a continuation of previous projects conducted under the supervision of Professor Alison Roberts<\/a> in her lab. Working independently from each other last year, the students both genetically modified moss to mutate certain genes. Making genes of choice non-functional enabled them to study their roles in moss filament tip growth because the way the cell wall was constructed varied in the mutants as compared to the wild type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe inspiration for completing this new phase of research is to see exactly how the construction of the mutants are different from the wild type plant by tagging specific polysaccharides in the wall with fluorescent antibodies in order to see them under a microscope,\u201d Hlywa explains. \u201cI genetically modified Physcomitrum patens<\/em> to study the CSLD3 gene, and [Zorner] modified her line of the same organism to study different genes, EXT1 and XTH1, which serve different functions in the construction of the cell wall. Now we are coming together to study both of our lines using the antibodies won with our grant, and look at them together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo far we know through genotyping that both of our mutation experiments were successful, and the mutated line constructs the cell wall in a different way without the protein of focus,\u201d Hlywa adds. \u201cNow the immunolabeling experiment is to get a closer look at how the structure of the wall varies between the mutant and the wild type.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zorner notes that her interests in both cell and molecular biology and microscopy drew her to this particular research. \u201cInterpreting the results of the immunolabeling and learning how certain polysaccharides contribute to cell wall changes in mutant lines will be very cell and molecular biology based,\u201d she says. \u201cThe microscopy comes into play as it is how we will visualize our results of fluorescently labeled polysaccharides within each cell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI usually learn the most when results do not turn out as expected,\u201d she adds. \u201cEvery aspect of research is new and exciting\u2013you are seeking to find answers to questions that no one knows the answer to yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students note that a deeper understanding of this scientific inquiry is not the only benefit to this research process\u2013and to being awarded a grant. \u201cBeing able to carry out this project will help me further develop my research skills and microscopy techniques, which will be extremely beneficial to go into veterinary medicine with,\u201d Zorner says, adding that learning how to write the grant proposal to apply for this award was \u201cin and of itself a very important and educational experience.\u201d

\u201cReceiving this award is important to me because it shows that the work I conducted last year, as well as my future studies on the topic, are meaningful and important to the field,\u201d Hlywa says. \u201cIt is rewarding to have professionals validate that the research [Zorner] and I have been working on is significant work that deserves funding to be continued.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking in the Roberts lab has made my experience at URI so much more meaningful and worthwhile,\u201d she adds. \u201cIt has helped me discover a passion for biological research that I had no idea existed until I started.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katherine Hlywa and Emma Zorner will spend the spring semester researching how gene mutations introduced to moss influence cell wall growth thanks to an undergraduate research grant from URI\u2019s Office of Undergraduate Research and Innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":20038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[26,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-and-announcements"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20037"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20040,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20037\/revisions\/20040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}