Mentor: Joseph DeGiorgis, Providence College

Project Location

Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, Mass.

Project Description

Squid have a single photoreceptor type that makes up the retina and is responsible for vision. The squid eye lacks an iris. Instead, the squid controls light levels entering the eye by large black pigment granules that are transported along microtubules during changing light conditions and act as molecular sunglasses to shade the photosensitive machinery with the retina. Here we will attempt to learn how this system is regulated at the molecular level and try to determine what motor proteins control pigment granule movement.

We will use a variety of microscopy techniques including differential interference contrast, confocal, and electron microscopy. We will also used a number of biochemistry techniques including differential centrifugation and Western blot analysis.