Student Scholars & Faculty Mentors
Projects funded by our internal grants program. Search the table to find students or faculty mentors that share in your interests, and could help you achieve your goals in research, creative activity, or service.
Molecular Cloning of Trachemys scripta Sox8
Name: Reineberg,
Advisor: Judy Cebra-Thomas
Department: BIOL
Award: Student Research Grant
Abstract: The turtle shell is an evolutionary novelty that employs a population of embryonic precursor cells known as Neural Crest Cells (NCC). Cranial and trunk NCCs share many genes, however, the two populations of cells give rise to different sets of mature cell types suggesting that there are also molecular differences between them (Rothstein et al., 2018; Simoes-Costa et al., 2014; Simões-Costa & Bronner, 2015). In commonly studied vertebrates, only Neural Crest Cells (NCC) which migrate away from the brain, known as Cranial Neural Crest cells (cNCC), display the ability to differentiate into bone (Calloni et al., 2009; Hall, 2005). Turtles display two waves of trunk NCC migration away from the spinal cord, rather than the single migration period observed in commonly studied vertebrate embryos (Cebra-Thomas et al., 2007, 2013; Rice et al., 2017). The first period of migration appears to follow a typical vertebrate body plan; however, the NCCs that leave the neural tube during a second migration appear to form the plastral bones (covering the abdomen) of the turtle shell (Cebra-Thomas et al., 2007; 2013).