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Lab PageGraduate Student, Laboratory of Genetics
B.S. in Biology, Kansas State University, 1999
Address: Rm. 329 Zoology Research Bldg.; 1117 W. Johnson St., Madison, WI 53706
Phone: (608) 265-2520
Email: mesheffield@students.wisc.edu
Research Interests:
One of the major steps in morphogenesis of the C. elegans
embryo of interest to the Hardin lab is intercalation of the dorsal
hypodermis. This process involves the rearrangement of 20 cells
in the hypodermis from two adjacent anterior-posterior columns
to one column by means of interdigitation and elongation. The
physical processes of movement and changes in cell shape during
intercalation have been documented, but little of what is occurring
at the molecular level is understood.
I am currently conducting a genetic screen of EMS treated animals
seeking mutants defective in dorsal intercalation in the hopes
of identifying the molecular players involved in this process.
F3 are being examined in order to detect potential maternal effect
mutants as well as mutations in zygotic acting genes. This screen
is being performed via fluorescent microscopy using a JAM-1::GPF
marker to delineate epithelial cell junctions. Additionally,
the genetic background being mutagenized contains elf-1(oj55),
where the cell fusions in the dorsal hypodermis which would normally
mask intercalation defects in arrested embryos do not occur.
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