Month/Year of Graduation

6-2026

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Molecular and Biomedical Biology (BTCHBS)

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Dr. Karen Kim Guisbert, PhD

Abstract

Heat stress has negative impacts on fertility in both humans and livestock. The model organism Caenorhabditis elegans is hermaphroditic, has a transparent body, and a short lifespan, making it an ideal model organism for investigating stress. Exposure to mild heat stress leads to a cessation of egg laying despite motility being unaffected. To understand this phenomenon further, egg laying was induced in chronically heat stressed C. elegans to show that heat stress does not cause physical damage to the C. elegans vulva. Fluorescence microscopy was used to assess the effect of heat stress on oogenesis and found that there was an increase in apoptotic events in worms recovering from heat stress. Finally, the lifespan of heat stressed worms with the daf-2 mutation were measured to determine if this gene is involved in the heat stress response. There was a slight increase in the lifespan of heat stressed mutants. These results support the hypotheses that heat stress does not cause physical damage to the worm’s reproductive system and heat stress disrupts oogenesis, but it is unclear if daf-2 is involved in the heat stress response.

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Available for download on Wednesday, May 03, 2028

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