1. Sex, Stress, and Oxygen Deprivation: Gender-Specific Phenotypes Modulate Survival in Anoxia Michelle LeBlanc University of North Texas Ronald E. McNair Program

2. Oxygen Deprivation What is Anoxia? –<.001 kilopascal of oxygen in environment –Health Issues Stroke Ischemia Center of cancerous tumors –Environmental Deficits Oceanic dead zones

3. Suspended Animation Reversible state of dormancy –initiated due to environmental stress Mammals –Hibernation –Estivation We can study SA with the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans!!

4. Caenorhabditis elegans Image adapted from Wormbook

5. Image Adapted from Wormbook

6. Hypothesis An modification in gonad function will modulate survival of long-term oxygen deprivation. –Sterile animals may survive anoxia differently than wild-type animals. –Sex may modulate survival in anoxia.

8. Experimental Schematic

10. RNAi of sterile-reported genes

12. Gender in Anoxia

14. Male Genotype vs Phenotype

15. Females in anoxia

16. Oocyte flux and survival

17. Future Aims What underlies the fog-2(q71) phenotype? –Sperm signaling –Signaling from fertilized embryo Does oocyte flux affect survival? –spe-12(hc76) and fer-15(hc15) Animals that cannot produce spermatids

18. Acknowledgements

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