If you say it “shark tank” enough times, it’ll eventually sound like “chalk talk” (source: trust me). This week, we had to give chalk talks about our summer projects to the rest of the BSURF team (kind of like pitches on shark tank!). I would like to present one particular project that interested me: Arielle’s!
This summer, Arielle has been working in Dr. François Lutzoni’s lab, which researches the evolution, ecology, and genomics of fungal symbioses. Particularly, she has been focused on lichens, composite organisms made from a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. By looking at thousands of samples of lichen taken from Alberta, Canada, Arielle can study the differences between lichenized and environmental cyanobacteria. To elaborate, she is investigating whether lichenized cyanobacteria can be found in the environment. With roughly 2500 lichen samples and about 1800 environmental samples, she spends her days analyzing similarities and differences between them to note any significant findings. She expects that of the 1800 environmental samples, the half taken from topsoils rather than “bottom” samples will be more likely to show lichenized cyanobacteria, as lichens reproduce via spores that spread aerially. I’m excited to learn more about her findings during her poster presentation!
