LIFE AND CELL CYCLE STUDIES IN HARMFUL DINOFLAGELLATES USING FLOW CYTOMETRY AND FISH

«You only know a species if you know its complete life cycle» Von Stosch

«It is not the strongest who will survive but those who can best manage change» Charles Darwin

Dinoflagellate life cycle transitions are of difficult identification and study. However, how and when shifts in their life and cell cycle status occur compose an essential strategy for dinoflagellates, which is in big part responsible for their great ecological sucess and environmental change resilience.These shifts involve asexual-sexual  and planktonic-benthic transitions, related among them in a complex manner. Life cycle transitions and ploidy shifts are closely related in eukaryotes, reason by which flow cytometry is a helpful tool for this kind of research. In combination with Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (FISH), nuclear and ploidy characteristics can be best analyzed. With this project we work  to develop tools to identify and quantify life and cell cycle transitions in dinoflagellates, and to understand how mitotic and meiotic events contribute to the rapid proliferation of dinoflagellates, often leading to Harmful Algal Blooms.

Project of I.Bravo, R. I. Figueroa and Cuadrado A.