Participants
Federico Mazzei
PhD Student in Cell Biology
Department of Biology, University of Genova, Italy
I've been involved in Antarctic fish research for five years. I study the genomic structures and changes of fish chromosomes, as part of a more comprehensive project on the evolution of Antarctic notothenioids. The ICEFISH cruise will give me the unique opportunity to collect notothenioid species which are still unknown in their chromosomal features, such as Campsocephalus esox, Elenginops maclovinus and many others. I plan to prepare chromosomes from as many species as possible, in order to analyze their karyotypes. The information coming from such cytogenetic analyses will contribute to our understanding of the biodiversity of the ichthyofauna. In addition, the chromosomes will be used for in situ studies on gene sequences which are relevant in the evolutionary history of Notothenioidei, such as globin genes, through cytogenetic mapping. I'm also interested in collecting tissues and larvae of target species to be used to follow gene expression during the life cycle, by in situ hybridization.