Race to the Sun

Chlamydomonas is a unicellular bi-flagellated green algae. This eukaryotic protist can be found in lakes, ponds, and oceans. More Importantly, Chlamydomonas is a photosynthesis organism and has evolved an eyespot that contains photoreceptive proteins,channelrhodopsins, that it uses for directional movement. Once light is detected it will use its flagella to either swim towards or away from the light. During my Stanford fellowship, I worked in the Pringle Genetics lab developing a mutant strain of Chlamydomonas to gain a deeper understanding of how EB1 protein affects cytokinesis using CRISPR-CPF1. My students will design their own experiment to understand how various lighting conditions will affect phototaxis in Chlamydomonas.