Calvin Mok

Abstract All known heritable phenotypic information in animals is transmitted by direct inheritance of nucleic acids, their covalent modifications or histone modifications that modulate expression of associated genomic regions. Nonetheless, numerous familial traits and disorders cannot be attributed to known heritable molecular factors. Here we identify amyloid-like protein structures that are stably inherited in wild-type animals and influence traits.

Transcriptional analysis of the JU1400 response to microsporidia infection To determine how the JU1400 strain differs in its response to microsporidia infection, we performed transcriptional analysis. We grew three biological replicates of N2 and JU1400 L1 stage animals either without microsporidia or infected with one of N. parisii, N. ironsii, N. ferruginous, or N. ausubeli for 48 hours. We then extracted and sequenced the C. elegans and microsporidia mRNA.

New Results doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.20.496912 Abstract Animals are under constant selective pressure from a myriad of diverse pathogens. Microsporidia are ubiquitous animal parasites, but the influence they exert on shaping animal genomes is mostly unknown. Using multiplexed competition assays, we measured the impact of four different species of microsporidia on 22 wild isolates of Caenorhabditis elegans.