ABSTRACT: Sex. The word jumps right off the page. Humans are incredibly interested when it comes to sex, because humans are a species that has evolved to be sexually dimorphic. Good geneticists think about sex a lot. The Haag Lab is a Molecular Biology and Genetics Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park that researches the evolution of sex as we know it. If sex is such a recent and costly development, then model organisms that are hermaphroditic in some lineages and not others are interesting. The Haag lab works primarily with the nematode C. elegans and the types of genes that make or break males. Recently, the Haag Lab also started looking at a very strange fish: Kryptolebias marmaratus, fondly dubbed “Kmar”. This fish is the world’s only know self-fertile vertebrate. To make matters even more wonderfully bizarre, Kmar begins its life as a hermaphrodite and then changes gender halfway through its life cycle to become male. Which raises the obvious questions: how any why do these self-fertile fish change sexes? Unlike nematodes, however, raising hundreds of fish requires a lot of human help. The purpose of this document is to provide an introduction to Kmar and our ongoing work, as well as to provide exhaustive instructions for the care and upkeep of our fish friends. (WC 217)
READER’S PROFILE: I anticipate that a reader that might take issue with my work would be a student that has recently been walked through their various responsibilities and does not see any necessity for a comprehensive guidebook basically saying the exact same thing.
READER’S RESPONSE: While additional resources are always appreciated in the context of science, this guide may not actually be necessary. Our responsibilities are taught to us when we first come to the lab and any specifics, such as dosages, are already written in our Standard Operating Procedures.
Sex. The word jumps right off the page. Humans are incredibly interested when it comes to sex, because humans are a species that has evolved to be sexually dimorphic. Good geneticists think about sex a lot. The Haag Lab is a Molecular Biology and Genetics Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park that researches the evolution of sex as we know it. If sex is such a recent and costly development, then model organisms that are hermaphroditic in some lineages and not others are interesting. The Haag lab works primarily with the nematode C. elegans and the types of genes that make or break males. Recently, the Haag Lab also started looking at a very strange fish: Kryptolebias marmaratus, fondly dubbed “Kmar”. This fish is the world’s only know self-fertile vertebrate. To make matters even more wonderfully bizarre, Kmar begins its life as a hermaphrodite and then changes gender halfway through its life cycle to become male. Which raises the obvious questions: how any why do these self-fertile fish change sexes? Unlike nematodes, however, raising hundreds of fish requires a lot of human help. The purpose of this document is to provide an introduction to Kmar and our ongoing work, as well as to provide exhaustive instructions for the care and upkeep of our fish friends.
(WC 217)
READER’S PROFILE: I anticipate that a reader that might take issue with my work would be a student that has recently been walked through their various responsibilities and does not see any necessity for a comprehensive guidebook basically saying the exact same thing.
READER’S RESPONSE: While additional resources are always appreciated in the context of science, this guide may not actually be necessary. Our responsibilities are taught to us when we first come to the lab and any specifics, such as dosages, are already written in our Standard Operating Procedures.