This summer the Zak lab had the opportunity to host Olises Perez as part of the Aspirnaut program. The Aspirnaut Summer Research Internship Program, administered by Life Sciences Institute (LSI), brings rising Michigan high school seniors to UM to give them hands-on lab experience over a 6-week period. The goal is to encourage students, especially those in disadvantaged communities, to strive for education and careers in various STEM fields. Each Aspirnaut works with a mentor to conduct their own research, then presents their results to their peers and other mentors.
The project that Olises worked on while in the Zak lab, focused on discovering whether or not Red Oak root tips had more than one type of mycorrhizal associations. Red Oaks are known to host ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECM) on their root tips, and in fact mostly thought to only host ECM. Olises set out to determine if arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi (AMF) were also present in the DNA for these root tips. Morgan McPherson, a postdoctoral scholar in the Zak lab, acted as Olises mentor while at the University. She has an extensive background studying AMF and worked closely with Olises to help him learn the molecular skills needed to examine his question. Amazingly there were 54 out of 106 Red Oak root tips that had AMF!
Thank you to Olises for being a great addition to the Zak lab this summer and thank you Morgan for being an awesome mentor.
