CryoStore at INRAE - Maria Mafalda Almeida
PhD 5 - Epigenetic changes after sperm cryopreservation in fish, consequences for the offspring
My name is Maria Mafalda Almeida and I’m from Lisbon (Portugal). My academic path was done in Universidade do Algarve where I graduated in Marine Biology for both my bachelor’s and master’s degree. During this time, I had the opportunity to join the Aquaculture Research group (Aquagroup) from Centro de Ciências do Mar (CCMAR) where I performed several techniques associated with four projects based on Senegalese sole.
In 2020, I presented my bachelor final project related to dominance behaviour in Senegalese sole juveniles and environmental enrichment under Dr Elvira Fatsini and Prof. Elsa Cabrita supervision. This project was inside the framework of REPROF1 and CONDISOLE projects. After, to continue these projects, I performed molecular biology techniques to access the effect sand has on male Senegalese sole brain gene expression.
Subsequently, I worked as a lab technician under the supervision of Dr. Elvira Fatsini and Dr. Elsa Cabrita (research fellowship in the ambit of the GERMROS and AQUAEXCEL 3.0 projects). This fellowship was within the scope of my master thesis, so I performed techniques for spermatogonia enrichment (differential plating, cell culture, FACs and strainers) and quality assessment between fresh and cryopreserved spermatogonia in Senegalese sole (plasma membrane integrity, DNA integrity, lipid peroxidation, DNA methylation and molecular markers). After the delivery of my master thesis, I carried on the research for these projects to achieve an efficient method for spermatogonia enrichment, and performed molecular biology techniques to access the effect of sand on female Senegalese sole brain and gonad gene expression.
Afterwards, I also worked in Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA) as a lab and aquaculture technician for the project NoSTRESS under Dr Cátia Marques and Dr Florbela Soares. I was responsible for fish and larvae maintenance, and to perform molecular biology techniques in liver and intestine to access the effect of different feeds on Seabream and Sea bass stress levels.
Currently, I’m a PhD student in INRAE - Laboratoire de Physiologie et Génomique des Poissons (LPGP) under the supervision of Dr. Catherine Labbé and Dr. Audrey Laurent for the CryoStore project. The scope of the project is to access if there are any epigenetic changes after sperm cryopreservation in two fish species (common carp and rainbow trout), with different chromatin packing proteins, and if those alterations are associated with modification of the chromatin compaction features. The consequences for the offspring will also be studied. For this, techniques such as whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS), ATAC-seq and pyrosequencing will be performed.