Shayan Pourazami - Adaptation transcriptomics of Peruvian desert snails

Peruvian land snails. Image reproduced from “El Niño in Peru: biology and culture over 10,000 years. Papers from the VIII Annual A. Watson Armour III Spring Symposium, May 28-29, 1999, Chicago.”

Home institution and supervisors
Michael D. Martin, Sarah Martin. NTNU, Norway.

Host institution and supervisors
Jorge Ramirez, Rina Ramirez. UNMSM, Peru. 2023.

Project description
Land snails inhibiting the unique seasonal ecosystems in the coastal deserts of Peru and Chile are adapted to survive dry months and heat desiccation for long periods of time. These well-adapted snails that thrive despite extreme seasonal variability. Their physiological adaptations are known to a large degree; however, there appears to be a lack of transcriptomic and genomic insight. The aim of this project is to identify gene expression patterns in Bostryx conspersus snails under different experimental environmental conditions and to investigate their adaptations from a transcriptomic perspective.