Kristin Lang

kristin.lang@student.uibk.ac.at

Throughout their life cycle, water fleas of the genus Daphnia produce well-packaged resting eggs (ephippia). They survive extreme conditions partly over centuries and are therefore suited for micro-evolutionary studies. However, essential basic knowledge is still missing of the developmental biology of these resting eggs. The organisation of egg and embryo, which tissue is of maternal and which of embryonic origin, and the stage of development are so far still completely unknown.

The aim of my research is the morphological and histological characterisation of the embryo in Daphnia resting eggs. Therefore, light microscopic techniques, cytological and histochemical staining, and electron microscopic investigations are applied.

Research topics
Ecological speciation
Embryology
Morphology