Photo by V. Miller
Aug. 8, 2007
Melatonin and Heat Stress
This Bud's for You: A Study of Hydra vulvaris and the Effects of Melatonin on Heat Stress
Aaron Burrows, 14, San Antonio, Texas
Discovery Kids "TV Star" Award, Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, 2006
Project background: For his 2005 science project, Aaron added melatonin to the water in which he kept aquatic creatures called hydras to see whether the hormone affected the animals' normal body clocks. Melatonin is a hormone produced by vertebrates, usually in response to darkness. It serves as a signaling molecule that tells the body when night begins, and as such helps reset the body’s internal clock. However, it has some additional functions as well.
Aaron noticed that heat from fluorescent lights in the hydras' enclosures killed some of the animals, but that those with melatonin in their water often went unharmed. For this year's project, He hypothesized that melatonin would enhance the production of naturally produced molecules called heat-shock proteins, which protect cells from heat's deleterious effects.
Tactics and results: Aaron kept hydras in two incubators filled with water. The water in one incubator contained melatonin; water in the other incubator did not. He raised the temperature in each incubator a single degree every day, starting at 25°C and peaking at 37°C. He recorded the number of hydras that survived and how well the animals reproduced.
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| Photo by V. Miller |
Hydras in the melatonin water survived significantly longer and reproduced almost twice as well as did those in water without melatonin, suggesting that the hormone has a protective effect.
To get science project ideas and expert advice from Science Buddies, go to www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/areas_of_science.shmtl.
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