Project:

How the Cactus Knew Christmas

Students:

Marianna Tzirani, Kimberly Mayo, Angelica Hernandez

School:

St. Francis Prep, Queens

Mentors:

Michal Ashkenazy

Abstract:

Our group believes that the Schlumbergera Bridgesii (Christmas Cactus) has a specific gene that is causing the plant to bloom. The similar plant, Schlumbergera Truncata (Thanksgiving Cactus) has similar basic DNA structure of the Schlumbergera Bridgesii, yet these plants bloom at a different time of the year. We hypothesize that by barcoding the Schlumbergera Bridgesii, it will allow us to compare its phylogeny to that of the Schlumbergera Truncata to look for similarities in the DNA. We believe that the major differences between the Christmas cactus and the Thanksgiving cactus will be the times of the year in which they bloom, and would be interested to see if there are indeed any differences in phylogeny between the two plants. Since the Christmas Cactus has not yet been barcoded and the Thanksgiving Cactus has, the objective of this project will be to barcode the Christmas Cactus for the first time

Poster:

Team samples: