Why Moina for epigenetic study?

I’ve been hearing a lot about Moina in CUBE chatshaalas, and I also know that it is extremely useful in epigenetic study. However, I don’t understand how an organism so small could be cultured and studied? Can somebody guide me?

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Ohh! That’s good that you have taken the initiative of creating this thread on Moina to feed your curiosity! :+1: :+1:
What all do you know about Moina?
Let us build from stratch.

Moina is a tiny waterflea,it is transparent it has branched gills on its numerous feet.As it is transparent we can see its heart beating on the dorsal side.we can also see the brood pouch with its many baby moinas.
Moina is easy to culture and is grown commercially as fish food.In CUBE lab the standard method we follow is using 1drop of milk in 250ml of dechlorinated water.
Moina undergoes epigenetic change when exposed to hypoxia that is low level of oxygen,it becomes red.This is due to more haemoglobin being produced by transcription of additional haemoglobin genes.This is achieved by histone acetylation .Now if we use a chemical called valproic acid which is a histone deacetylase inhibitor ,the histone remains acetylated and hence the haemoglobin synthesis continues and moina remains red even when conditions are high in oxygen.
This is how we can study epigenetics using moina as a model organism.

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