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CSB Seminar: Prof. Adam C. Martin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology
February 10, 2017 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Departmental Seminar
“Organizing the contraction that changes tissue shape“
Host: Prof. Ulrich Tepass <u.tepass@utoronto.ca>
Abstract:
Cells generate forces in tissues to sculpt the myriad of tissue shapes that occur in an organism. An engine that is associated with cell and tissue shape changes in diverse contexts is a dynamic actomyosin meshwork or cortex underlying the plasma membrane. In epithelial cells, contraction of the apical actomyosin cortex can drive apical constriction. I will describe how the apical cortex of non-muscle cells can adopt a polarized structure that topologically resembles a muscle sarcomere. We discovered that establishing this sarcomere-like organization in the apical cortex requires a dynamic upstream signaling network that surprisingly involves, not only activation, but inhibition of the RhoA GTPase.
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Video Conferencing at UTM (DV3138) & UTSc (MW229)