CSB Seminar: Prof. Frieder Schöck, Department of Biology, McGill University

“Organizing the actomyosin cytoskeleton in muscle and nonmuscle cells“

Host:  Prof. Ulrich Tepass <u.tepass@utoronto.ca>

Abstract:

Cells can build highly complex intracellular structures from small protein subunits. My scientific interests lie in the cell biological mechanisms by which cells assemble a contractile actomyosin cytoskeleton and connect it to surrounding tissues. One aspect of our research focuses on how myofibrils and in particular Z-discs assemble in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Z-discs border the sarcomere, the smallest contractile unit of muscles, and anchor the barbed ends of antiparallel actin filaments. Here we analyze how actin filaments are organized by filamin and Zasp52 at Z-discs. We also investigate the giant scaffold protein obscurin, which in muscles aligns thick filaments at the M-line of sarcomeres. We want to know if obscurin is involved in formation of myosin II bipolar filament stacks in nonmuscle cells, as well as the general function of obscurin in nonmuscle cells.

Video Conferencing at UTM (DV3138) & UTSc (MW229)