Descripción del proyecto
DURING EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT, COLLECTIVES OF CELLS COORDINATE THEIR BEHAVIOUR TO GIVE RISE TO THE COMPLEX THREE DIMENSIONAL ARCHITECTURE OF TISSUES AND ORGANS. THE EMERGENCE OF HIGHER-ORDER COMPLEX STRUCTURES REQUIRES THAT CELLS REMAIN IN CONSTANT COMMUNICATION WITH THEIR ENVIRONMENT AND WITH THEIR NEIGHBOURS. ALTHOUGH MOST OF THE EFFORTS TO UNDERSTAND MORPHOGENESIS HAVE TRADITIONALLY CONCENTRATED ON HOW CHEMICAL SIGNALLING PATHWAYS CONTROL CELL BEHAVIOUR, IN THE LAST DECADE IT HAS BECOME EVIDENT THAT MECHANICAL AND ALSO ELECTRICAL SIGNALLING ACROSS NETWORKS OF CELLS ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE PROGRAM THAT IMPLEMENTS BIOLOGICAL SHAPE. THIS SUBPROJECT IS PART OF A COORDINATED PROJECT THAT WILL SHED LIGHT INTO THE DIFFERENT MECHANISMS OF EPITHELIAL CELL-CELL COMMUNICATION DURING DEVELOPMENT. THE MAIN AIM OF THIS SUBPROJECT IS TO INVESTIGATE HOW CELLS INTEGRATE CHEMICAL, MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL CUES TO GENERATE ROBUST AND PREDICTABLE PATTERNS OF TISSUE DEFORMATION. FOR THIS, I WILL USE THE PROCESS OF DORSAL CLOSURE OF THE DROSOPHILA EMBRYO AS A MODEL SYSTEM. THIS IS A REFERENCE PROCESS FOR THE STUDY OF MORPHOGENESIS THAT IS BEING A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE AND INSPIRATION FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF OTHER PROCESSES WITH BIOMEDICAL INTEREST OCCURRING IN VERTEBRATES SUCH AS WOUND HEALING, NEURAL TUBE CLOSURE AND PALATE FUSION. IT INVOLVES MECHANO-CHEMICAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN TWO TISSUES, THE AMNIOSEROSA AND THE EPIDERMIS, AND WITHIN CELLS OF THE SAME TISSUE. BUILDING ON OUR PREVIOUS WORK THAT HAD QUANTITATIVELY CHARACTERIZED THE CELLULAR PROCESSES UNDERLYING THE FORCE-GENERATING MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN THE MORPHOGENESIS OF THE AMNIOSEROSA, I WILL COMBINE QUANTITATIVE LIVE IMAGING, GENETICS, CELL BIOLOGY AND BIOPHYSICAL TOOLS TO ADDRESS TWO MAIN ISSUES. I) TO INVESTIGATE THE MECHANO-CHEMICAL AND ELECTROCHEMICAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING THE COORDINATION OF APICALLY CONTRACTING CELLS TO GENERATE TISSUE CONTRACTION IN THE AMNIOSEROSA, AND II) TO INVESTIGATE THE MECHANO-CHEMICAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING THE TRIGGERING, EXECUTION AND COORDINATION IN TIME AND SPACE OF CELL DELAMINATION DURING THE MORPHOGENESIS OF THE AMNIOSEROSA. I EXPECT THAT THIS WORK WILL INFORM ONTO HOW NETWORKS OF CELLS INTEGRATE DIFFERENT CUES TO BEHAVE COOPERATIVELY TO BUILD ORGANS AND WHOLE-BODY ANATOMY. THIS KNOWLEDGE COULD IMPACT THE BIOMEDICAL AND BIOENGINEERING FIELDS BY CONTRIBUTING TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE BEST COMBINATION OF SIGNALS ENABLING REGENERATIVE THERAPIES AND THE GENERATION OF ARTIFICIAL ORGANS. ORFOGENESIS\BIOMECANICA\ADHESION\CONTRACTILIDAD\ACTOMIOSINA\DELAMINACION CELULAR