Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Cells contain several types of internal protein "skeletons", termed the cytoskeletons. One type provides structural support, while another generates force, the cellular “bone” and “muscle”, respectively. We study how cells rearrange the cytoskeleton as embryos develop, where changes of the cytoskeleton can occur on the time scale of minutes so that cells and tissues can rapidly change their positions and shapes. Our approach is to find mutations in genes controlling these processes: by examining what goes wrong when the genes malfunction, we can infer the roles of the normal genes. Furthermore, we find sets of genes that together cooperate to carry out complex processes. Our work uses the nematode roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans , which is a widely used “model organism” that is used by many researchers throughout the world. Because basic biological processes are very similar in all animals, we can use this simple worm to study genes in ways that are impossible in far more complex systems like humans or other mammals. We have found a series of C. elegans genes that are required to build the cytoskeletal structure that is responsible for the accurate distribution of chromosomes to daughter cells in the specialized type of division that produces eggs (meiosis). Disruption of this process in humans results in birth defects such as Down's syndrome. More specifically, we are studying how the timing of when these genes function is accomplished so that they can carry out their task and then be inactivated when they are no longer needed. Indeed, if these genes remain active after they are no longer needed, they are fatal to subsequent embryo development.