Wednesday/Mercredi, May/Mai 8
14:30-16:00
CMDB symposium
Developmental and Functional Biophysics in living systems
Location/Lieu: Shediac A
Chair/Animé par: Natasha Mhatre (University of Ottawa)
14:30-15:10
Standen E.
Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
How body and armour act as passive constraints on locomotor output
The control of locomotion is a complex interaction of neural signals from the brain, the spinal column and sensory inputs. How the resultant motor outputs contribute to effective kinematics depends upon the material properties of body tissues, as well as the mechanical properties of the environment surrounding the animal. This talk will highlight two different experiments that use very different approaches to quantify the passive mechanical components involved in elongate fish locomotion. The first experiment will focus on American eel and measures the active and passive kinematic output of spinally transected eels. The second experiment looks at how body armour contributes to mechanical performance and how this contribution changes over ontogeny. Together these projects reveal that mechanical constraint and coupling between body parts is a critical influence in the complex kinematic output resulting from neural-motor signals.
15:10-15:50
Simsek M.
Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
Molecular oscillators and gradients: How to make repetitive segments of the vertebrate Diverse species across metazoa display metameric structures segmenting the major body axis for modularity, organisation, and guiding organ formation. Vertebrate embryos sequentially form repetitive sets of somites alongside the midline, with well-controlled species specific periodicity, sizes, and total counts. Fgf/Erk signalling establishes a tail-to-somite 'morphogen' gradient to instruct precise positional information to cell neighbourhoods. Recently we showed that the cell-autonomous molecular 'segmentation clock' reciprocates its oscillatory dynamics onto Fgf/Erk gradient. Oscillating Erk gradient is necessary and sufficient to instruct tail mesoderm cells to commit into somite patterning. My current lab focuses on the space and time mechanisms of Erk gradient control in the vertebrate embryo. We combine quantitative microscopy, single-cell level analysis of signal dynamics, and data-informed predictive modeling. Zebrafish with its translucent, accessible, and multiplexed embryonic development as well as tractable genetics is our favorite organism. We aim to discover the conserved mechanisms of sequential segmentation across species and design principles of morphogen positional information in embryos.
Chair/Animé par: Natasha Mhatre (University of Ottawa)
14:30-15:10
Standen E.
Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
How body and armour act as passive constraints on locomotor output
The control of locomotion is a complex interaction of neural signals from the brain, the spinal column and sensory inputs. How the resultant motor outputs contribute to effective kinematics depends upon the material properties of body tissues, as well as the mechanical properties of the environment surrounding the animal. This talk will highlight two different experiments that use very different approaches to quantify the passive mechanical components involved in elongate fish locomotion. The first experiment will focus on American eel and measures the active and passive kinematic output of spinally transected eels. The second experiment looks at how body armour contributes to mechanical performance and how this contribution changes over ontogeny. Together these projects reveal that mechanical constraint and coupling between body parts is a critical influence in the complex kinematic output resulting from neural-motor signals.
15:10-15:50
Simsek M.
Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
Molecular oscillators and gradients: How to make repetitive segments of the vertebrate Diverse species across metazoa display metameric structures segmenting the major body axis for modularity, organisation, and guiding organ formation. Vertebrate embryos sequentially form repetitive sets of somites alongside the midline, with well-controlled species specific periodicity, sizes, and total counts. Fgf/Erk signalling establishes a tail-to-somite 'morphogen' gradient to instruct precise positional information to cell neighbourhoods. Recently we showed that the cell-autonomous molecular 'segmentation clock' reciprocates its oscillatory dynamics onto Fgf/Erk gradient. Oscillating Erk gradient is necessary and sufficient to instruct tail mesoderm cells to commit into somite patterning. My current lab focuses on the space and time mechanisms of Erk gradient control in the vertebrate embryo. We combine quantitative microscopy, single-cell level analysis of signal dynamics, and data-informed predictive modeling. Zebrafish with its translucent, accessible, and multiplexed embryonic development as well as tractable genetics is our favorite organism. We aim to discover the conserved mechanisms of sequential segmentation across species and design principles of morphogen positional information in embryos.