Macrophage Delivery Service: A Migrating Source of Extracellular Matrix Components is Necessary for Drosophila Embryogenesis
| Dates: | 8 March 2016 |
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| Times: | 13:00 - 14:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Faculty of Life Sciences |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Dr Brian Stramer |
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Part of the Faculty of Life Sciences' Tissue Systems Seminar Series.
My laboratory exploits the embryonic dispersal of Drosophila macrophages (hemocytes) as an in vivo motility system to address the regulatory mechanisms of cell migration. We have developed imaging techniques to visualize hemocyte migration at a resolution approaching what can be obtained from cells in culture. This has allowed us to quantify, not only their gross migratory behaviors, but also the internal cytoskeletal machinery that drives their movement. We currently have two main projects in the lab that use this system.
During embryogenesis, hemocytes develop within the head of the animal and subsequently disperse throughout the embryo via specific migratory routes. One of these routes is onto the ventral side of the embryo where cells adopt an evenly dispersed pattern within a thin acellular cavity overlying the central nervous system. We are currently dissecting the mechanisms that allow the hemocytes to evenly pattern themselves within this space. In previous work using a combination of live imaging and mathematical modeling we showed that this migratory pattern is driven cell autonomously by contact inhibition of locomotion. Kinematic analysis of collisions reveals that hemocytes have a choreographed contact inhibition response involving tightly regulated changes in cellular motion. This synchronized behavior of colliding cells is essential for hemocyte patterning and we are currently dissecting the mechanical forces and signaling mechanisms that regulate this stereotyped behavior.
We are also investigating the function of this even hemocyte dispersal pattern during development; as the major role of embryonic hemocytes is to lay down basement membrane components within the embryo, we hypothesize that the even patterning of hemocytes is necessary to evenly distribute extracellular matrix during embryogenesis. We are currently examining the interplay between hemocyte migration and basement membrane deposition and testing the functional requirements of this extracellular matrix deposition for Drosophila development.
Speaker
Dr Brian Stramer
Organisation: Kings College London
Travel and Contact Information
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Michael Smith Lecture Theatre
Michael Smith Building
Manchester
