Coordination of progenitor specification and growth in mouse and chick spinal cord
| Dates: | 20 November 2014 |
|---|
| Times: | 13:00 - 14:00 |
|---|
| What is it: | Seminar |
|---|
| Organiser: | Faculty of Life Sciences |
|---|
| Who is it for: | University staff |
|---|
| Speaker: | Anna Kicheva |
|---|
|
|
This is a one-off special seminar. The hallmarks of development are tissue growth coupled with the generation of cell diversity. To address how these processes are coordinated we generated high-resolution three-dimensional quantitative datasets of the molecularly distinct domains of neural progenitors that are arrayed along the dorsoventral axis of the vertebrate neural tube. We show that during development these domains undergo characteristic changes in size that do not scale with changes in overall tissue size, nor with alterations in morphogen signaling. Instead proportions are sequentially controlled by two different mechanisms. Initially, signaling by opposing morphogen gradients establishes pattern. The precision of positional information encoded by the opposing gradients is maximal during this phase. Subsequently, cell-type specific regulation of differentiation rate, but not proliferation, elaborates the pattern. Experimental tests support this model. Furthermore, comparison of embryos of different sizes reveals that regulation of the differentiation rate is key to understanding the robustness of domain proportions to both intra- and interspecies variations in size. Thus the sequential control of progenitor specification and differentiation elaborates pattern without requiring that signaling gradients grow as tissues expand.
Speaker
Anna Kicheva
Organisation: NIMR
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
B.4208
Michael Smith Building
Manchester
