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CATEGORIES:Morphogenesis Seminar Series
SUMMARY:Two signals converge on a nerve cell’s path: The i
 nterplay between chemical and mechanical signals i
 n the developing brain - Eva Pillai
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210222T143000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210222T153000
UID:TALK154726AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/154726
DESCRIPTION:During nervous system development\, growing neuron
 s respond to mechanical as well as chemical signal
 s in their environment. How these different signal
 s interact\, to guide neurons to their end target\
 , is currently poorly understood. We found that re
 tinal ganglion cell axons grow along stiffness gra
 dients in the developing Xenopus brain. Mechanosen
 sitive ion channels (MSCs) are key players in tran
 sducing these mechanical cues into intracellular s
 ignals. Pharmacological blocking of MSCs and knock
 down of the MSC\, Piezo1\, caused severe pathfindi
 ng errors in vivo. In addition to directly impacti
 ng axon growth\, downregulation of Piezo1 also dra
 matically altered the expression of semaphorin3A (
 Sema3A)\, a chemical guidance cue known to be crit
 ical in axon pathfinding. While Piezo1 knockdown s
 oftened brain tissue\, knockdown of Sema3A did not
  alter brain mechanics. Sema3A-producing neuroepit
 helial cells grown on substrates of varying stiffn
 ess adapted expression levels of Sema3A to their m
 echanical environment. Our results thus indicate t
 hat the expression of signalling molecules may be 
 modulated by tissue mechanics\, which has importan
 t implications given that tissue stiffness changes
  throughout development as well as during ageing a
 nd disease. 
LOCATION:Online
CONTACT:
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