Mechanobiology investigates the role of physical forces in embryonic development. I’ll present my work on how the fold that divides the head from the trunk in Drosophila embryos may have an important mechanical role in gastrulation. The conference Mechanobiology in development and disease is happening in the EMBL Heidelberg.
Waiting the train between Dresden and HeidelbergView from the river, bridge and castle of HeidelbergThe famous ATC building in the shape of a DNA moleculeDouble helix of the building from the insideAuditorium in the opening of the mechanobiology conference
The latest True Facts about Sea Stars is unmissable. The video is filled with delightful echinoderm biology and even covers some recent discoveries on these enigmatic creatures. Watch it!
Here’s a personal view about body symmetry and body openings from someone who lived through the evolution of bilateral symmetry.
Form? I didn’t have any; that is, I didn’t know I had one, or rather I didn’t know you could have one. I grew more or less on all sides, at random; if this is what you call radial symmetry, I suppose I had radial symmetry, but to tell you the truth I never paid any attention to it. Why should I have grown more on one side than on the other? I had no eyes, no head, no part of the body that was different from any other part; now I try to persuade myself that the two holes I had were a mouth and an anus, and that I therefore already had my bilateral symmetry, just like the trilobites and the rest of you, but in my memory I really can’t tell those holes apart, I passed stuff from whatever side I felt like, inside or outside was the same, differences and repugnances came along much later.
Excerpt from The Spiral, a tale in the delightful Cosmicomics collection of science-inspired short stories by Italo Calvino.
Every time I open Spotify, I see the pattern of engrailed expression in an early Platynereis larva. Once you see it, there is no turning back!
The similarity between engrailed expression in Platynereis and the Spotify logo. A) Whole-mount in situ hybridization of engrailed in a 48h larva of the annelid Platynereis dumerilii (Prud’homme et al. 2003). B) Illustration of engrailed expression pattern in Platynereis. C) Spotify logo. D) Illustration of adapted Spotify logo.
Reference
Prud’homme, B., de Rosa, R., Arendt, D., Julien, J.-F., Pajaziti, R., Dorresteijn, A. W. C., Adoutte, A., Wittbrodt, J., & Balavoine, G. (2003). Arthropod-like expression patterns of engrailed and wingless in the annelid Platynereis dumerilii suggest a role in segment formation. Current Biology: CB, 13(21), 1876–1881. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2003.10.006
Early syncytial embryo of the fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nuclei (blue) are dividing in a wave from posterior to anterior. Membrane components (white) are already organized around the nuclei. The image is a frame from a timelapse acquired under lightsheet microscopy and rendered in 3D.
This is a bryozoan embryo exhibiting its blastopore. These animals are discreet but ubiquitous in oceans and lakes all over the world.
Embryo of the bryozoan Membranipora membranacea under confocal microscopy.
What we see is the DNA inside the nucleus of the cells of the embryo. The color gradient indicates if the nuclei are closer (yellow) or further away (purple) from the microscope camera.
The embryonic cells are arranged in a circle and form a central opening that we call the blastopore. This opening, in bryozoans, will become the mouth of the animal after the embryo develops.
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