Controlling and coordinating cell shape and size to generate a functional organ

Buzz Baum (primary)
MRC-LMCB
UCL
Shiladitya Banerjee (secondary)
Physics and Astronomy
UCL

Abstract

Nature is full of beautiful structures. Under a microscope these appear exquisite in part because they have a very precise but complex size and geometry. In this project, we seek to learn the rules that make this type of natural engineering possible by studying how the fly mechano-sensory bristle is constructed during the course of development. The bristle consists of 4 cells that arise over a short time period from a single stem cell through a series of asymmetric divisions. The result, a bristle in a socket that connects to a neuron that is wrapped by a glial cell, is one of the simplest functional organs in all of biology. Using a combination of approaches the student will work as part of a multidisciplinary team to determine:
i) How each cell assumes its correct shape and size.
ii) How cells coordinate their behaviour to give rise to the 3D structure of the organ.
iii) How these rules are changed to generate different types of bristle in the same organism.
Importantly, by understanding how this works in healthy animals, we will also gain insights into how these processes are deregulated in disease, e.g in cancer.


References

The system:

Jacinto A, Baum B. (2003). Actin in development. Mech Dev 120(11):1337-49.

Schweisguth F. (2015) Asymmetric cell division in the Drosophila bristle lineage: from the polarization of sensory organ precursor cells to Notch-mediated binary fate decision. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Dev Biol. 4(3): 299–309.

Bristle patterning:

Hunter, G. L., He, L., Perrimon, N., Charras, G., Baum, B., & Giniger, E. (2017). Actomyosin-based basal protrusions drive long range lateral inhibition via dynamic cell-cell contacts during epithelial tissue patterning. (BioRXIV).

Hunter, G. L., Hadjivasiliou, Z., Bonin, H., He, L., Perrimon, N., Charras, G., & Baum, B. (2016). Coordinated control of Notch/Delta signalling and cell cycle progression drives lateral inhibition-mediated tissue patterning. Development, 143 (13), 2305-2310.

Symmetric and asymmetric cell divisions:
Ramkumar, N., & Baum, B. (2016). Coupling changes in cell shape to chromosome segregation. Nature Reviews MCB, 17 (8), 511-521.

Rodrigues, N. T., Lekomtsev, S., Jananji, S., Kriston-Vizi, J., Hickson, G. R., & Baum, B. (2015). Kinetochore-localized PP1-Sds22 couples chromosome segregation to polar relaxation. Nature 524 (7566), 489-492

Cell growth / size homeostasis:

Clotilde Cadart, Sylvain Monnier, Jacopo Grilli, Rafaele Attia, Emmanuel Terriac, Buzz Baum, Marco Cosentino-Lagomarsino, Matthieu Piel. (2017) Size control in mammalian cells involves modulation of both growth rate and cell cycle duration
BioRXIV. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/152728

Banerjee, S., Lo, K., Daddysman, M. K., Selewa, A., Kuntz, T., Dinner, A. R., & Scherer, N. F. (2017). Biphasic growth dynamics control cell division in Caulobacter crescentus. Nature microbiology, 2, 17116. doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2017.116

Highlighted publicationWeirich, K. L., Banerjee, S., Dasbiswas, K., Witten, T. A., Vaikuntanathan, S., & Gardel, M. L. (2017). Liquid behavior of cross- linked actin bundles. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 114 (9), 2131-2136. doi:10.1073/pnas.1616133114

Highlighted publicationBanerjee, S., Scherer, N. F., & Dinner, A. R. (2016). Shape dynamics of growing cell walls. Soft matter, 12 (14), 3442-3450.

Picone R., Ren X., Clarke J. D. W., McKendry R.A. and Baum B. (2010) Polarised Population of Dynamic Microtubules Mediates Homeostatic Length Control in Animal Cells. PLoS Biology 8 (11): e1000542.


BBSRC Area
Genes, development and STEM* approaches to biology
Area of Biology
Cell BiologyDevelopment
Techniques & Approaches
BiophysicsGeneticsImage ProcessingMathematics / StatisticsMicroscopy / ElectrophysiologyMolecular BiologySimulation / Modelling