Patterning the Micromeres in the Spiralian Blastula

在多细胞生物体的发育过程中，适当的细胞命运可以由不对称的细胞分裂决定，即关键分子不均匀地分布在两个姐妹细胞之间。尽管这一机制对正常发展很重要，但人们对它的了解仍然很少。软体动物Ilyanassa的胚胎具有大量的不对称细胞分裂和重要的实用和实验优势，使其成为理解这一过程的有用模型。这组研究人员发现，胚胎中的许多RNA分子在早期发育过程中通过一种新的机制特定地定位和分离。该项目将经验性地确定控制这些RNA的定位和不对称分离的序列，允许比较调节相似和不同定位模式的RNA结构。对这些RNA序列的鉴定将使这些研究人员能够测试有关定位的特异性是如何实现的假设。这些实验还将通过使用功能基因敲除方法来测试其中一个RNA的定位是否对细胞命运指定重要。这些实验应该会大大扩大对RNA在细胞分裂期间是如何分类的，以及这如何影响早期胚胎发育的理解。这项工作还将培训研究生和本科水平的年轻科学家，为未来的职业生涯在这一未被探索的细胞分化领域担任独立研究人员和学者。

During the development of multicellular organisms, proper cell fates can be specified by asymmetric cell divisions, where key molecules are distributed unequally between two sister cells. Despite the importance of this mechanism for normal development, it remains poorly understood. The embryo of the mollusc Ilyanassa has numerous asymmetric cell divisions and important practical and experimental advantages, making it a useful model for understanding this process. This group of researchers has discovered that many RNA molecules in the embryo are specifically localized and segregated during early development by a novel mechanism. This project will empirically determine the sequences that control localization and asymmetric segregation of these RNAs, allowing comparison of the RNA structures that mediate similar and different patterns of localization. The identification of these RNA sequences will then allow these researchers to test hypotheses about how the specificity of localization is achieved. These experiments will also test whether the localization of one of these RNAs is important for cell fate specification by using functional gene-knockdown approaches. These experiments should significantly expand understanding of how RNAs are sorted during cell division, and how this impacts early embryogenesis. The work will also train young scientists at the graduate and undergraduate levels for future careers as independent researchers and scholars in this underexplored area of cell differentiation.