Pattern formation & regeneration in a single cell

描述(申请人提供)：细胞形成特定形状的能力，并在损伤后动态再生其细胞骨架和膜结构的能力，是当前细胞生物学的谜团之一。除了是一个基本的细胞生物学问题，了解细胞形态的发展和再生将是开发一种全新的再生医学方法的起点，在这种方法中，人们将诱导受损细胞原位再生，而不是试图用干细胞衍生的替代品取代受损细胞。目前，关于细胞如何产生和再生形态几乎一无所知。为了解决这个问题，我们求助于一个经典的模型系统--巨大的纤毛支架。这个非凡的细胞足够大，可以进行显微手术操作，并且能够在几个小时内再生出被切断的部分，恢复正常的细胞形状。我们将对Stentor基因组进行测序，并分析再生背后的遗传程序，以询问再生是否等同于正常形态发生的重新激活或一种独特的修复机制，确定是否存在可定义的基因组模块，其激活可以在单个细胞水平上驱动再生，并探索细胞骨架和细胞内运输在再生反应中的作用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability of cells to form defined shapes, and to dynamically regenerate their cytoskeletal and membrane structures following damage, is one of the current mysteries of cell biology. In addition to being a fundamental cell biological problem, understanding development and regeneration of cellular morphology would be a starting point towards developing a whole new approach to regenerative medicine, in which rather than attempting to replace damaged cells with stem cell derived substitutes, one would induce the damaged cells to regenerate in situ. Currently there is almost nothing known about how cells generate and regenerate morphology. To address this question, we turn to a classical model system - the giant ciliate Stentor. This remarkable cell is large enough to allow microsurgical manipulation and is able to regenerate severed parts in a few hours to restore a normal cell shape. We will sequence the Stentor genome and analyze the genetic programs that underlie regeneration, in order to ask whether regeneration is equivalent to a re-activation of normal morphogenesis or a distinct repair mechanism, determine whether there are definable genomic modules whose activation could drive regeneration at the level of a single cell, and explore the role of the cytoskeleton and intracellular transport in the regeneration response.