Analysis of cell division and tissue biogenesis in situ

一个受精卵要成为一个人，或任何其他多细胞生物体，必须发生多次细胞分裂。细胞分裂是细胞生长的一系列事件，复制它的DNA，将复制的DNA放在细胞的两端，然后夹在中间。我们专注于了解细胞是如何被捏成两半的。这项工作是通过一种名为收缩环的结构来完成的，这种结构的运作就像钱包绳一样，使用的细胞化学物质与推动肌肉收缩的细胞化学物质相同。大多数关于细胞分裂的工作都是用早期胚胎、酵母和生活在玻璃或塑料上的培养细胞完成的。通过这个项目，我们将致力于了解像你的皮肤这样完整的组织中细胞分裂的特殊要求。我们在一种受欢迎的实验室蠕虫体内使用了一个简单的系统：一个由3个细胞组成的单层组织，这些细胞在几个小时内就变成了22个细胞。我们可以拍摄这些细胞分裂的视频，并测量随着时间的推移细胞的形状，因为它被捏成两半。我们将测量我们看到的形状变化，并将这些事件与其他细胞类型(如早期胚胎)中类似的细胞挤压进行比较。我们还可以从细胞层中去除特定蛋白质(细胞化学物质)的功能，并观察细胞分裂是如何受到影响的。我们预计，在组织背景下的细胞分裂将有不同于分离细胞和早期胚胎的要求。因此，该项目开展的工作将有助于我们了解人体内细胞分裂的真实机制。

For a single fertilized egg to become a person, or any other multicellular organism, many cell divisions must occur. Cell division is the set of events by which a cell grows, copies its DNA, places the copies at two ends of the cell, and pinches in the middle. We are focused on understanding how the cell is pinched in half. This job is accomplished with a structure called the contractile ring, which operates like a purse string, using the same cellular chemicals that drive muscle contraction. Most of the work on cell division has been done with early embryos, yeasts and cultured cells that live on glass or plastic. With this project, we will work to understand the special requirements of cell division within an intact tissue like your skin. We are using a simple system inside a popular laboratory worm: a tissue composed of a single layer of just 3 cells, which become 22 cells over a few hours. We can make movies of these cells dividing and measure the shape of a cell over time as it is pinched in two. We will measure the shape changes we see and compare these events to the analogous cell pinching in other cell types like early embryos. We can also remove function of specific proteins (cellular chemicals) from this cell layer and see how cell division is affected. We expect that cell division in the context of a tissue will have different requirements than that in isolated cells and early embryos. Therefore, the work undertaken in this project will help us understand the true mechanism of cell division within our bodies.