Analysis of cell division and tissue biogenesis in situ

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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.