Genetic Control of Vulval and Uterine Coordination in C. elegans: cog-3

Hanna-Rose实验室的长期目标是了解内部器官如何以协调的方式发育，以允许完全形成的有机体发挥作用。 作为协调器官发育的模型，他们研究了有机体C中外阴和子宫的形成。一种微小的蠕虫 一种名为cog-3（性腺连接缺陷）的突变体是他们拟议工作的中心。 在cog-3突变蠕虫中，外阴和子宫彼此不连接，导致进出子宫的通道出现物理堵塞，类似于出生缺陷。 COG-3在促进这种功能性连接方面起着令人惊讶的作用。 它促进子宫和外阴组织发育的时间同步，以便在适当的时间在两个器官之间形成连接。 在cog-3突变体中，子宫发育晚于外阴，而它们应该同时发育。 Hanna-Rose实验室提议发现cog-3的分子身份，然后探索cog-3如何控制时间发育。 Hanna-Rose博士将让本科生和研究生参与这项研究，提供实践研究经验，教导这些未来的科学家如何使用科学方法来解决任何感兴趣的生物学问题。 通过实现这些目标，这些研究人员将阐明C. elegans成立了。 他们破译的原理将对理解器官形成具有广泛的意义。 最终，该实验室的目标是应用C。elegans被处决是为了了解哺乳动物发育过程中器官发生的缺陷如何导致身体出生缺陷。

The long-term goal of the Hanna-Rose lab is to understand how internal organs develop in a coordinated fashion to allow a fully formed organism to function. As a model for coordinated organ development, they examine formation of the vulva and the uterus in the organism C. elegans, a microscopic worm. A mutant called cog-3 (connection of gonad defective) is at the center of their proposed work. In cog-3 mutant worms, the vulva and the uterus do not connect to one another, resulting in a physical blockage in the pathway to and from the uterus, analogous to a birth defect. cog-3 plays a surprising role in promoting this functional connection. It promotes temporal synchronization of the development of the uterine and vulval tissues so that a connection can form between the two organs at the appropriate time. In the cog-3 mutants the uterus develops later than the vulva, while they would be expected to develop simultaneously. The Hanna-Rose lab proposes to discover the molecular identity of cog-3 and then probe how cog-3 controls temporal development. Dr. Hanna-Rose will involve undergraduate and graduate students in this research to provide hands-on research experience that teaches these future scientists how to use the scientific method to approach any biological problem of interest. By accomplishing these aims, these researchers will shed light on how formation of a functional connection between lumens of two tubular organs in C. elegans is established. The principles they decipher will have wide reaching significance in understanding organ formation. Ultimately, the lab aims to apply knowledge of how organogenesis of the vulval-uterine connection in C. elegans is executed to understanding how defects in organogenesis during mammalian development can result in physical birth defects.