Molecular and Biophysical Analysis of Drosophila Development
Dan Kiehart, Duke University

Lecture Abstract:
We are investigating the forces that connect the genetic program of development to morphogenesis in Drosophila. We focus on dorsal closure, a model system for cell sheet morphogenesis in development and wound healing. We use transgenic strategies to incorporate fluorescently marked proteins into key cellular structures, then follow developmental movement in living embryos. We apply laser microsurgical methods to interrogate cell and tissue structure.   With quantitative modeling we show that contractile forces, generated in distinct cells, are coordinated in space and synchronized in time. We are expanding our analysis to understand this process in by better visualizing the morphogenetic movements in 3D and to define the biological processes that give the system resilience:   remarkably, in the absence of one of the forces, the embryo can up-regulate other forces to take its place so that morphogenesis proceeds unperturbed.