Locally generated forces within an epithelium: how do they affect the morphogenesis and planar cell polarity?

Project Information

DROSOFORCESPOLARITY

Grant agreement ID: 234841

Project closed

Start date 1 April 2009

End date 31 March 2011

Funded under

• Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Total cost No data

EU contribution € 169 284,33

Coordinated by

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Germany

Objective

My objective is to understand how localized cortical actin/myosin contractility in individual cells within the Drosophila wing hinge and wing blade combine to generate the epithelial remodelling and convergence-extension movements that occur throughout the tissue. In particular, I will examine the role of the planar cell polarity proteins in generating and/or responding to these forces and test the hypothesis that convergence-extension movements are driven by external stretching forces caused by hinge contraction. To do so, I will use a multidisciplinary approach, including both genetics and biophysics. I will combine the genetic tools of Drosophila, to manipulate gene activity in time and space, with long-term time lapse imaging and automated image analysis, developed only recently in the Eaton lab, to quantitatively describe the effects of genetically induced cortical perturbations on cell behaviour. I will myself develop a completely novel method to exert controllable forces on wing tissue in vivo by directing the production of magnetic nanoparticles in specific regions of the wing. The originality of this project lies not only in its conceptual novelty, but in the powerful combination these methods and physical modelling that will be exploited to address the problem.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.

• natural sciences › biological sciences › genetics
• natural sciences › biological sciences › biochemistry › biomolecules › proteins
• natural sciences › biological sciences › cell biology › cell polarity
• natural sciences › biological sciences › biophysics
• engineering and technology › nanotechnology › nano-materials

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Keywords

• Actin cytoskeleton
• Biophysics
• Genetically modified Drosophila
• Morphomechanics
• Myosin
• Planar cell polarity
• Tissue morphogenesis

Programme(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008 - Marie Curie Action: "Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development"

Call for proposal

FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV

• EU contribution: € 169 284,33
• Address: HOFGARTENSTRASSE 8 ; 80539 Munchen ; Germany
• Region: Bayern › Oberbayern › München, Kreisfreie Stadt
• Activity type: Research Organisations
• Total cost: No data