The development of animals depends on the precise timing of cell divisions, which is crucial for creating tissues and organs with specific structures and functions. As cells differentiate and progress through development, they must adjust the expression of cell-cycle regulators to produce tissue-specific division patterns. However, how cells change their cell-cycle gene-expression programs during development, and how these changes are timed during development, remains largely unexplored. This project aims to investigate these questions by examining intestinal cell cycles in nematodes. In our group, we have recently developed techniques to measure changes in mRNA expression and chromatin modifications in purified intestinal cells from C. elegans. These methods are helping us uncover how cell-cycle gene expression changes during development and identify new regulators that govern stage-specific gene expression. Additionally, we will use an innovative microfluidics platform for long-term imaging of larval development to explore the mechanisms that allow temporal coupling of cell cycle and development. This system will enable us to visualize and manipulate transcription factor gradients that regulate intestinal cell cycles, providing unprecedented insights into the timing of cell cycles. Lastly, I will investigate cell-cycle mechanisms in P. redivivus, a related nematode with a slightly different cell-cycle pattern in its intestinal cells. Studying this species will enhance our understanding of how cell-cycle patterns can vary to produce phenotypic diversity. Overall, this research program aims to provide a mechanistic understanding of how cell cycles are temporally controlled during development, uncovering new insights into the origins of tissue-specific division patterns. This knowledge could pave the way for future applications in tissue engineering and the control of cell divisions in disease contexts.
