BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:The origin of animal morphogenesis: insights from choanoflagellate
 s - Dr. Thibaut Brunet (University of California Berkeley )
DTSTART:20200227T150000Z
DTEND:20200227T160000Z
UID:TALK139450@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr. Adrien Hallou
DESCRIPTION:Contractile cell types are universally present in animals and 
 fundamental to animal life. Contractions of individual\, scattered cells u
 nderlies amoeboid cell migration\, which is prevalent in both adult organi
 sms and embryos\, while tissue-scale collective cell contractility underli
 es both embryonic morphogenesis and adult motricity. However\, the origin 
 of animal contractile cell types remains obscure. As the sister-group of a
 nimals\, choanoflagellates hold the promise of illuminating the evolutiona
 ry origins of animal cell biology. Intriguingly\, choanoflagellate genomes
  encode an extensive complement of homologs to animal contractility genes\
 , suggesting the involvement of (yet unidentified) contractile processes i
 n their life history. Here\, I report on the recent discovery of both indi
 vidual and collective cell contractility in choanoflagellates. Under confi
 nement\, the model choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta rapidly undergoes 
 a phenotypic switch from a flagellate to an amoeboid cell phenotype that r
 esemble animal migratory cells in both structure and function. This repres
 ents an unexpected expansion of the known phenotypic repertoire of choanof
 lagellates and suggests an ancient origin for animal crawling cells\, in l
 ine with the temporal-to-spatial transition hypothesis for the origin of a
 nimal cell types. Finally\, collective cell contractility has also been re
 cently discovered in a newly discovered colonial choanoflagellate isolated
  from a Carribean island\, that undergoes rapid and reversible whole-colon
 y inversion in response to external photic and mechanical stimuli.
LOCATION:Wellcome Trust /CRUK Gurdon Institute\, Tennis Court Road\, Cambr
 idge CB21QN
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR