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SUMMARY:The gap junction protein Innexin7 is required for cellularization 
 of the Tribolium blastoderm - Maurijn van der Zee\, University of Leiden
DTSTART:20120201T130000Z
DTEND:20120201T140000Z
UID:TALK35739@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Matt Benton
DESCRIPTION:The gap junction protein Innexin7 is required for cellularizat
 ion of the Tribolium blastoderm\n\nIn insects\, development starts with a 
 rapid series of nuclear divisions without cytokinesis. The resulting syncy
 tium then undergoes cellularization to form a proper blastoderm. This prov
 ides an excellent model to study membrane polarization and junction format
 ion. Blastoderm cellularization has been studied in detail in the fruit fl
 y Drosophila melanogaster\, but it is unknown to what extent these details
  are evolutionary conserved. Furthermore\, screens in Drosophila might hav
 e missed genes that have a complementary maternal and zygotic mRNA contrib
 ution. We set out to describe cellularization in the beetle Tribolium cast
 aneum and performed a small-scale parental RNAi (pRNAi) screen for cell ad
 hesion proteins\, knocking down maternal and zygotic gene expression simul
 taneously.\n\nWe found that knock-down of the gap junctional protein Innex
 in7 leads to a complete breakdown of cellularization. pRNAi prevents the f
 orming cells from closing basally\, resulting in detaching nuclei. Using t
 ime-lapse movies and immunohistochemistry we show that membrane invaginati
 on and recruitment of adherens junctions proceed normally and that only th
 e final basal closure of cells is affected.\n\nOur results unravel a novel
  function for Innexin7. We propose that it forms basal junctions to seal t
 he nascent cells. pRNAi in Tribolium is a straightforward way to uncover t
 he function of genes that are both maternally and zygotically expressed.
LOCATION:Part II Lecture Theatre\, Department of Zoology
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