Understanding of a phenomenon where cells differently behave in a cell number-dependent manner

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26650074
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Developmental biology
• Research Institution: Akita University
• Principal Investigator: Yamazaki Masakazu 秋田大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (40373378)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): AKIYAMA Masakazu 北海道大学, 電子科学研究所, 助教 (10583908)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 発生・分化 / 細胞・組織 / 遺伝学 / 平面内細胞極性 / PCP

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway coordinates cell polarization within an epithelial sheet in both vertebrates and invertebrates. Recently, using a combination of experiment and computer simulation, we found an intriguing feature of sple overexpression clones. In small clones, polarity inside the clones was never reversed, but the PCP was reversed inside larger clones. In this study, we modified the mathematical model of PCP that we made before, and performed experiments and computer simulations to understand a molecular mechanism underlying the above phenotype.

Free Research Field

発生生物学