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An animal cell cleaves by the progressive constriction of an equatorial contractile ring. We are interested in how the cleavage plane is specified, how the contractile ring forms and how the daughter cells finally become pinched off. |
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The first few divisions of the C. elegans embryo are asymmetric and determinative (White & Strome, 1996). My laboratory has been studying the dynamic changes in the cytoskeleton that occur during these divisions. In the course of this work we revealed a mechanism that orients the mitotic spindle and hence the cleavage plane during determinative divisions (Hyman & White, 1987) and how polarity gets established in early blastomeres (Hird & White, 1993). Recent work has revealed that a molecular complex associated with the motor protein dynene is localized to a discrete focus within the cell and acts to align the mitotic spindle In addition to our studies of cell
division in wild-type animals, we are studying mutant animals in which
these processes are perturbed. Recently, a genetic screen was initiated
which has yielded an interesting collection of temperature-sensitive
cell division mutants (O'Connell et al., 1998). The cellular phenotypes
of these mutants are currently being determined. These data should reveal
the molecular nature of some of the mechanisms of Cell fusion is a fundamental although little studied aspect of developmental biology. Cells such as gametes or skeletal muscle cells fuse at precise developmental stages. We are studying the fusions that occur in the epithelium of C. elegans through the use of advanced microscopy and genetic techniques.
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