Flows and waves in early embryonic development
Date
Thursday, May 19, 2022 11:00 - 12:00
Speaker
Massimo Vergassola (ENS Paris)
Location
Raiffeisen Lecture Hall, Central Building
Host
Jérémie Palacci
Contact
Early embryogenesis of most metazoans is characterized by rapid and synchronous cleavage divisions. After fertilization, Drosophila embryos undergo 13 swift rounds of DNA replication and mitosis without cytokinesis, resulting in a multinucleated syncytium containing about 6,000 nuclei. The very first cycles involve substantial flows, both in the bulk and at the cortex of the syncytial embryo, while waves of activity of Cdk1, the main regulator of the cell cycle, are observed in late cycles. I shall present the corresponding experimental data and discuss theoretical models that we have been developing in recent years.