Conserved and divergent mechanisms underlying cytokinesis in early vertebrate and invertebrate embryogenesis

Cell division is the fundamental process for cell differentiation and tissue formation in early embryogenesis.

Mainly depending on the distribution and amount of yolk, fertilized embryos undergo holoblastic and meroblastic divisions.

Holoblastic division can be found in most mammalian embryos including mouse embryo, in which actomyosin forms contractile cytoskeletal ring and divides the zygote into two daughter cells.

In contrast, cell division in fish and insect embryos, such as zebrafish and Drosophila embryos, are meroblastic, and accumulating evidence shows that actomyosin is dispensable for meroblastic furrow ingression. Meanwhile, microtubule has been suggested to constitute the main component that drive meroblastic furrow ingression.

How microtubule functions in furrow ingression of meroblastic cleavages in zebrafish and Drosophila embryos, and how far those functions are conserved between these species, remain to be fully understood.

The MiMING project aims to uncover the role of microtubule and associated motor proteins in meroblastic furrow ingression in zebrafish and Drosophila, which fits me very well, as I have abundant knowledge about functions of cytoskeleton in embryogenesis and biochemical experimental methods in checking the function of actomyosin and microtubules on the cortex of Drosophila embryos in syncytial and cellularization stages from my PhD study and follow-up work.

To check the biochemical and biomechanical mechanisms in meroblastic furrow ingression of zebrafish and Drosophila embryos, I would like to join Prof. Carl-Philipp Heisenberg lab at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA). Prof.

Heisenberg is a world-renowned developmental biologist (high citation publications > 80, total citations > 26670), who has pioneered interdisciplinary work at the interphase between developmental biology, cell biology and biophysics using both zebrafish and ascidian embryos as model organisms.