If only fish genes could talk,
they would probably be telling their most intimate stories to Dr Daria Onichtchouk, our seminar’s guest speaker this week. An expert on embryonic development, she is especially interested in that little miracle of creation called MZT – Maternal to Zygotic Transition. It is the stage in embryonic development during which development comes under the exclusive control of the zygotic genome. With the help of her loyal zebra fish, Dr. Onitchchouk will take seminar participants on a tour through genome activation.
Thursday, April 25, 2014
13.30 – 15.00
Beijing-1 Auditorium, China cluster
Skolkovo School of Management
Title: «PLURIPOTENCY TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS IN VERTEBRATE EMBRYOS»
Here’s some useful background information.
SEMINAR ABSTRACT:
Development of multi-cellular animals is initially controlled by maternal gene products, deposited in the oocyte. During the maternal-to-zygotic transition, maternal transcripts become destabilized, transcription of zygotic genes commences, and developmental control is handed over from maternal to zygotic gene products.
We have shown that zebra-fish Pou5f1, a homologue of the mammalian pluripotency transcription factor Oct4, occupies specific SOX-POU binding sites before the onset of zygotic transcription and directly activates hundreds of the earliest zygotic genes. Later in development, Pou5f1 acts in combination with the pluripotency control transcription factors SoxB1 and Nanog to coordinate temporal and spatial expression of region-specific genes.
These data position homologues of master pluripotency transcription factors of ES-cells at the center of the zygotic gene activation network in vertebrates and thus provide a link between zygotic gene activation and pluripotency control.
Our further goal is to understand the regulatory mechanisms used by individual pluripotency factors and dissect their unique contribution to the rapid and robust activation of the zygotic genome and to subsequent developmental events.
Our experimental system of zebrafish embryos is uniquely suited for this purpose, due to the viability of fish mutants in pluripotency transcription factors, synchronous development of the embryos, and amenability to high quality quantitative data acquisition.
SPEAKER INTRODUCTION: Dr Daria Onichtchouk Experience
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* The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) is a private graduate research university in Skolkovo, Russia, a suburb of Moscow. Established in 2011 in collaboration with MIT, Skoltech educates global leaders in innovation, advance scientific knowledge, and foster new technologies to address critical issues facing Russia and the world. Applying international research and educational models, the university integrates the best Russian scientific traditions with twenty-first century entrepreneurship and innovation.
