After the wonderful talk during coffee break, coming back to our last session of today!

Megan Valentine- A new model system for cellular studies of mechanobiology

Megan introduced us a new model organism that is known is our  "closest vertebrate relative", Botryllus schlosseri (commonly known as the golden star tunicate). It is a highly dynamic organism that needs constant angiogenesis, because it has a large and transparent extracorporeal vascular network, and their vessels are constantly remodeling. What is special about them is that their vessels are inverted with respect to vertebrate, so we can have direct access to extracellular matrix via microinjection. With the model organism Botryllus, she can directly apply physical forces and monitor the downstream responses in a living organism in real time through manipulation of the blood vessels. She found that Lysyll oxidase (LOX, responsible for crosslinking collagen) expression is stimulated by the presence of collagen, and inhibiting LOX by adding a specific inhibitor, ß-aminopropionitrile (BAPN) causes massive retraction of vessels. This is a pretty fascinating new model system for mechanobiology studies, and this talk was ended with a nice and amusing "slurp" video (a cell swallowed by the phagocyte)!  

Chin-lin Guo- Spontaneous Patterning of Cytoskeleton in Single Epithelial Cell Apicobasal Polarity Formation

How does mammalian cells form the specific organs? Previously, people focused on the spatial patterning and the coordination of chemical signals. Recently, Chin-Lin and others have found that mechanical forces also play an important role in the organization of multicellular architectures. He has shown that long-range mechanical force enables self-assembly of epithelial tubular patterns, and the  self-organization of epithelial morphology is dependent on rigidity. Moreover, he thinks that direct cell-cell contact induces the segregation of par complex and the formation of actin belt, which is how individual cells form apicobasal polarity. The cool part of his talk is that he uses an ECM gel to see the spontaneous single-cell partitioning of cytoskeleton on 2D platform and 3D culture. Furthermore, to differentiate between actin band and belt and the role of microtubules, he implemented the lattice light sheet microscopy (LLSM, Bi-Chang Chen), which showed the conversion of actin from band to contractile belt, and he thinks that actin band can serve as a precursor to guide cell-cell interactions. To sum up, he thinks that single epithelial cells can form a precursor state by spontaneous partitioning of cytoskeleton to guide multicellular epithelization and apicobasal polarity formation, and there could be an intermediate state between the mesenchymal state and the epithelial state.   Poul Bendix- Dynamics of Filopodia: Rotation, Twisting, and Pulling Poul is interested in the question: do filopodia rotate around its own axis? His group has surprising evidence for a new pulling mechanism originating from twisting of the actin within the filopodium. Using labeled actin, he can have 3D visualization of filopodia in different cells to find the answer. When visualizing actin polymerization inside membrane tube, he found that filopodia exhibit buckling of their actin shaft in conjunction with pulling. In HEK cells, he found that there is twist buckling transition of filopodia that buckling releases accumulated twist, which is a strong indication of twisting of actin. Moreover, they observed retrograde flow and rotation of the actin shaft, so there could be correlation between force and actin distribution, and also correlation between coil movement and force. They have found helical buckling and rotational behavior in the filopodial actins in various cell lines, which may facilitate the sensing and interaction of the cell with its surroundings using filopodia.   *** The banquet in Grand Hotel was AMAZING!! Grand hotel is one of the most famous landscapes of Taipei, with contemporary palatial architecture and delicious cuisines! After the wonderful meal, some of us went to the karaoke, and I heard it was also lots of fun! -Ivy (Howard Lab / Howard Lab facebook & Xiong Lab, Yale University) (Having a great meal at Grand Hotel, photo: Ivy)