Dr. Mounia Lagha, University of Montpellier, France
Dr. Mounia Lagha, Research Director and Group Leader at the University of Montpellier, will present: "Gene expression dynamics during zygotic genome activation"
Main content
A fundamental question in biology is how cellular processes are so reproducible despite the inherent variations in the chemical reactions governing them. During development of a multicellular organism, precise control of gene expression allows the reproducible establishment of patterns. Our goal is to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for precision in gene expression and to link them to accuracy in cell fate decisions.
My team tackles this question using the early development of Drosophila as a model system, during the maternal to zygotic transition. During this critical developmental window, patterns of gene expression are rapidly established with remarkable reproducibility and accuracy. We use quantitative imaging, genetic manipulations, biophysics and mathematical modeling to integrate the dynamic aspects of transcription and translation.
I will present our recent efforts to deploy quantitative imaging methods to monitor the dynamics of the central dogma in living embryos. Using snail and twist genes as a paradigm, we unravel how transcriptional attenuation, mRNA localization and spatial control of translation contribute to sharp pattern formation.
