The goal of this project is to understand how genes control embryonic development. It focuses on gene regulatory networks (complex networks of genes that influence each other's activity) and examines how these gene networks control the morphology of the developing sea urchin embryo. The project uses a combination of experimental approaches, including genomics and embryological, molecular biological, computational, and cell biological approaches. Because many aspects of early embryological development are shared between sea urchins and mammals, this work will help us understand how our own anatomy is hard-wired in the sequence of our DNA.
This project will contribute to the development of the next generation of scientists by training undergraduate and graduate students in a top-tier research environment. To facilitate communication of the findings of the project with the general public, a partnership has been formed with biologists at Stanford University who have developed an interactive, virtual lab bench that allows high school students to carry out, modify, and interpret experiments that would be too complex or difficult to perform in a conventional laboratory setting. The project will also contribute to the development of an innovative, digital dome planetarium show (titled How We Grow) that uses advanced animation methods to educate the lay public about the genetic control of embryonic development.
This research project addressed fundamental mechanisms that control embryonic development. Ultimately, development is controlled by genes: the proper formation of the embryo (and, subsequently, the adult) depends on the precise read-out of information contained in the DNA sequence of the organism. At the heart of the genetic program for development is differential gene expression, the activation of distinct suites of genes in the various cells of the embryo, a process that creates distinct cell types. Increasingly, biologists appreciate that differential gene expression involves the activation of complex networks of genes that influence each other’s expression (gene regulatory networks). During early development, distinct gene networks become activated in different cells of the early embryo, thereby endowing these cells with distinct properties. This project studied developmental gene regulatory networks in a simple animal embryo that is particularly easy to study (the sea urchin embryo). During the course of the project, we defined a large network of interacting genes that functions in a specific group of cells that will build the skeleton. We determined how this gene network is activated specifically in one group of embryonic cells. We defined the architecture of the network and learned how its deployment leads eventually to the proper assembly of the skeleton. Through the course of the project, we built what is currently the most complete picture of a developmental gene network in any organism. Other scientists who work with animals closely related to sea urchins are now leveraging this new information to determine how gene networks have been modified during evolution, thereby producing animals with different morphologies. This project also had impacts with respect to broader scientific education and training. It supported the mentoring of young (undergraduate) researchers in an intensive research environment at a major research university, as well as the training of graduate students. It enhanced Stanford University's Virtual Urchin (VU) web project, a unique, online resource that allows secondary school and college students to explore current approaches in developmental biology.
