Thursday, September 22, 2022, 16:00
OSGA/EG06
Patrick Tschopp, University of Basel
Abstract:
Understanding the origins of phenotypic diversity in nature is a key
question in biology. While selective forces drive this process at the
population level, our research interests focus on the question of how
genetic variation is translated into distinct morphologies, through
changes in gene regulation and cell fate specification during embryonic
development.
In this presentation I will provide a brief conceptual background to the
field of EvoDevo, or comparative Developmental Biology. I will then
highlight the technological advances that now allow us to study the gene
regulatory dynamics of cell fate specification at single cell
resolution. This will be followed by two 'vignettes' from our work on
vertebrate skeletogenesis: one, how are skeletal cells convergently
specified from distinct progenitor pools? And two, how can changes in
patterning-relevant cell fate decisions lead to the different
morphologies observed in the hands and feet of tetrapod vertebrates?