| Abstract | Our lab is interested in exploiting the C. elegans gonad as a model for the study of the regulation of contractive forces in cytokinesis. In particular, we are curious about the regulation of non-muscle myosins in the process that generates an ordered progression of meiotic germ cells from a multinuclear mitotic syncytium. Achieving this organization requires a series of protein folding and assembly steps. Both myosin folding and assembly require factors to coordinate the formation of the thick filament in the sarcomere and these factors include chaperone molecules. Myosin folding and sarcomeric assembly requires association of classical chaperones as well as folding cofactors such as UNC-45. Recent research has suggested that UNC-45 is required beyond initial myosin head folding and may be directly or indirectly involved in different stages of myosin thick filament assembly, maintenance and degradation. In my seminar, I will review what we now know about these processes and solicit your ideas about how to resolve some of the conundrums that have arisen when we have examined the processes in the earlier stages of cellularization. |
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