Unraveling the cellular and molecular mechanisms of postembryonic intestine remodeling
Supervisors:
Dr Arne Jacobs, School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine
Dr Mairi Sandison, Biomedical Engineering, (University of Strathclyde)
Summary:
Intestinal remodeling is a fundamental postembryonic developmental process in vertebrates, yet the underlying regulatory pathways remain elusive in most lineages. This limits our ability to understand how these fundamental pathways have evolved across vertebrates and how variation in postembryonic intestinal development underlies variation in intestinal form and function.
In this project, the doctoral student will investigate the mechanisms underpinning intestine remodeling an early vertebrate lineage (lampreys) and their evolution across vertebrates. This project will (1) investigate the gene regulatory mechanisms underlying postembryonic intestinal remodeling in lampreys at single-cell resolution; (2) develop novel lamprey intestine tissue culture models using microengineering approaches; and (3) use tissues models to investigate the phenotypic and molecular thyroid-hormone response by integrating live-cell imaging with functional genomics. Ultimately, comparisons with other vertebrate lineages will enable the student to reconstruct the evolution of regulatory pathways underlying intestinal remodeling.
This project will involve field collections, animal rearing, lab work, cellular engineering, molecular analyses, bioinformatics, comparative analyses to existing data, and the critical evaluation of theory and empirical data. Overall, this research is crucial for identifying the core gene regulatory pathways underlying postembryonic intestinal remodeling across vertebrates and to help us better understand how healthy and functioning adult intestines develop.