OVERVIEW

10/30/2001

Research in the Epel laboratory is focused on two areas. The first, which has occupied the attention of the laboratory for many years, is the question of how the egg is activated at fertilization. We primarily use sea urchin gametes, which are one of the best studied models for looking at events of fertilization and early development. Our work is currently focused on the role of an increase in nitric oxide after fertilization and how this increase is involved in the release of calcium and the subsequent initiation of development.

The other question that our lab focuses on is the impact of stress on early embryonic development. Most embryos are essentially orphans with the eggs released by the parent into the environment, where they develop with little or no parental protection. Thus the embryos can be exposed to ultraviolet radiation, toxins, temperature extremes, predators, and pathogens. They must cope with these stresses before they have the differentiated organ systems that would be used in the adult, such as an immune system for taking care of pathogens or a hepatic-excretory system for taking care of toxins.

Embryo protection mechanisms differ from adult protection in other ways. For example, early embryos do not respond to stress like adult somatic cells. Somatic cells respond to temperature stress with a heat shock response and respond to DNA damage through checkpoint proteins, which halt cell cycle progression until bad DNA is repaired or wayward chromosomes are brought back to the metaphase plate. These sorts of controls do not exist in early embryos until the mid-blastula transition and cells can therefore be damaged during these early phases.

Work in the laboratory in these areas is described on the web site by researchers Todd Ciche, Cathy Thaler and Becky Vega. New researchers coming to the laboratory in the next year will be looking at questions of toxin defenses as mediated by the p-glycoprotein, a multi xenobiotic resistance transport mechanism. Finally, Chris Patton has designed and actively maintains a large website devoted to the use of the sea urchin embryo as an educational resource. Chris' widely used calcium chelator program is also linked to his website.

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