Geraldine Seydoux
Our lab studies the earliest stages of embryogenesis to understand how single-celled eggs develop into complex multicellular embryos. We focus on the choice between soma and germline, one of the first developmental decisions faced by embryos. Our goal is to identify and characterize the molecular mechanisms that activate embryonic development, polarize embryos, and distinguish between somatic and germline cells. We use genetic, molecular and biochemical techniques and use the Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system.
P granules assemble in the posterior cytoplasm of a wild-type zygote, but not in a zygote lacking MEG-3 and MEG-4, two intrinsically-disorderedproteins required for P granule assembly. Jenn Wang and Geraldine Seydoux
Lattice light sheet microscopy reveals the “skeleton” of RNA granules: each granule is held together by a dynamic, discontinuous ribbon that threads around and through the granule.