Presenter:
Vladimir Gelfand, Ph.D.,
Leslie B. Arey Professor of Cell, Molecular, and Anatomical Sciences
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology,
Northwestern Medicine I Northwestern University
How molecular motors establish oocyte polarity
The dynamic positioning of organelles and other cargo by motor proteins are important for many cellular functions including development and differentiation. In this talk, we will describe how motor proteins transport the posterior-specific mRNA oskar (osk), and its binding protein Staufen in theDrosophila oocyte. We will show how microtubule-microtubule sliding powered bykinesin-1 drives cytoplasmic streaming in the oocyte and how the direct competition between two motor proteins, kinesin-1 and myosin-V, restricts theosk/Staufen complex to the posterior pole of the oocyte, thus defining the development of the future embryo.
Short Bio:
Vladimir Gelfand received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from the Moscow State University and his Ph.D. (advisor,Professor Juri Vasiliev) and D.Sci. degrees in cell biology from the Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences. Between 1992 and 2005 he was a Professor in the Department of Cell and Structural Biology, University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign, and since 2005 he is a Leslie B. Arey Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
