Prof. Virginie Lecaudey
Institute for Cell Biology and Neuroscience
Department of Developmental Biology of Vertebrates
Max-von-Laue-Straße 13
D-60438 Frankfurt am Main
Tel +49 (0)69 798 42102
E-Mail: Lecaudey@bio.uni-frankfurt.de
Scientific Focus
During development of an organism, cells must coordinate their behavior with that of their neighbors to assemble functional organs. We are interested in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which cells altogether acquire a given identity, change their shape, migrate and proliferate in an orchestrated manner to assemble into tissue and organs. For this purpose, we use as a model the zebrafish lateral line, a sensory system specific to aquatic vertebrates. The lateral line is an ensemble of mechanosensory organs allowing fishes to sense water movements and changes in water pressure, and thus to get information on their environment. The mechanosensory organs, or neuromasts, are initially assembled in the migrating group of above 100 cells that also proliferate, change their shape and differentiate as they migrate. We are currently particularly focusing on the mechanisms (i) controlling cell shape changes and (ii) limiting the size of organs.
Methods
– Live imaging in whole embryos using point scanning and spinning disc confocal microscopy
– Tol2-mediated transgenesis
– TALEN and cas9/CRISPR-mediated genome editing (knock-out, knock-in)
– Molecular biology including multisite gateway cloning
– In situ hybridization and immunofluorescence
– Zebrafish injection and transplantation
Selected Publications
Selected publications
1) Eckerle, S., Ringler, M., Lecaudey, V., Nitschke, R., Driever, W.W., 2017. Progesterone modulates microtubule dynamics and epiboly progression during zebrafish gastrulation. Dev Biol. 2018 Feb 15;434(2):249-266. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2017.12.016. Epub 2017 Dec 26.
2) Nakajima, H., Yamamoto, K., Agarwala, S., Terai, K., Fukui, H., Fukuhara, S., Ando, K., Miyazaki, T., Yokota, Y., Schmelzer, E., Belting, H.-G., Affolter, M., Lecaudey, V., Mochizuki, N., 2017. Flow-Dependent Endothelial YAP Regulation Contributes to Vessel Maintenance. Dev Cell. 2017 Mar 27;40(6):523-536.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2017.02.019.
3) Agarwala, S., Duquesne, S., Liu, K., Boehm, A., Grimm, L., Link, S., König, S., Eimer, S., Ronneberger, O. and Lecaudey, V. (2015). Amotl2a interacts with the Hippo effector Yap1 and the Wnt/β-catenin effector Lef1 to control tissue size in zebrafish. Elife 2015 Sep 3;4:e08201. doi: 10.7554/eLife.08201.
4) Revenu, C., Streichan, S., Donà, E., Lecaudey, V., Hufnagel, L., Gilmour, D. Quantitative cell polarity imaging defines leader to follower transitions during collective migration and the key role of microtubule dependent adherens junction formation. Development. 141, 1282-1291, 2014
5) Ernst, S., Liu, K., Agarwala, S., Moratscheck, N., Avci, M. E., Nogare, D. D., Chitnis, A. B., Ronneberger, O. and Lecaudey, V. (2012). Shroom3 is required downstream of FGF signalling to mediate proneuromast assembly in zebrafish. Development. 139, 4571- 4581, 2012