Erin Cram

Sponsor: NSF

NSF-BSF: Molecular and biophysical mechanisms underlying contractile valve assembly and function

Many of the organs in our body are built of tubes. They include the digestive, reproductive, and cardiovascular systems. Critical components of these tubular systems are contractile valves and sphincters that regulate passage of solid or liquid contents between tissue compartments. Sphincters in large tissues are made of many muscle cells arranged in a circle. However, tiny valves composed of a just few cells can somehow also perform these functions. In the reproductive system of the nematode C. elegans there is a donut-shaped valve that opens and closes hundreds of times to allow eggs to pass from where they are fertilized to the uterus. The team, which includes investigators at Northeastern, Tel Aviv University, and the Technion, will characterize the inner structure of the valve cell with light and electron microscopy and use genetic perturbations to discover the molecular mechanisms that regulate its formation. Then, they will investigate its function with live imaging and use biophysical modeling to understand how its structure underlies its function.