Spiders, Crustaceans, and Cells, Oh My! A Story of How Animals Use Cells to Put Themselves Together

This presentation will highlight the early embryonic development of crustaceans and arachnids. Even commonplace organisms like arthropods have remarkably beautiful and intricate developmental histories. During the transition from a single cell to a fully functional adult, animal embryos must organize their cells into multiple layers with distinct regions that will eventually develop into the systems of the adult. The need for these early cell movements and interactions is a common thread that binds all species together, and study of the similarities and differences between groups of organisms helps us understand the evolution of developmental systems. I will talk a bit about what developmental biology actually is, show videos and data from my work with two organisms- an orb-weaving "Charlotte's web" type spider and a small shrimp-like crustacean, and hopefully convince the audience that Lewis Wolpert was right when he said "It is not birth, marriage, or death, but gastrulation which is truly the most important time in your life."

Speaker: R. Crystal Chaw, graduate student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in the department of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley