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GDCB Seminar: 'Rethinking protein homeostasis in a metazoan: A case of nerves?'

Feb 19, 2019 - 4:10 PM
to Feb 19, 2019 - 5:00 PM
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Veena Prahlad

Speaker — Veena Prahlad, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Iowa

Title — Rethinking protein homeostasis in a metazoan: A Case of Nerves?

Abstract — The cellular response to protein misfolding had, for a long time, been regarded to be an autonomous response of the cell in which damage occurred. One of the recent developments in the study of protein homeostasis is the discovery that in a metazoan such as Caenorhabditis elegans, the cellular response to protein misfolding is not autonomously controlled by individual cells, but instead is under the regulation of the animals’ nervous system.  We have previously shown that the sensory release of serotonin in C. elegans activates the transcription factor heat shock transcription factor 1 (HSF1), the master regulator of hsp70 expression through cell non-autonomous mechanisms, in response to the anticipation of danger. We will discuss these findings and the progress we are making regarding the mechanisms, benefits and conservation of the conservation of serotonergic control over HSF1.

Host — Hua Bai