G·A·B·B·A

In a first line of investigation I explore the relation between an organ function and its architecture. The regeneration of hair cells in the zebrafish lateral line occurs trough the division of hair-cell progenitors at specific locations in the dorsal and ventral aspects of the neuromasts. As hair cells regenerate a vertical midline that bisects the neuromast epithelium into perfect mirror-symmetric plane-polarized halves is formed. Each half contains hair cells of identical planar orientation but opposite to that of the confronting half. How hair cell regeneration anisotropy is controlled and how this process is integrated in the establishment of this organ bilateral symmetry is poorly understood. Here I show that the neuromast bilateral symmetry is sustained by compartmentalized Notch activity, which governs regeneration anisotropy by permitting the stabilization of hair cell progenitors in specific polar compartments.
In a second line of research I report the role of the chromatin remodeling complex ATPase brg1 during mechanosensory organ formation in the zebrafish. I show that brg1 mutants develop a truncated lateral line system as brg1 is needed in the regulation of multiple cellular events in the lateral line primordium.