AG Luschnig - Epithelial Morphogenesis

 

Our lab aims to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that shape developing epithelial tissues and determine their functions, such as gas exchange or paracellular transport. We have a long-standing interest in tubular morphogenesis and have used primarily the Drosophila tracheal system to ask how epithelial cells generate tubes of defined sizes and shapes, how sprouting branches invade tissues, and how organ primordia fuse to form a tubular network. In recent years we started to investigate how epithelial barrier function is established and modulated during development, with a focus on the specialized cellular interfaces that form between three adjacent cells (tricellular junctions, TCJs). We identified components of occluding TCJs in Drosophila, and we analyze the mechanisms that target these proteins to cell vertices. To understand how remodeling of TCJs regulates epithelial permeability, we investigate follicular patency, a process during oogenesis where cell vertices in the follicle epithelium open transiently to create gateways for paracellular transport of yolk proteins. In all our projects we employ tools that enable acute manipulation and visualization of intracellular transport in individual cells. To this aim, we established the Retention Using Selective Hooks (RUSH) system in Drosophila to synchronize membrane trafficking in vivo.