External Seminar Vincent BERTRAND

In animals, the nervous system is composed of a high diversity of neuronal cell types. During development, the correct number of neurons of each neuronal cell type has to be produced so that the nervous system can function properly. How such a level of precision is reached in a robust manner remains poorly understood. To address this question our strategy is to combine genome engineering methods and quantitative microscopy approaches to characterize the dynamics of key molecular players in vivo with single cell resolution. We use C. elegans as a biological system. More precisely, we are analyzing how the terminal divisions of neuronal progenitors are regulated by the Wnt pathway and how precise transcriptional differentiation programs are subsequently activated in a robust manner.