IN S Pack LI G L .. Past, Present a : Mre • G -E ." I T I 1! I at Th: Marine Biological Laboratory "
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1 I 1 1 1 IN s pACK LI G l _ .._ Past, Present a _ _:_mre • g -e ." i t i 1! i at th: Marine Biological Laboratory "_ March 7 & 8, 1999 Marine Resources Center, Room 210 Fudedred obY;heaN;etA_: leAeerot NCCS2_ ce Adm,n,strat,on W The Marine Biological Laboratory and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have established a cooperative agreement with the formation of a Center for Advanced Studies in the Space Life Sciences (CASSLS) at the MBL. l This Center serves as an interface between NASA and the basic science commu- nity, addressing issues of mutual interest. & The Center for Advanced Studies in the Space Life Sciences provides a forum for scientists to think and discuss, often for the first time, the role that gravity and aspects of spaceflight may play in fundamental cellular and physiologic processes. In addition the Center will sponsor discussions on evolutionary biology. These J interactions will inform the community of research opportunities that are of interest j: to NASA. m This workshop is one of a series of symposia, workshops and seminars that will be held at the MBL to advise NASA on a wide variety of topics in the life sciences, including cell biology, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, neurobiology, plant biology and systems biology. For additional information about the Center please visit our website http://www.mbl.edu/htmlfNAS_.nasa.html or please contact Dr. Diana E.J. Blazis Phone: 508/289-7535 i Email: [email protected] l __a i ? ! ! J Cells in Spaceflight: Past, Present and Future March 7 & 8, 1999 Room 210, Marine Resources Center Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA Sunday, 7 March 1999 7:00 - 8:30 am BREAKFAST available Private Dining Room, Swope 9:30 am COFFEE Marine Resources Center, outside Room 210 9:50 am LENNY DAWIDOWICZ- Opening Remarks MRC 210 10:00 am RANDY WAYNE -- The Plasma Membrane-ExtraceIlular Matrix Junction is the Site of Gravity Sensing in Chara 11:00 am JAN MONZER -- Graviperception in Basidiomycete Fungi - Implications for Cellular Gravisensing 12:00 noon Discussion 12:30 pm LUNCH PDR, Swope 2:00 pm JOnANNVS BOONSTnA -- Growth Factor-Induced Signal Transduction in Mammalian Cells is Sensitive to Gravity 3:00 pm COFFEE 3:30 pm JASON I-Iaa"l'Orq -- The Effect of Gravity on Mammalian Cell Intracellular Signal Transduction: A "Key" to Understanding the Mechanisms of Eukaryotic Cell Gravisensitivity 4:30 pm Discussion 5:30 pm MIXER outside PDR, Swope 6:00 pm DINNER PDR, Swope Monday, 8 March 1999 I 7:00 - 8:30 am BREAKFAST available PDR, Swope Marine Resources Center, Room 210 9:30 am HERMAN V_'_DF.r_Btrl_Cn -- Tissue Engineered Skeletal Myofibers can Directly 'Sense' Gravitational Force Changes 10:30 am PETER LEt n Poster presentation: The Effects of Microgravity on the Expression of a Foreign Gene in Tissue Engineered Skeletal Muscle 10:45 am COFFEE 11:00 am 1VIILLIE HUGHESoFULFORD-- The Effect of Gravity Fields on Cellular Gene Expression 12:00 noon Discussion 12:30 pm LUNCH PDR, Swope 2:00 pm ARTHUR J. SYTKOWSKI n Erythroid Cell Growth and Differentiation in Simulated Microgravity 3:00 pm COFFEE 3:30 pm DILIP KONDEPUDI _ Summary 4:30 pm Discussion 5:30 pm MIXER outside PDR, Swope 6:00 pm DINNER PDR, Swope TABLE OF CONTENTS... The Plasma Membrane-Extracellular Matrix Junction is the Site of Gravity Sensing in Char____._a........................................................................................................... 1 RANDY WAYNE & MARK e. STAVES Graviperception in Basidiomycete Fungi - Implications for Cellular Gravisensing ................................................................................................................... 5 -L,-- JAN MONZER Growth Factor-Induced Signal Transduction in Mammalian Cells is Sensitive to Gravity ........................................................................................................ 7 _3 Jo_vs BOONSrRA The Effect of Gravity on Mammalian Cell Intracellular Signal Transduction: A "Key" to Understanding the Mechanisms of Eukaryotic Cell Gravisensitivity ................................................................................................................ 8 " "/ JASON P. HATTON, FRANt_OISGAUBERT & DIVmR A. SCHMITT Tissue Engineered Skeletal Myofibers can Directly 'Sense' Gravitational Force Changes .......................................................................................................................... 9" "_' H.H. VANDENBURGH, J. SHANSKY, M. DEL TATTO, P. LEE & J. M£m The Effect of Gravity Fields on Cellular Gene Expression ..................................................... 11 MILLIE HUGHES-FULFORD Erythroid Cell Growth and Differentiation in Simulated Microgravity .................................. 12 _ _,, A.J. SrrKOWSra & K.L. DAVlS Participants List ....................................................................................................................... 14 ," _' _i_i_i_....... _i! ii_ THE PLASMA MEMBRANE-EXTRACELLULAR .....9,- ,s / MATRIX JUNCTION IS THE SITE OF GRAVITY SENSING IN CHARA It is fascinating to consider the mechanisms involved in the Randy Wayne perception of gravity in living organisms since the force of gravity is the & Mark P. Staves 1 weakest of the fundamental forces. Yet gravity influences many biological processes. In 1806, Thomas Knight (1806) wrote, "It can scarcely have Section of Plant escaped the notice of the most inattentive observer of vegetation, that in Biology whatever position a seed is placed to germinate, its radical invariably Cornell University makes an effort to descend towards the centre of the earth, whilst the Ithaca, NY elongated germen takes a precisely opposite direction." Likewise, gravity and effects the orientation of animals. 1Biology Department Sedimenting extracellular conglomerates of sand or limestone, Grand Valley State known as statoliths are involved in the uprighting response of many but University not all animals (Prentiss, 1901). For example, when a horseshoe crab or a Grand Junction, M1 lobster is tilted, the statoliths fall through the low viscosity extracellular medium, and compress the extracellular matrix (ECM)-plasma membrane junction of some hair cells while relieving the compression on the hair cells on the opposite side. The cells that experience an increased compression send a signal to the brain that causes the animal to right itself. Once the animal is upright again, the response is terminated. Bertold (1886) and Noll (1892) suggested that plants may also respond to gravity by sensing the falling of heavy bodies. Subsequently, Nemec (1900) observed that starch grains were prevalent in the cap cells of gravitropic roots, and these starch grains sedimented through the viscous intracellular medium. Moreover, he found that the roots did not bend in response to gravity after he removed the root cap. Haberlandt (1900) performed similar surgical experiments on shoots. From these experiments, Nemec and Haberlandt independently concluded that starch MARCH 7 & 8 grains were the gravisensor in plants, named them statoliths and ROOM 210' enunciated what has come to be known as the starch-statolith hypothesis MARINE RESOURCES i of gravity sensing (Darwin, 1903, 1904). What's in a name? Molitre [1673] in his play "Le Malade CENTER, MBL Imaginaire" insinuated that it sounds like we understand a subject when we discuss it with Greek or Latin terms. For example, in the last act of this play, a medical student was asked at his qualifying exam, "Why does opium put people to sleep?" He answered, "Opium puts you to sleep because it is a soporific", and passed the exam. We are not immune from this terminology problem in cell biology. We are reminded of Otto Biitschli's response to Hanstein's (1882) suggestion to call the granules in the cytoplasm, "microsomes". After Hanstein christened these granules with a Greek name, BiJtschli (1894) bewailed that they had now "obtained the right of entry among the privileged and recognized units of cytoplasmic structure, for anything that Wayne & Staves CONTINUED is called by a Greek name at once seems to many people to be much better known, and as something which must be definitely reckoned with". To this day, microsomes have neither a clear structure nor function in the cell. Once the falling starch grains were given the Greek name "statolith", which means the rock that is involved in standing or orientation, it appeared that their function was understood, or at least these organelles would have to be reckoned with in any discussion on gravity sensing. Consequently experiments were carried out, not so much to test the hypothesis that statoliths were involved in orientation responses to gravity, but with the notion that they were the gravity sensors. Thus any experiments that characterized the statoliths themselves were considered to be experiments that characterized the mechanism of gravisensing. In order to act as a mechanical signal, a sedimenting statolith must transmit energy to a gravireceptor, and the kinetic or potential energy must be greater than the energy of thermal noise. However, due to the high viscosity of the cytoplasm, the kinetic energy of a falling statolith is approximately ten million times less than the energy of thermal noise. By contrast, the potential energy of an amyloplast falling a distance of just 100 nanometers is approximately twice as large as thermal noise; and the greater the distance the amyloplast sediments, the greater is the probability CELLS IN that a gravireceptor will be activated by the amyloplast.