# Cytoskeletal Function in C. elegans Embryos

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF OREGON · 2021 · $587,898

## Abstract

Project Summary
For 25 years now, our laboratory has used live cell imaging with fluorescently marked
proteins, and the forward genetics approach of isolating temperature-sensitive (TS) and
embryonic-lethal C. elegans mutants, to investigate cytoskeletal function during
embryonic cell divisions. More recently, we have (i) incorporated higher throughput
positional cloning methods made possible by Illumina DNA sequencing technology to
expand our effort to identify TS mutations in essential C. elegans genes as a community
resource, and (ii) employed CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology to augment our
genetics and live cell imaging approaches. Over the past five years, in addition to
developing higher throughput positional cloning approaches, we have focused on two
fundamentally important cell biological processes: (i) the orientation of cell division axes
during development to establish multicellular architectures, and (ii) the mechanisms that
nucleate and organize microtubules into a bipolar structure during oocyte meiotic
spindle assembly, which occurs in the absence of the centrosomal microtubule
organizing centers that mediate mitotic spindle assembly. Our research program over
the next five years will focus on expanding our identification of TS mutations in essential
C. elegans genes and making them generally available to the research community,
extending our analysis of a previously unknown but widely conserved microtubule-
independent and cortical actomyosin-dependent mechanism for orienting cell division
axes during animal development, and improving our understanding of acentrosomal
oocyte meiotic spindle assembly and function.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10168572
- **Project number:** 5R35GM131749-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
- **Principal Investigator:** BRUCE A BOWERMAN
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $587,898
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-06-01 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10168572

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10168572, Cytoskeletal Function in C. elegans Embryos (5R35GM131749-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10168572. Licensed CC0.

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