Seminar "Signals from the brain and olfactory epithelium control shaping of the face" by Prof. Igor Adameyko

Ecology and Evolution Unit (Mikheyev Unit) would like to invite you to a seminar by Prof. Igor Adameyko.

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Date:   April 4th, Wednesday, 2018

Time:   2:15 pm – 2:45pm

Venue: Meeting Room C209, Level C, Centre Building

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Speaker: Prof. Igor Adameyko

Title: Signals from the brain and olfactory epithelium control shaping of the face

Affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Abstract:

Facial shape is important for our daily life being a key for social communications. Forensic studies and common sense both agree on the fact that facial features reflect the underlying geometry of the skeletal structures. Here we revealed how the facial shape depends on the structure of the embryonic facial cartilages and which signals control the induction of these cartilaginous elements during facial development. We showed that the shape of the membranous facial bones follows the transformations selectively induced in the cartilage of the nasal capsule. In turn, the cartilaginous nasal capsule is shaped by the signals produced by the brain and by the olfactory epithelia. One of such brain-derived signals, Sonic Hedgehog (SHH), participates in induction of a nasal septum, while the formation of a nasal capsule roof is controlled by the signals emanating from the olfactory epithelium. From the evolutionary point of view, this suggests that the neural and neurosensory structures required protection and evolved to produce signals inducing cranial cartilages in the upper jaw region that would encase the neural components. Experiments with mutant mice revealed that multiple enhancers regulating production of SHH in the head differentially contribute to the facial cartilage induction, which might represent a convenient evolutionary mechanism responsible for the adaptive geometry of the animal snouts and individual human faces.