S32
Comparative Mechanobiology from monad to human
Organizers:
Keiji Naruse (Okayama Univ., Japan)
Borris Martinac (Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Australia)
Hitoshi Tatsumi (Nagoya Univ., Japan)
Mechanotransduction plays critical roles in the life of every organism from monad to human being. Not only specialized mechanosensors such as the inner ear and tactile sensors, but also nonsensory cells are capable of mechanosensing. Recently, remarkable progress has been made in the study on the mechano-electrical coupling in rodent cardiac cells, stretch-induced responses of human endothelial cells, gravity sensing in plant cells, and the ear in insects. Furthermore, molecular biological and biophysical studies of mechanosensory molecules such as mechanosensitive ion channels are establishing a firm basis of mechanobiology.
The objectives of this symposium are to share recent outstanding results in this field and to stimulate colleagues with potential interests to the field of mechanobiology. We believe this timely symposium will attract much attention of a wide variety of comparative biologists.
Speakers:
1) Borris Martinac (Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Australia)
Membrane bilayer-mediated clustering and functional interaction of MscL, the mechanosensitive channels of large conductance from E. coli
2) Hitoshi Tatsumi (Nagoya Univ., Japan)
Cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in sensing mechanical stimuli
3) Azusa Kamikouchi (Tokyo Univ. Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Japan)
The gravity- and sound-sensing systems in the fruit fly
4) Chao-Min Cheng (Harvard Univ., USA)
Probing sensory nerve mechanotransduction via localized elastomeric matrix perturbation
5) Gentaro Iribe (Okayama Univ., Japan)
Role of SAKCa channels in stretch-induced extrasystoles