Research Seminars @ Illinois

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Tailored for undergraduate researchers, this calendar is a curated list of research seminars at the University of Illinois. Explore the diverse world of research and expand your knowledge through engaging sessions designed to inspire and enlighten.

To have your events added or removed from this calendar, please contact OUR at ugresearch@illinois.edu

"Homeobox genes and neuronal identity specification," by Oliver Hobert, Professor of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Event Type: Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor: Neuroscience Program
Location: Beckman Institute 1005
Date: Feb 25, 2025 4:00 pm
Contact: Nate Schroeder
E-Mail: nes@illinois.edu
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Originating Calendar: Neuroscience Program Seminars; The enormous diversity of cell types in any animal model system is defined by neuron type-specific gene batteries that endow distinct cells with distinct anatomical and functional properties. I will show that the diversity of neuronal cell types in the nematode C. elegans can be reduced to a simpler descriptor, the combinatorial expression of a specific class of transcription factors, encoded by homeobox genes. I propose that the preponderance of homeobox genes in neuronal identity control is a reflection of an evolutionary trajectory in which an ancestral neuron type was specified by an ancestral homeobox genes and that this functional linkage then duplicated and diversified to generate distinct cell types in an evolving nervous system.

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