Florence Ruggiero (Biologie et pathologie des matrices extracellulaires - IGFL - ENS de Lyon) is giving an LJC Seminar Wednesday 21st May at 11 am, in the big CBP in the LR6 :

Unconventional collagens of basement membranes : lessons from morpholino-based screening in zebrafish

Basement membranes are highly specialized extracellular matrix structures that provide structural integrity to tissues and mediate cell attachment to the underlying fibrillar extracellular matrix. Basement membranes also function to regulate cell migration and differentiation and to maintain differentiated cell phenotypes through direct interactions with cell receptors. Many studies have focused on the role of the basement membrane major components, laminins, perlecan and collagen IVin its assembly and structure and in embryonic development, wound healing, and disease. Fewer studies have characterized the in vivorole of the so-called unconventional collagens often present at the outer surface of basement membranes. Using morpholinotechnologyto knockdown collagen gene expression in zebrafish, we have analyzed the function of two basement membrane collagens, type XXII and XVthat are both expressed during skeletal muscle development.