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Susan E. Mango

Professor of Oncological Sciences

A.B. Harvard University

Ph.D. Princeton University

Research

References

susan.mango @ hci.utah.edu

Susan Mango's Lab Page

Research

The formation and physiology of organs is one of the fundamental mysteries of biology: how are multiple cell types specified within an organ? How is the development of organ precursors coordinated in space and time? And how do organs respond to changing environmental conditions throughout the life of an animal? We have chosen to study organ development and physiology using a simple organ, the C. elegans pharynx (or foregut), that nonetheless faces the same hurdles that confront organs in more complex animals. Our studies are focused on three topics:
- the transcriptional mechanisms that govern the progression of development over time;

- how the pharynx becomes an epithelial tube; cell polarity

- the role of the digestive tract during post-embryonic life; surviving starvation.

THE TRANSCRIPTIONAL LOGIC OF ORGANOGENESIS: A key question in development is how transcriptional circuitry dictates the succession of events that drives the transition from pluripotency to cell fate specification and ultimately differentiation. We use genomics combined with forward and reverse genetics to discover factors involved in pharynx development and elucidate their function. Our goal is to construct a regulatory network for temporal regulation of pharynx development.

FORMING TUBES: Many organs, including the C. elegans pharynx, are systems of epithelial tubes that provide an essential function by transporting gases or liquids. The C. elegans pharynx, like some other organs (e.g. the mammalian kidney) is formed by de novo tubulogenesis. In other words, groups of unpolarized mesenchymal cells are induced to form an epithelial tube. We have combined experimental embryology with forward and reverse genetics to identify the genes required for tube formation and understand how they function.

HOW DOES AN ANIMAL SURVIVE STARVATION? The discovery that factors controlling energy metabolism are conserved between mammals and C. elegans has provided a new and powerful strategy to delineate the molecular pathways that coordinate organismal growth and nutrition. Despite its simple organization, the nematode digestive tract is equipped to respond to food availability. Worms can adjust their rate of feeding, their energy source and, most dramatically, their development and growth. Our goal is to elucidate the transcriptional response of the digestive tract to feeding using molecular, genomic and genetic approaches.

References