Series
AY 2013
Arts and Sciences

Robustness and Plasticity of Life (Global Focus on Knowledge)

Produced by
#Life Sciences & Medicine
#Psychology & Cognition
#生物の「かたち」と進化の謎
#生物学
#ゲノム
#生命科学
#数学
#医療
#植物
#脳科学
#認知科学
#Official UTokyo Courses (OCW)
#Arts and Sciences
Coordinator: Tetsuya Tabata (Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences), Noboru Mizushima (School of Medicine) Navigator: Miho Ohsugi (College of Arts and Sciences) The creation of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, which make it theoretically possible to generate individuals from single cells, is a great discovery. This reminds us of the dual nature of life. One is the robustness of life in passing on all of its information to following generations through genome. The other is the plasticity of life that allows its information to create a wide variety of cells. This dual nature – robustness and plasticity – is the reason why the chain of life has continued ceaselessly over the past 4 billion years. This course of lectures will discuss the biological activities that comprise the apparent contradiction of life’s dual nature of robustness and plasticity. Such discussions will be made through analyzing ontogeny, intracellular protein replacement, the potential of iPS cell-based regenerative medicine, biological clocks, and the activity of cranial nerves. We will analyze these issues, putting emphasis on information control covering genome to biological activities.

Content List

Introduction

00:11
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Introduction: Robustness and Plasticity of Life

Lecturer | Tetsuya Tabata
00:11
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Life’s robust shape formation

1:08
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#1 Segmentation clock to accurately regulate rhythmic pattern formation

Overview: Multicellular organisms have their own specific shapes that widely vary. These shapes emerge from single fertilized eggs. We will discuss the underlying developmental principles by using zebrafish and Japanese killifish as models, focusing on the noise-resistance and modularity in pattern formation.

Lecturer | Hiroyuki Takeda
1:08
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1:20
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#2 Modularity of development to create a variety of shapes

Overview: Multicellular organisms have their own specific shapes that widely vary. These shapes emerge from single fertilized eggs. We will discuss the underlying developmental principles by using zebrafish and Japanese killifish as models, focusing on the noise-resistance and modularity in pattern formation.

Lecturer | Hiroyuki Takeda
1:20
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Building blocks of our bodies are being replaced

1:18
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#4 Building blocks of our bodies are being replaced

Overview: Our body parts constantly undergo a replacement process although we are not aware of this in our daily lives. Our cells and intracellular components are being supplanted with new ones in order to renew our bodies and flexibly to cope with various environmental changes. Our ideas concerning “body turnover” are obscure. We will discuss “body turnover” in connection with development, nutri…

Lecturer | Noboru Mizushima
1:18
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Mechanism to fatten trees

1:22
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#5 Mechanism to fatten trees

Overview: Plants acquired the ability to grow horizontally (fattening) through evolution, using tissues known as vascular bundles. Trees like Japanese cedars on Yakushima Island in southern Japan have maintained this ability for several thousands of years. In the lecture, we aim to understand this ability through signal transduction, which controls the balance between proliferation and differenti…

Lecturer | Hiroo Fukuda
1:22
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Mechanism to memorize smells

1:24
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#6 Mechanism to memorize smells

Overview: Odors and tastes can evoke recollection of the past. This phenomenon is known as the Proust Effect. The effect has been extensively researched as a model to help clarify the mechanism of memorization. How do neurons work when organisms smell and memories are aroused related to these smells? We will introduce some of the research on the memorization mechanism, which is currently being cl…

Lecturer | Tetsuya Tabata
1:24
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