Siddharth Kurne

Profile

Nothobranchius furzeri (African annual killifish), found in ephemeral ponds in eastern and south-eastern Africa live through harsh conditions during which the ponds that they live in dry up. These harsh conditions have led them to evolve a very peculiar embryonic cycle in which they are capable of undergoing diapause at 3 different stages of embryonic development [1]. One of these diapause (diapause 2) corresponds with neural crest (NC) development when the neural crest cells (NCCs) are migrating throughout the embryo to give rise to different tissues in the developing embryo. Furthermore, NC development is much slower in the annual killifish compared to other teleost model organism commonly used to study NC processes, like zebrafish. Understanding how these migrating NCCs retain the memory of migration even after months in diapause 2 and end up reaching their destination is very intriguing. Furthermore, no one has ever looked at NC development in the killifish and therefore understanding how these processes are regulated is crucial. My long-term goal is to dissect the gene regulatory network of neural crest cells during induction, migration and differentiation in killifish understanding how they maintain the NC development program intact during diapause 2.

Ultimately, we hope to clarify why specific melanocyte populations are particularly vulnerable in defined disease states and guide future strategies for targeted therapeutic intervention and regenerative medicine.