Vendredi 16 février 2024 à 14h, salle de séminaire IRPHE (+visio)
Abstract : Cellular processes exact a metabolic price: the constant maintenance of fuel molecules and raw materials at sufficient concentrations to perform biological function. Whether/how the metabolic costs constrain biological processes and natural evolution remains elusive as the fitness of organisms is subject to many trade offs from bioenergetic costs to speed and accuracy of cellular processes.
In this talk, I will present recent efforts in establishing a quantitative framework to study the role of metabolism in evolution of cellular processes and development of organisms. I will first briefly discuss the relation between the bioenergetics and evolution of cellular processes, and demonstrate the role of metabolic costs in shaping interaction affinities such as in gene regulatory (microRNA-mRNA) networks. Then, I will talk about how metabolism is linked with spatiotemporal organization in living organisms and metabolic scaling laws. I will discuss our theoretical analysis in light of two experimental collaborations spanning different developmental periods in different organisms: the body plan development and gut morphogenesis in planarians and early embryogenesis in zebrafish. Finally, I will present ideas to bridge theory of chemical reactions and soft-matter to elucidate spatial organization of metabolism in living systems allowing to drive biological processes across the entire organism.
Efe Ilker / Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems