Kenneth R. Robinson
Professor; Ph.D., Purdue, 1973
I am interested in understanding how a fundamental property of living
organisms, polarity (or asymmetry), develops. Within the first few
cells of the developing embryo, molecules are in incessant motion
and will mix so that differences in concentrations are eliminated.
Yet living organisms create and maintain the asymmetries that lead
to the development of pattern, so that an animal embryo quickly
develops a head and a tail and a plant embryo develops a root and
a shoot. The development of pattern requires that molecular asymmetries
be established and maintained so that the daughter cells inherit
different materials, thus giving rise to the radically different
types of cells that make up an adult organism. But what molecules
and by what physical means are the gradients established?
To learn more about this process, we apply the latest advances in
optics, imaging and molecular biology to study the development of
polarity in the eggs of a humble marine seaweed. Its eggs are fertilized
in sea water and develop their polarity in an environment free of
other cells. The major players in this process — gradients
of calcium, the action of actin microfilaments, a signaling molecule
called cyclic GMP — are also involved in polarity formation
in many other systems.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Pu, R. and K. R. Robinson. 1998. Cytoplasmic calcium gradients and calmodulin in the early development of the fucoid alga, Pelvetia compressa. J. Cell Sci. 111:3197-3207.
- Messerli, M. A., G. Danuser, and K. R. Robinson. 1999. Pulsatile influxes of H+, K+ and Ca2+ lag growth pulses of Lilium longiflorum pollen tubes. J. Cell Sci. 112:1497-1509.>
- Robinson, K. R., M. Wozniak, R. Pu, and M. Messerli. 1999. Symmetry breaking in the zygotes of the fucoid algae: controversies and recent progress, p.101-126. In R. A. Pederson and G. P. Schatten, (eds.), Current Topics in Developmental Biology, Vol. 44, Academic Press, San Diego.
- Messerli, M. A., R. Creton, L. F. Jaffe, and K. R. Robinson. 2000. Periodic increases in elongation rate precede increases in cytosolic Ca2+ during pollen tube growth. Dev. Biol. 222:84-98.
- Pu, R., M. Wozniak, and K. R. Robinson. 2000. Cortical actin filaments form rapidly during photopolarization and are required for the development of calcium gradients in Pelvetia compressa zygotes. Dev. Biol. 222:440-449.
- Cessna, S. G., M. A. Messerli, K. R. Robinson, and P. S. Low. 2001. Measurement of stress-induced Ca2+ pulses in single aequorin-transformed tobacco cells. Cell Calcium, in press.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSHIPS
- Editorial Board, American Journal of Physiology (Cell Physiology).