Mechanical signaling through motility before settlement

To complete their life cycles, many marine invertebrate species undergo metamorphosis, a key transition from their larval, planktonic stage to the adult benthic form. When, where, and how larvae choose to initiate the process remain debated. To address this matter, I propose to study the coupling between ciliary and neuronal activity in sea urchin larvae close to a solid/liquid interface mimicking the seabed.

During this talk “without results”, I will motivate the choice of this non-conventional model system to develop an interdisciplinary project linking developmental biology, signalization, and biophysics. I will present the main ideas structuring the project and how I would like to conduct it at LIPhy.