At the Physical Limit - How to Detect a Single Molecule
Sperm are exquisitely sensitive: they can detect a single molecule of chemoattractant that evokes an electrical signal followed by a behavioral motor response. I will outline the signalling pathway that endows sperm with such ultrasensitivity. Moreover, I will discuss how this pathway controls precise navigation in 2D and 3D gradients of chemoattractants provided by the egg. Finally, the common motifs of ultrasensitive signalling in photoreceptors and sperm will be discussed.
Date: 26 September 2016, 12:00 (Monday, -1st week, Michaelmas 2016)
Venue: Sherrington Building, off Parks Road OX1 3PT
Venue Details: Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, Sherrington Library, Sherrington Building
Speaker: Ulrich Benjamin Kaupp (Center for Advanced European Studies and Research, Max Planck Society)
Organising department: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG)
Organiser: Fiona Woods (University of Oxford, Department of Physiology Anatomy and Genetics, Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour)
Organiser contact email address: fiona.woods@cncb.ox.ac.uk
Part of: CNCB Seminar Series
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Fiona Woods