All animals face a massive challenge to grow from a single cell to a complex, multi-tissue organism. The differentiation and organization of tissues such as the brain or muscles requires precise coordination of gene expression and cell-cell communication. Tissue-type specific physiological properties can be further tuned by post-transcriptional regulation, for example alternative splicing. As a doctoral student, Maria characterized how the transcription factor Longitudinals Lacking controls cell fate and targeting specificity in the Drosophila olfactory system and identified novel classes of local interneurons regulating activity in the antennal lobe. As a postdoc she expanded on her understanding of transcriptional regulation, performing a systematic mRNA-Seq time course of flight muscle development. She identified a major shift in the transcriptional program in muscle during maturation partially regulated by Spalt major that is necessary for flight muscles to establish stretch-activation properties. She further identified an RNA-binding protein Bruno that regulates muscle-type specific alternative splicing and is essential for flight muscle development. As a Group Leader, her lab focuses on understanding the mechanism of Bruno regulation and on characterizing a novel splicing factor Scaf6 in muscle and neuronal development. More broadly they aim to demonstrate the function of alternative splicing during muscle development and understand the molecular mechanisms of RNA regulation.
Expertise: Developmental genetics, muscle development, neuronal development, alternative splicing