Andrea Pauli's doctoral research focused on cohesin, a protein complex initially known for its essential role in holding sister chromatids together during cell division. Using Drosophila melanogaster as a model system, Pauli showed new cohesin functions in non-proliferating cells.[9][10] Pauli later turned to zebrafish as model system and to characterising embryonic transcripts,[11][12][13] through which she discovered the essential embryonic signal Toddler/Apela/ELABELA, a secreted peptide necessary for mesoderm migration during gastrulation.[13] This demonstrated that newly identified translated regions can encode previously missed yet functionally important small proteins.[14][15] Research in Pauli's lab links developmental biology with biochemistry, molecular and cell biology and genomics in order to uncover essential mechanisms underlying the egg-to-embryo transition. Pauli and her lab have discovered mechanisms underlying embryo morphogenesis, fertilisation and egg dormancy. This includes the discovery that Toddler acts as a guidance cue which steers the directional migration of mesodermal cells via a single-receptor-based self-generated Toddler gradient.[16] Focusing on fertilisation, Pauli and her lab identified the egg protein Bouncer as an essential factor for sperm-egg recognition in fish:[17] Bouncer is essential for sperm entry into the egg and sufficient to switch the species-specificity of fertilisation between zebrafish and medaka. Pauli's lab characterized the functions of Bouncer's homolog in mammals, SPACA4,[18] and the zebrafish sperm factors Dcst1/2[19] and Spaca6,[20] which are conserved in mammals and required for fertilisation in vertebrates. Studying the mechanistic basis of dormancy in the egg, Pauli's lab discovered a developmentally programmed, conserved dormant ribosome state important for ribosome storage and translational repression, which is conserved in zebrafish and Xenopus laevis.[21]
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