Dr. Wei Dai | 戴薇

Embryo development relies on maternally supplied nutrients. In egg-layer animals, these nutrients are stored in yolk granules and utilized upon fertilization. The yolk sac is also evolutionarily conserved in mammals, providing nutrients before implantation. How yolk metabolism controls embryonic development, as well as how embryonic development crosstalk to regulate yolk metabolism, are poorly understood.

Our lab uses Zebrafish as a model to study these fundamental questions regarding yolk metabolism and embryonic development. We integrate genetics, imaging, and systems biology approaches to identify critical pathways involved. We use multi-omics analyses to understand the dynamic changes in yolk metabolites, the yolk syncytial layer (YSL) gene expression, and YSL membrane protein composition and modification. Transposon-mediated transgenesis and CRISPR-mediated gene manipulations help identify the genes and proteins involved. Furthermore, live imaging of the organelles and proteins in vivo shows when and where the dynamic changes in the yolk granule and YSL occur. Our study aims to reveal an evolutionally conserved regulatory mechanism of how metabolism is tightly regulated during embryonic development, which may shed light on the developmental origins of metabolic diseases.