Skip to main content
Advertisement

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About Development
    • About the Node
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contacts
    • Subscriptions
    • Feedback
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Development
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

supporting biologistsinspiring biology

Development

  • Log in
Advanced search

RSS  Twitter  Facebook  YouTube 

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About Development
    • About the Node
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contacts
    • Subscriptions
    • Feedback
Interview
The people behind the papers – Sungwook Choi
Development 2019 146: dev177246 doi: 10.1242/dev.177246 Published 7 March 2019
  • Article
  • Figures & tables
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

The control of timing in development is crucial, both within and between tissues. Heterochrony involves shifts in the rate of development of some tissues relative to others, and although the first heterochronic genes were identified in Caenorhabditis elegans in the early 1980s, their role in inter-tissue developmental coordination is still not completely understood. A new paper in Development tackles this problem with an analysis of the role of lin-28, a key heterochronic gene, in worm fertility. We caught up with Sungwook Choi, first author and recently graduated PhD student in Victor Ambros' lab at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, to find out more.

Embedded Image

Sungwook (R) with his supervisor Victor Ambros (L).

When did you first get in to science, and biology in particular?

I have been interested in biology ever since high school. I remember, at that time, being intrigued by the fact that each cellular compartment has distinct functions. I majored in life sciences during my undergraduate studies and focused on plant developmental biology during my Master's degree.

Why did you decide to make the transition from plant to animal development?

Studying plant biology – in particular the biosynthesis of jasmonic acid in Arabidopsis – gave me the opportunity to be exposed to basic molecular techniques and genetic analysis. Later, when I started my graduate studies in University of Massachusetts (UMass) Medical School, I became interested in small RNA biology. I was fortunate enough to join the laboratory of Victor Ambros and learned that microRNAs, such as lin-4 and let-7, are key regulators of animal developmental timing. Since then, I have expanded my studies beyond microRNAs to include various genetic factors that regulate the timing of animal development.

How did you find the other transition – moving from South Korea to the USA?

It was quite a smooth transition. Although language barriers were inevitable at first, I met many nice people who helped me inside and outside of the laboratory. Also, I greatly enjoy and appreciate the international environment that UMass Medical School fosters through its inclusion of people with different nationalities from diverse cultures.

Before your paper, what was understood about lin-28's role in coordinating developmental events?

lin-28 was first identified as a developmental timing regulator in C. elegans by Victor Ambros and Bob Horvitz in the 1980s. The loss of lin-28 causes precocious hypodermal development in larvae and its function has mainly been studied in this context. In particular, many studies have elucidated the genetic relationship of lin-28 with other developmental timing regulators such as lin-4, let-7, hbl-1 and lin-46. This genetic regulatory network is called the ‘heterochronic pathway’. In terms of inter-tissue regulation, a 2016 study from Gary Ruvkun’s lab showed that the heterochronic pathway genes act in the hypodermis to regulate mTORC2 signalling in the intestine.

Can you give us the key results of the paper in a paragraph?

We first looked at why lin-28 loss-of-function mutants exhibit reduced fertility. We found that somatic gonadal structures of the mutants are abnormal, which negatively affect the reproductive process, especially spermathecal exit and ovulation. Then, we asked how lin-28 regulates somatic gonadal structure. By genetic epistasis and tissue-specific rescue experiments, we found that the hypodermal, not somatic gonadal, function of lin-28 in controlling developmental timing is crucial for somatic gonadal development. Therefore, our data indicate that timely hypodermal development guaranteed by lin-28 function is essential for somatic gonadal morphogenesis.

Timely hypodermal development guaranteed by lin-28 function is essential for somatic gonadal morphogenesis.

Your data suggest that lin-28 affects somatic gonadal morphogenesis cell non-autonomously: how might an RNA-binding protein act from a distance?

Our data implies that the downstream targets of LIN-28, such as let-7 and lin-46, are still in the hypodermis, not in the somatic gonadal tissues. Therefore, LIN-28 binding to its target RNAs probably happens in the hypodermis. What we have not yet identified is the exact mechanism by which hypodermal precocious development can talk to somatic gonadal morphogenesis. We speculate that there might be actual signalling molecule(s) from the hypodermis to somatic gonad, and/or perhaps physical contact between two tissues could be aberrant in lin-28 loss-of-function mutants.

Figure1
  • Download figure
  • Open in new tab
  • Download powerpoint

lin-28 mutant embryos showing irregular shapes.

When doing the research, did you have any particular result or eureka moment that has stuck with you?

When I tried to identify the physiological causes of infertility of lin-28(lf) mutants, I didn't know where to start. Around that time, I went to the Boston Area Worm Meeting and heard the presentation from Erin Cram's lab about ovulation and spermathecal exit of C. elegans. I came to the realization that lin-28(lf) mutants showed defects in spermathecal exit and from then on, I analysed the mutants focusing on aspects of somatic gonadal development.

And what about the flipside: any moments of frustration or despair?

For me, the frustrating moments about research are not the times when I disprove my research hypothesis. What is most frustrating for me is when established protocols or techniques are not working as expected for my experiments for reasons that I do not understand very well. However, I kept trying to analyse the technical challenges and to enjoy the process of problem solving as a researcher.

Congratulations on getting your PhD last August – what's next for you?

I haven't completely decided yet. I am interested in several areas of research including those that are more clinically relevant. Regardless of the topic, I want to do research that is necessary for the progress of the field, even if it may not be particularly fancy.

Finally, let's move outside the lab – what do you like to do in your spare time in Worcester?

I like Worcester very much. There are many local restaurants and pubs in Worcester, and some famous diners, which I often visit for breakfast. Other than that, I enjoy Worcester's plentiful cultural resources, like the diverse exhibitions at the Worcester Art Museum and the concert series in the downtown area.

Footnotes

  • Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA.

    Email: sungwook.choi{at}umassmed.edu

  • © 2019. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd

Reference

    1. Choi, S. and
    2. Ambros, V.
    (2019) The C. elegans heterochronic gene lin-28 coordinates the timing of hypodermal and somatic gonadal programs for hermaphrodite reproductive system morphogenesis. Development 146, dev164293. doi:10.1242/dev.164293
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
View Abstract
Previous ArticleNext Article
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

This Issue

 Download PDF

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Development.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The people behind the papers – Sungwook Choi
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Development
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Development web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Interview
The people behind the papers – Sungwook Choi
Development 2019 146: dev177246 doi: 10.1242/dev.177246 Published 7 March 2019
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Interview
The people behind the papers – Sungwook Choi
Development 2019 146: dev177246 doi: 10.1242/dev.177246 Published 7 March 2019

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Alerts

Please log in to add an alert for this article.

Sign in to email alerts with your email address

Article navigation

  • Top
  • Article
    • ABSTRACT
    • Footnotes
    • Reference
  • Figures & tables
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF

Related articles

Cited by...

More in this TOC section

  • The people behind the papers – Kenji Nagata and Mitsutomo Abe
  • An interview with Swathi Arur
  • The people behind the papers – Qiongxuan Lu, Yuan Gao and Bo Dong
Show more INTERVIEW

Similar articles

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Journal of Cell Science

Journal of Experimental Biology

Disease Models & Mechanisms

Biology Open

Advertisement

Kathryn Virginia Anderson (1952-2020)

Developmental geneticist Kathryn Anderson passed away at home on 30 November 2020. Tamara Caspary, a former postdoc and friend, remembers Kathryn and her remarkable contribution to developmental biology.


Zooming into 2021

In a new Editorial, Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown reflect on the triumphs and tribulations of the last 12 months, and look towards a hopefully calmer and more predictable year.


Read & Publish participation extends worldwide

Over 60 institutions in 12 countries are now participating in our Read & Publish initiative. Here, James Briscoe explains what this means for his institution, The Francis Crick Institute. Find out more and view our full list of participating institutions.


Upcoming special issues

Imaging Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration
Submission deadline: 30 March 2021
Publication: mid-2021

The Immune System in Development and Regeneration
Guest editors: Florent Ginhoux and Paul Martin
Submission deadline: 1 September 2021
Publication: Spring 2022

Both special issues welcome Review articles as well as Research articles, and will be widely promoted online and at key global conferences.


Development presents...

Our successful webinar series continues into 2021, with early-career researchers presenting their papers and a chance to virtually network with the developmental biology community afterwards. Sign up to join our next session:

10 February
Time: 13:00 (GMT)
Chaired by: preLights

Articles

  • Accepted manuscripts
  • Issue in progress
  • Latest complete issue
  • Issue archive
  • Archive by article type
  • Special issues
  • Subject collections
  • Sign up for alerts

About us

  • About Development
  • About the Node
  • Editors and board
  • Editor biographies
  • Travelling Fellowships
  • Grants and funding
  • Journal Meetings
  • Workshops
  • The Company of Biologists

For authors

  • Submit a manuscript
  • Aims and scope
  • Presubmission enquiries
  • Article types
  • Manuscript preparation
  • Cover suggestions
  • Editorial process
  • Promoting your paper
  • Open Access
  • Biology Open transfer

Journal info

  • Journal policies
  • Rights and permissions
  • Media policies
  • Reviewer guide
  • Sign up for alerts

Contact

  • Contact Development
  • Subscriptions
  • Advertising
  • Feedback

 Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

© 2021   The Company of Biologists Ltd   Registered Charity 277992