Biography
The Unguez lab focuses on understanding how intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence the properties expressed by excitable cells that make up the neuromuscular system: skeletal muscle fibers and motor neurons. We place a special emphasis on studying the mechanisms by which these cells regulate the maintenance and plasticity of their diverse biochemical, morphological, and physiological characteristics. To address fundamental questions regarding the cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating the differentiated phenotype of neuromuscular components, we have been studying electric fish. Electric fish offer a unique case in the study of skeletal muscle plasticity in that some skeletal muscle fibers lose their contractile apparatus and convert into the non-contractile, current-producing cells of the electric organ (EO) called electrocytes. Mature electrocytes retain a partial muscle phenotype and this capacity to maintain some muscle genes while down-regulating others is a most favorable, yet intriguing, model system to further our understanding of processes that control the expression of distinct protein systems in the myogenic program. Our work using electric fish as our model system has led us into several research areas that use different experimental approaches and techniques that address fundamental questions regarding the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of the differentiated components of neuromuscular system and its evolution into distinct motor systems. Areas of active research in our lab include:
• Regulation of muscle gene expression in muscle-like electrocytes
• Neuronal control of the myogenic program in muscle and electric organ
• Differentiation of motor neuronal diversity in electric fish
• Mechanisms of tissue regeneration in electric fish
• Isolation and characterization of myogenic stem cells from electric fish
Website
https://wordpress.nmsu.edu/gunguez/
