Show threadAlbert CardonaMar 6

Very amusing to see how the vertebrate developmental neurobiology field is converging with #Drosophila and insects in general with regard to the mechanisms of brain development:

"Together, these findings suggest a lineage-based mechanism for scalable positional information that complements diffusion-based mechanisms and offers a general framework for tissue patterning."

That sentence has been used for decades to describe fruit fly brain development.

#neurobiology #DevBiol #zebrafish #mouse

Albert CardonaMar 6

"A lineage-based model of scalable positional information in vertebrate brain development", Kerstjens et al. 2026
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627325010001

"Analyzing brain-wide developmental expression in mouse and larval zebrafish, we find that principal eigengenes—co-expression patterns across thousands of genes—span multiple spatial scales, remain stable over development, and are conserved across species."

I'm going to have to read this one very slowly.

Amusing to see one junior and three very senior authors: F. Engert, R.J. Douglas and A.M. Zador.

#neuroscience #DevBiol #eigengenes

Sally LowellNov 6, 2024

A good read on a bad day

"We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. It's worth knowing about the experiments that empowered us and learning the stories behind the experiments"

https://journals.biologists.com/dev/article/151/21/dev204433/362417/40-years-since-the-Heidelberg-genetic-screen-that

#MoreScience #DevBiol #EndlessScreaming

Sally LowellOct 17, 2024

Excellent short video by Tamina Lebek explaining her new neighbour-labelling technology and her dreams of a PUFFFIN zoo!

https://youtu.be/jEG60WvEh6M?feature=shared

#DevBiol #PUFFFIN #ProudSupervisor

PUFFIN System for Cell Communication: Explained by Tamina Lebek, University of Edinburgh

Hear Tamina Lebek, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, talk about the PUFFIN system (Positive Ultra-Bright Fluorescent Fusion for Identifying Neigh...

YouTube
Kay SchneitzJul 3, 2023

#introduction. I am a plant developmental geneticist. The lab addresses a fundamental biological question: how does morphogenesis translate genotype into form? To this end we study signaling at the plasma membrane - cell wall interface and we investigate how mechanical forces influence tissue shape using 3D digital ovules.

Main interests:
#Arabidopsis #CellBiology #cellbio #CellWall #devbio #devbiol #DevelopmentalBiology #EvoDevo #imaging #lignin #MechanoBiology #microscopy #PlantBiology

Show threadAlbert CardonaJun 29, 2023

Very important for the field of #connectomics is the measurement of stereotypy in neuronal number and morphology within identified cell types–most neurons in the #Drosophila brain are uniquely identifiable and stereotyped.

The stereotypy is very strong across brains – these are excellent news for experimental robustness, i.e., mapping circuits in one brain and performing behavioral and functional experiments in many others.

#neuroscience #DevBiol #Drosophila

Albert CardonaJun 29, 2023

"A consensus cell type atlas from multiple connectomes reveals principles of circuit stereotypy and variation", by Schlegel et al. 2023 (Greg Jefferis lab at #MRCLMB in collaboration with the Bock, Murthy, and Seung labs, and also Volker Hartenstein)

Interesting to me in particular, and here I see the hand of Volker Hartenstein (my postdoc adviser!), is the annotation of developmental units: the neuronal lineages (Fig 2 below).

#Drosophila #connectomics #neuroscience #DevBiol

Albert CardonaJun 6, 2023

"Phylogenetic tracing of midbrain-specific regulatory sequences suggests single origin of eubilaterian brains", by Schuster and Hirth, 2023 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ade8259

A genetic signature of bilateral animals with brains, including "a genetic boundary separating the rostral from caudal nervous systems, demonstrated for the metameric brains of annelids, arthropods, and chordates and the asegmental cycloneuralian and urochordate brain"

In other words, the genetic toolkit of the ancestor of both protostomes (arthropods, nematodes, molluscs and annelids) and deuterostomes (echinoderms and vertebrates) – the eubilaterian.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ade8259

#neuroscience #DevBiol #EvoDevo #NeuroEvo #evolution

Show threadAlbert CardonaJun 4, 2023

@eLife

New work on the #chinmo gene that controls fly larval development, by Sílvia Chafino et al. 2023 https://elifesciences.org/articles/84648

… building on prior work by Truman & Riddiford 2022 https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2201071119 on “Chinmo is the larval member of the molecular trinity that directs Drosophila metamorphosis”

#Drosophila #DevBiol #metamorphosis

Antagonistic role of the BTB-zinc finger transcription factors Chinmo and Broad-Complex in the juvenile/pupal transition and in growth control

Stage identity and developmental progression in insects is controlled by sequential expression of temporal-specific transcription factors.

eLife
Show threadAlbert CardonaMay 23, 2023

@eLife

“Origin of wiring specificity in an olfactory map revealed by neuron type–specific, time-lapse imaging of dendrite targeting”, by Wong et al. 2023 (Liqun Luo’s lab). https://elifesciences.org/articles/85521

#neuroscience #DevBiol #Drosophila

Origin of wiring specificity in an olfactory map revealed by neuron type–specific, time-lapse imaging of dendrite targeting

Advanced genetics and imaging reveal wiring logic underlying the olfactory map organization in the developing fruit fly brain, and strategies employed by projection neurons to target dendrites to specific locations in a timely manner.

eLife