Interested in the physics that drives morphogenesis?
Join us at the Journées de la Matière Condensée October 26 to 30 in Toulouse, France for our session on the physics of morphogenesis in living organisms.
jmc2026.sciencesconf.org
Talk applications are due May 30th.
@sfp-physique.bsky.social
Last few days left to submit your idea for a Workshop for our 2028 programme. Send us your proposal by 29 May 2026 at www.biologists.com/workshops/pr...
#BiologistsWorkshops
Emily Gehrels
To begin with, we realised that pre-gastrulation development in Drosophila is vulnerable to exposure to 29ºC (remember, normal culture temperature is 25ºC). A significant fraction of embryos present developmental defects during gastrulation and fail to hatch
The interaction between F-actin and microtubules during mitosis is challenged, leading to chromosome segregation defects. We argue that this is due to weakened protein-protein interactions in a protein scaffold at this interface. More importantly, this vulnerability is genetically rescuable.
The Company of Biologists
This is just the beginning! Stay tuned for various future developments, where we aim to expand this work to focus on acclimation, adaptation, and evolution of vulnerability to mild temperature increments, focusing on what all might go wrong, at a cellular level, in the face of global warming
Embryos show loss of nuclei due to chromosome segregation defects, which is rather unexpected, given how conserved and fundamental this process is. This also leads to a DNA damage response, and the defective sister nuclei are “kicked out”
We achieved the genetic rescue through the overexpression of scaffold components, ɑ-Catenin and Shaggy (GSK-3β). Shaggy is also ecologically relevant, as it is known to show variation across wild populations of Drosophila, indicating a pliability to evolutionary selection pressures.
Beautiful end of a great conference #CJM26
Girish Kale
Our latest manuscript on (Harry Potter and) the effect of elevated temperature on embryonic development in flies. Even a small increase in temperature causes developmental defects, indicating problems in the face of global warming! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Girish Kale
Girish Kale
Girish Kale
www.nature.com
Kale et al. show that nuclear divisions are defective at elevated temperature, leading to gastrulation defects and embryo lethality. Their work finds that F-actin – microtubule interactions during mit...
