Constitutive heterochromatin is essential for transcriptional silencing and genome integrity. The establishment of constitutive heterochromatin in early embryos and its role in early fruitfly development are unknown. Lysine 9 trimethylation of histone H3 ( ...
Cells are the smallest operational units of living systems. Through synthesis of various biomolecules and exchange of signals with the environment, cells tightly regulate their composition to realize a specific functional state. The transformation of a cel ...
Whereas both sperm and egg contribute nuclear genetic material to the zygote in metazoan organisms, the inheritance of other cellular constituents is unequal between the 2 gametes. Thus, 2 copies of the centriole are contributed solely by the sperm to the ...
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster serves as a powerful model organism for advancing our understanding of biological processes, not just by studying its similarities with other organisms including ourselves but also by investigating its differences to u ...
Significant increases in sedimentation rate accompany the evolution of multicellularity. These increases should lead to rapid changes in ecological distribution, thereby affecting the costs and benefits of multicellularity and its likelihood to evolve. How ...
How embryos scale patterning according to size is still not fully understood. Through in silico screening and analysis of reaction-diffusion systems that could be responsible for scaling, we predicted the existence of genes whose expression is sensitive to ...
Propagation of microorganisms is based on three fundamental processes: cell growth, DNA replication, and cell division. Although important for antibacterial drug development, these processes are poorly understood in Actinobacteria, a medically important ph ...
Intracellular density impacts the physical nature of the cytoplasm and can globally affect cellular processes, yet density regulation remains poorly understood. Here, using a new quantitative phase imaging method, we determined that dry-mass density in fis ...
Asymmetric cell divisions play key roles in generating cellular diversity during embryogenesis, and in tissue homeostasis during postembryonic life. Particular asymmetric cell divisions producing differentially sized daughter cells were described in many s ...
Genome stability relies on proper coordination of mitosis and cytokinesis, where dynamic microtubules capture and faithfully segregate chromosomes into daughter cells. With a high-content RNAi imaging screen targeting more than 2,000 human lncRNAs, we iden ...
