Chris Taveras did his undergraduate research summer project with us this summer. He worked with graduate student Nikhila Krishnan.
New Methods Paper from Hehnly Lab to Check out!
Check out Abbi, Amra, and Thomas’s methods paper “Imaging the early zebrafish embryo centrosomes… to understand spindle formation.” If you love spindles, you’ll love looking at them in the zebrafish embryo! Big, dynamic, and of course PRETTY! This method’s paper was based on our recently graduate PhD student, Lindsay Rathbun and our current PhD candidate, Abbi, studies on centrosome dynamics in the early embryo using zebrafish and C. elegans.
During the earliest division stages, zebrafish embryos have large cells that divide rapidly and synchronously to create a cellular layer on top of the yolk. In this study we describe a protocol for monitoring spindle dynamics during these early embryonic divisions. We outline techniques for injecting zebrafish embryos with small-molecule inhibitors toward polo-like kinases, preparing and mounting embryos for three-dimensional imaging using confocal microscopy. These techniques are used to understand how the early zebrafish embryo’s centrosome constructs the mitotic spindle.
Our study on zebrafish embryo centrosomes is online!
Our new study at Current Biology is online! Lindsay Rathbun and Abrar Aljiboury identified that in the zebrafish embryo mitotic centrosomes scale with cell size and are asymmetric in size! We had a great collaboration with the Bembenek Lab at Univ of Michigan along with his student Bai to also examine that this phenomenon is consistent in C. elegans. We had additional great contributions from undergrads to postbacs Nicole Hall and Julie Manikas. Finally we wouldn’t have been able to do any of it if the Amack Lab at SUNY Upstate didn’t introduce us to zebrafish and how awesome they are!
Check out the sweet video of zebrafish embryonic centrosomes:
Microtubules (EMTB-3xGFP) and centrosomes (Centrin-GFP)
You can check out the study here: Link to PDF.
Cytokinetic bridge triggers de novo lumen formation in vivo.
Our paper is out! This study was lead by Lindsay Rathbun with many major contributions from past and current lab members and our collaborators Lisa Manning (SU) and Jeffrey Amack (SUNY Upstate). Its a really cool study demonstrating that the final step in cell division, cytokinesis and abscission, is needed for the lumen to form in the zebrafish left-right organizer. This transient tissue goes from a series of mesenchymal like migratory cells that divide and transition into polarized epithelial cells. Our team proposes a model that division assists in this process and the cytokinetic bridge, which can stay around for up to an hour, helps hold the cells in a transient rosette structure before they can initiate lumen formation. Check the paper out here at Nature Communications.
In cyan is a dividing cell interconnected by a cytokinetic bridge that is about to undergo abscission. Once the bridge abscises you can see the KV lumen open up! Magenta is labeling KV cells plasma membrane.