Alternative Vertebrate and Invertebrate Model Organisms Show Similar Sensitivity as Rodents to a Diverse Set of Chemicals Current regulations aimed at safeguarding human health and the environment from chemical risks require toxicity testing, while regulatory bodies worldwide are phasing out the use of protected animals. Here, we systematically produced toxicity data from five alternative nonmammalian model organisms and a human cell line to demonstrate similarities and differences among distantly related species in their responses to chemical exposure (concentration range 1.8 pM to 2.1 M). We show that Daphnia magna and Danio rerio embryos are affected by more chemicals than Xenopus laevis embryos, Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans. Lethality/immotility data assembled 72 diverse chemicals into 11 clusters, revealing species-specific outcomes and showing differential enrichment of the clusters for certain chemical structures and modes of action. The ranked relative toxicities of chemicals across the model organisms were highly correlated (Spearman’s correlation, maximum rho = 0.86, p-value = 0; minimum rho = 0.57, p-value = 0.000312), and their average toxicity values closely matched published values for rodents (rat: rho = 0.88, p = 2.8e-06; mouse: rho = 0.88, p = 2.7e-06). Our findings suggest that chemical toxicity under standardized experimental conditions is broadly conserved across a phylogenetically diverse set of model organisms, providing a conservative estimate of mammalian toxicity.

Want to know if the toxicity of a chemical is shared between flies and humans (as well as worms, fish, Daphnia, and Xenopus)? Take a look at our latest paper from the PrecisionTox consortium!

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

a little girl is making a funny face with the words yeah so excited below her ALT: a little girl is making a funny face with the words yeah so excited below her

#goodnews
Super excited to be giving a #spotlight talk at #ASBMB26 in the #Integrated #Metabolism session. It's my first time attending #ASBMB and I am really grateful for the trainee travel award to support me in attending the conference 😊!

@asbmb.bsky.social @iubiology.bsky.social
👩🏽‍🔬🧬🔬

Meet Madhulika Rai, member of the Early Career Scientist Career Development Subcommittee! 👋 She studies how metabolism and growth pathways drive disease using Drosophila and is passionate about mentoring, science communication, and supporting postdocs. Read her spotlight: buff.ly/S3yACCB

In the most surreal Drosophila abstract submission day of my career, Thom Kaufman is submitting a poster abstract based on his work in my lab. Be sure to attend #Dros26 in Chicago and ask Thom to walk you through his poster on slgA and proline metabolism.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS: IU has now fully cut IDS print. What more is there to say? The decision came hours after IU terminated Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush.

www.idsnews.com/article/2025...

Come join us!
Applications to the GCDB Biology Doctoral program at IU are due December 1st.

@iubiology.bsky.social
@alizeemalnoe.bsky.social @rhcalderon.bsky.social @lesleynweaver.bsky.social @hoosierflyman.bsky.social @tennessenlab.bsky.social @flyeyelab.bsky.social @briancalvi.bsky.social

Just in time for the #EDRC2025: the #Drosophila metabolic network 'FlyCyc' has been updated at biocyc.org/organism-sum... Come and see poster P-335 on Saturday for more metabolic pathway models at #FlyBase.

Check out the new work from the Calvi lab ! #Drosophila #cellbio #polyploidy

@iubiology.bsky.social @briancalvi.bsky.social

Molecular and Developmental Biology of Drosophila The principal theme of the EMBO Workshop is the Molecular and Developmental Biology of Drosophila. Supported by EMBO over four decades, this will be the 24th biennial “Crete meeting”. With the a…

EMBO meeting on "Molecular and Developmental Biology of Drosophila" 21 – 27 June 2026
Registration is now open!
Deadline next November 3rd!
meetings.embo.org/event/26-dro...

FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

In #G3journal, @tennessenlab.bsky.social and colleagues generated new loss-of-function mutations in the #Drosophila D2hgdh gene to study D-2-hydroxyglutarate, a potent oncometabolite, function during development and disease.

Read more: buff.ly/8ELi9GW

Meet the six Associate Editors joining #GENETICS to grow our Primers series, overseen by Beth De Stasio! They’ll help students build skills in reading and analyzing primary literature—future scientists and citizens alike. 🔗 buff.ly/YrhAIim

Latest #MetabolismMondays interview has just dropped 👀

Find out more about #newPI @kstapornwongkul.bsky.social and her research 👇

The Season's Script: Tales of Metabolic adaptation #MetabolismMondays - the Node All the world's a metabolic dance, early career scientists are leading the way! Emerging perspectives in metabolism Dr. Karin van der Burg, faculty,

It's #summer & time to beat the heat! To find out about how insects adapt to temperature shifts by coordinating #metabolism and #hormones for seasonal adaptations check out this article featuring @karinburg.bsky.social's work in #butterfly.

@the-node.bsky.social
#evolution #devbio #newPI #ecdysone

Exciting news from the IU Biology Greenhouse!

Wally, our corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum), is officially preparing to bloom! 🪴🌸

🎥You can watch the livestream: go.iu.edu/8tM8

📷: Jessica L. Hooten, Department of Biology

Thanks to all who have expressed a willingness to support FlyBase. The wheels of bureaucracy are large and grind slowly. We expect to have a fee process in place by July. @flybase.bsky.social

🚨#G3journal has announced a new article type: Omics Report! Share high-quality results from transcriptomics, proteomics, & more—even if big insights are still developing. Learn more and submit your data today: buff.ly/ZkmoLYJ

FlyBase funding squashed amid Harvard grant terminations The team behind the Drosophila genetics database is now requesting donations from labs to keep the resource afloat.

If you haven't heard already: www.thetransmitter.org/community/fl...

FlyBase funding squashed amid Harvard grant terminations The team behind the Drosophila genetics database is now requesting donations from labs to keep the resource afloat.

FlyBase, a crucial resource for drosophila research, has lost its funding because its grant is awarded to Harvard. The team is scrambling to find other sources of funds, including donations from labs. Read more: www.thetransmitter.org/community/fl... @flybase.bsky.social

Drosophila Genetic Database The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...

The Flybase grant at Harvard has been canceled by Trump. Bloomington and Cambridge canceled too. Flybase is on life support. Please donate to keep it alive.

Glycolytic disruption restricts Drosophila melanogaster larval growth via the cytokine Upd3 Author summary Animal development requires precise coordination between growth, metabolism, and nutrition. When animals are raised under ideal conditions, dietary nutrients support optimal growth by d...

Congrats to @superflymr.bsky.social on her latest publication in PLoS Genetics!

dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

We decided to make these available now instead of waiting for a more in depth publication. Feel free to use - happy to distribute. Both alleles were deposited in BDSC and will be available for order soon.

For my fly colleagues interested in oncometabolites or links between metabolism and chromatin modifications, we generated two Crispr alleles in D2hgdh. Description can be found here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#NewpreprintAlert 📣📣

New #Drosophila genetic model to study the role of D-2HG in physiology, metabolism, aging and disease in a context dependent manner !!

@tennessenlab.bsky.social @superflymr.bsky.social @iubiology.bsky.social

FlyCROSS - getting a shout out today at #Dros25 !!! A year ago I proposed this program and it's been an amazing journey so far !!

Thank you to all the mentors who volunteered and to the committee!!

Hope all matched mentors/mentees are having a fantastic mentoring time !!

#Drosophila #community

New correspondents for the Node – welcome! - the Node Let's welcome the three new Node correspondents – Dosh Whye, Mariia Golden and Shefali! We look forward to working with them to bring you a wide range of

📢Let’s welcome the new Node correspondents – @sciwhye23.bsky.social, @iamshef.bsky.social and Mariia Golden!

We look forward to working with them to bring you a range of interesting content for the Node. Stay tuned for their posts 👀

Find out who they are and what they plan to write about:

Thank you @asbmb.bsky.social for awarding Geovana Garcia a 2022 PROLAB award (www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/...)! The research you supported is now out on bioRxiv!
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

And thanks to Geovana and Marco Oliveira for inviting us to collaborate with them on this project!