Matthias Soller

Some fly neurons are “dimorphic”, existing in both males and females but connecting to different neighboring neurons. Neighbors may be “isomorphic”, the same in both male and female; or sex specific; or dimorphic themselves. Here's an example, the type AOTU012, present in left and right instances.

RNA journal increases to over 5.0! Publish your research in RNA today!

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025 The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025 was awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.”

If you want to know more about the science behind the latest @nobelprize.bsky.social in Physiology and Medecine awarded to the "FoxP3-Tregs" field have a look at this:
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medic...
A very detailed account!

A GPCR signaling pathway in insect odor detection Odor detection differs fundamentally in vertebrates, which use G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and insects, which employ ion channels. Here, we report the first evidence for a GPCR defining tunin...

Having personally sworn for years that insects don’t use GPCRs for odour detection, Suguru Takagi (@sugurutakagi.bsky.social) discovers that, in fact, they sometimes do …

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We do this with fixed fly tissue that does not express the protein. Works great!

China launches ambitious collaboration to map primate brains—including ours 25-year plan will tap brain-mapping prowess in two dozen countries to visualize the organ in unprecedented detail

Drosophila first: the fly brain is all mapped. Same for the genome - Drosophila was the template.
www.science.org/content/arti...

Amphisome biogenesis couples synaptic autophagy to local protein synthesis Summary Amphisomes are hybrid organelles that result from fusion of late endosomes with autophagosomes. Here, we report that amphisomes containing BDNF/TrkB and capable of signaling are formed at pres...

Intriguing links between autophagy and local protein synthesis at synapses! Preprint from Michael Kreutz and colleagues.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚀 Ordering lab supplies just got way easier in our lab.
We built a workflow (github.com/farnunglab/N...) where tapping an NFC tag on a reagent bottle automatically triggers an order request in Quartzy. No more scribbling notes or hunting for a computer. Here’s how 👇

Collective challenges need collective solutions. Happy to share the insights we've gained from the way our cells handle this: www.nature.com/articles/s41... and its summary www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-09....

Fingers crossed: this could make a big change in the perception and real substance of UK science and innovation (and all other talent...)

I have gotten a bit behind at sharing the lab’s latest work - this paper is now published - check it out! www.cell.com/cell-reports... Long story short: insulin is the major determinant of female fat storage, with a relatively minor effect on males.

This was huge effort that involved many great friends and colleagues, including Sourav Banerjee, Howard Chang, C.K. Chen, Xiang Li, Wei Wei, @irinavoineagu.bsky.social, @anggonolab.bsky.social, and the entire lab @QueenslandBrainInstute.

Discovering Genes Essential for Stress-Induced Death in Insects | Research News - University of Tsukuba Image by Oren Ravid/ShutterstockResearchers at University of Tsukuba identified genes and signaling pathways that trigge

Discovering Genes Essential for Stress-Induced Death in Insects | Research News - University of Tsukuba www.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/research-...

Neuronal activity-dependent mechanisms of small cell lung cancer pathogenesis - Nature Glutamatergic and GABAergic (γ-aminobutyric acid-producing) cortical neuronal activity drives proliferation of small lung cell cancer via paracrine interactions and through synapses formed with tumour...

We are excited to share the Venkatesh Lab’s first publication in collaboration with @michellemonje.bsky.social team uncovering how neuronal activity influences the progression of small cell lung cancer #SCLC in the lung and brain. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Wow, this paper provides crucial understanding of local translation and processing of transmembrane proteins in axons, one of the big mysteries that have haunted the field for a long time!!!!!!!! Fantastic!!!!!!!! Nguyen et al., 2025, bioRxiv 2025.09.09.674816ff. -- doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Bild einer Zeitung. Ein Bild mit einer fetten Fliege mit roten Augen. Überschrift: Notruf der Fliege. Lead: Erkenntnisse aus der Drosophilaforschung werden in einer Datenbank gesammelt. Deren Finanzierung steht vor dem Aus. Wegen Trump.

Wegen den Einschnitten der US-Regierung fürchten sich Wissenschaftler, dass die Flybase, eine zentrale wissenschaftliche Datenbank für die Forschung an der Fruchtfliege Drosophila melanogaster, verloren gehen könnte. Mein Text dazu in der heutigen F.A.Z.

Die wichtigste Datenbank über die Fruchtfliege steht vor dem Aus. Forscher weltweit sind auf eine zentrale Datenbank mit Erkenntnissen zu Drosophila angewiesen. Deren Finanzierung steht vor dem Aus. Wegen Donald Trump. Warum uns das nicht gleichgültig sein sollte.

Thanks to journalist @felixschmidtner.bsky.social for bringing the plight of the key scientific database @flybase.bsky.social to a German/European audience
www.faz.net/aktuell/wiss...

I'll join next time.

TET dioxygenases localize at splicing speckles and promote RNA splicing The dynamic regulation of RNA metabolism plays a crucial part in cellular function, with emerging evidence suggesting an important role for RNA modifications in this process. This study explores th...

Published in the summer holidays: Roles for TET in speckles. Thanks @cardosolab.bsky.social @deepanshund.bsky.social @roliarnold.bsky.social and the others for this exciting collaboration.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/...

Gap-repair recombineering for efficient retrieval of large DNA fragments from BAC clones and manipulation of large high-copy number plasmids - BMC Methods Background Bacterial high-copy number plasmids are the preferred DNA source for reporter constructs used in cell transfection experiments and making transgenic invertebrates to study gene expression, ...

Here is a detailed protocol"
bmcmethods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

We do gap-repair recombineering. Can go up to a 22 kb plasmid. Key: set the incubator at 35ºC. It the temperature goes above 37ºC (which it does when set at 37ºC) the heat shock response triggers recombination.

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

New #miRNA paper from Lai lab!! 🧬🔥

some think this field, despite recent Nobel to Ambros and Ruvkun, doesn't have much surprises left. but, do we EVEN KNOW WHAT a miRNA precursor LOOKS LIKE? we found some conserved miRNA hairpins up to 10x longer than suspected. this is mir-12, just bonkers! 1/n

m6A and the NEXT complex direct Xist RNA turnover and X-inactivation dynamics - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Wei et al. show that the primary function of m6A on the nuclear long noncoding RNA Xist, a master regulator of X inactivation, is to promote RNA degradation. Xist turnover is mediated by the nuclear e...

Double celebration on our floor @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social with @guifengwei.bsky.social from the Brockdorff lab and Dounia and Sherry from Fisher lab having their papers published today! And I hear there is more to come...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

U6 snRNA m6A modification is required for accurate and efficient splicing of C. elegans and human pre-mRNAs Abstract. pre-mRNA splicing is a critical feature of eukaryotic gene expression. Both cis- and trans-splicing rely on accurately recognising splice site se

If you have missed our work on how U6 m6A modification helps select different splice sites in humans and worms, you can still read it here 🙄 academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

HuD controls widespread RNA stability to drive neuronal activity-dependent responses Neuronal activity shapes brain development and refines synaptic connectivity in part through dynamic changes in gene expression. While activity-regulated transcriptional programs have been extensively...

Our new pre-print from the Greenberg and Churchman labs shows that activity-dependent modulation of RNA stability is a major, and underappreciated, mechanism of gene regulation in neurons. Tutorial below! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/11)

The scent of silence! Cool research in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social to brighten up your day🌹. The mystery of why some roses are fragrant and others aren't has an answer. It's called SCREP: a rose-specific gene that evolved from non-coding DNA 16.8 million years ago 👇

QKI ensures splicing fidelity during cardiogenesis by engaging the U6 tri-snRNP to activate splicing at weak 5ʹ splice sites During organogenesis, precise pre-mRNA splicing is essential to assemble tissue architecture. Many developmentally essential exons bear weak 5'splice sites (5'SS) yet are spliced with high precision, ...

Many conserved exons in the heart and brain utilize weak 5 ′ splice sites, yet they are accurately spliced. But how? We show that splicing fidelity is actively enforced through a QKI-U6 checkpoint at the U1→U6 handover in essential cardiac genes during organogenesis.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Localized 2′-OH Acylation at Poly(A) Extends RNA Translation The potential of coding RNAs as a general therapeutic modality is limited by their short intracellular lifetime. Here, we investigate the effects of localized post-transcriptional RNA modification on ...

New and simple chemical modifications to poly(A) tails extend protein expression -- a really easy one-pot method

Great work by Linglan Fang and Wenrui Zhong in our lab!

doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c11900

Ant reproduction is getting weirder and weirder. Here’s the latest: queens of a Mediterranean harvester ant mate with males from a different species and then lay eggs that clonally inherit those males’ genome. I.e., they lay eggs that develop into a different species. 🤯

Translon: a single term for translated regions - Nature Methods Nature Methods - Translon: a single term for translated regions

CDS? ORF? Here is a new nomenclature for the translated regions of mRNAs: TRANSLON.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...