David Strutt

Fat cadherin cleavage releases a transcriptionally active nuclear fragment to regulate target gene expression The conserved atypical cadherin fat (ft) controls cellular processes such as growth, planar cell polarity, and mitochondrial function, in organisms ranging from fruit flies to mammals. Working at the ...

Fat cadherin cleavage releases a transcriptionally active nuclear fragment to regulate target gene expression.

New preprint from Helen McNeill and colleagues
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Job Alert 🔊🔊
Looking for your first or next Postdoc position? Then don't look further, apply to this opportunity to join our lab to tackle the next big challenges in the Wnt signalling field. Experience in protein biochemistry and in vitro cell biology is essential for this post tinyurl.com/2p9rndfy

Interphase cell morphology defines the mode, symmetry, and outcome of mitosis During tissue formation, dynamic cell shape changes drive morphogenesis while asymmetric divisions create cellular diversity. We found that the shifts in cell morphology that shape tissues could conco...

My first post on Bluesky! Very excited to share our work just published in @science.org. We find that “Interphase cell morphology defines the mode, symmetry, and outcome of mitosis” - in angiogenesis and other tissues! www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1... www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Development folks: the next Northern England Developmental Biology @bsdb.bsky.social @biologists.bsky.social meeting will take place on the 10th of July in Sheffield. Great speaker line-up, cheap registration fee and plenty of slots for ECR talks. Registration deadline=31/5, see poster for details

Bonus: This specially extended edition includes actually quite interesting reviewer figure 8.

Planar polarity in the Drosophila pupal wing is oriented by tissue stress but the mechanisms remain unclear. This study uncovers a crucial role for cell flow gradients in promoting planar polarity protein turnover and aligning proximodistal polarity.

New! 15y after the classic Aigouy et al "Cell Flow Reorients the Axis of Planar Polarity in the Wing Epithelium..." from lab of much missed Suzanne Eaton, we provide our take from post-doc Sara Tan "Tissue shear as a cue for aligning planar polarity in the developing Drosophila wing".
rdcu.be/d81Vn

Now that my lab has moved to Emory I want you to join us in Atlanta. We have an NIH-funded postdoc position available to study Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) signaling using vestibular hair cells of the mouse as a model.
Please repost and/or DM for details

My quote of the day (or possibly the week/month/year):

‘Building organisms is about bringing #SelfOrganization under control’

I’m going to borrow this to use in my talks

Great – we'll try it (and hopefully report back!)

Don't seem to be many fly cell culture people on here, or maybe they are very shy... But suggestions still welcome while we're in the mood to test new reagents!

Two fields of spiky looking cells under a microscope. Left field has a few bright cells, the right field many bright cells. Left field labelled 'New Batch Effectene' the right field 'Old Batch Effectene'.

Drosophila cell culture people: we've been using Qiagen Effectene to transfect S2 cells with ~30% efficiency, but latest batch is only giving us <1% efficiency (so no use to us!!). Qiagen don't seem to have a solution.

Anyone got suggestions for other (good!) fly cell culture transfection reagents?

The Fat-Dachsous planar polarity pathway competes with hinge contraction to orient polarized cell behaviors during Drosophila wing morphogenesis Morphogenesis involves interactions between biochemical and mechanical cues. Trinidad et al. show that during Drosophila pupal wing morphogenesis, Fat-Dachsous planar polarity competes with tissue tension to control oriented cell behaviors. Moreover, junctional tension stabilizes Fat-Dachsous, supporting the existence of biomechanical feedback.

A little pre-Christmas reading for my planar polarity follower(s) – I’m sure there’s at least one of you!

The Fat-Dachsous planar polarity pathway competes with hinge contraction to orient polarized cell behaviors during Drosophila wing morphogenesis.

Current Biology

doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Four lateral flow tests. One positive and three negative.

Dodged that pre- Christmas bullet. Mycoplasma, not Covid.

Please spread the word!
We are looking for postdoc(s) interested in quantitative problems in Development and Regeneration. Previous experience in quantitative biology is not required. We will support you and provide a great training environment if you are committed to learn new things.

Only 3 days left to apply! Postdoc positions available in the Röper lab at the University of Cambridge!
@PDN_Cambridge
Discover the role that supracellular cytoskeletal assemblies and crosstalk play in sculpting organs in Drosophila or human organoids in culture!
Links below!

Morphogenesis alert! Stoked for our new paper with the inimitable @shinuoweng.bsky.social! See her Skeetorial (👇) about the work in @currentbiology.bsky.social exploring the coupling of subcellular and tissue-level forces during convergent extension.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Are you an early career researcher in the Wnt field and at a career stage where you hope to make a transition to start your independent research group? Then this your opportunity! We have an invited ECR speaker slot at the upcoming Oxford WntUK 2025 meeting!! Details below 👇👇

a budweiser light is lit up on a counter ALT: a budweiser light is lit up on a counter

The 2nd WntUK meeting will be held at @WorcCollegeOx @UniofOxford on Monday 24th March 2025.

Registration and abstract submission opens soon.

Wnt researchers of all levels and disciplines welcome from the UK and beyond!

Postdoc position available in the Röper lab at the University of Cambridge @PDN_Cambridge!
Join us and discover the role that control of cytoskeletal dynamics, crosstalk and cell adhesion play in the formation of the nephron tube in human renal organoids!
jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/48947/

📢We have a 3y postdoc position available in our interdisciplinary team at the Institut Curie.
Join us if you're interested in epithelial tissue morphogenesis using live imaging, quantitative biology & (opto)genetics.
institut-curie.org/team/bellaiche
Please spread the word.

That's very flattering (and probably a bit optimistic)!

Our latest on planar polarity mechanisms. Painstaking work by Alexandre Carayon, investigating mechanisms of cell-scale polarisation in the fly wing. Enjoy it (if this is your thing)!

Evidence for strong cell-scale signalling during planar polarisation in the Drosophila wing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.14.618159v1 In developing epithelia, cells become planar polarised with asymmetric localisation of the core plan

Evidence for strong cell-scale signalling during planar polarisation in the Drosophila wing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.14.618159v1

If only we had an RNA expert to ask!

Why fly? Drosophila melanogasterter, more commonly known as the fruit fly or vinegar fly, has been used as a model for biological research for over 100 years (explained in our first movie below). To date, D…

More seriously, flies are generally credited with 6. And RNA, not my expertise!
droso4schools.wordpress.com/why-fly/

fewer?!

Rho/Rok-dependent regulation of actomyosin contractility at tricellular junctions controls epithelial permeability in Drosophila https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.04.616625v1 Cell contacts in epithelia are remodeled to regulate paracellular permeability and to control passag

Rho/Rok-dependent regulation of actomyosin contractility at tricellular junctions controls epithelial permeability in Drosophila https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.04.616625v1

Although to be honest I personally would be more excited if you could knock off the predicted Drosophila interactome for me?!

Linked article is facinating but chilling. Nightmarish…

Graphical abstract showing model for Fat-Dachsous cadherin interaction via a second newly identified site

For my planar polarity follower(s?), we have a new paper out on Fat-Dachsous.

Fat-Dachsous are known to interact (signal?) in trans between cells, but we now find a second (more important!) trans-interaction suggesting new models for Fat-Dachsous clustering

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We´re hiring! 2-year postdoc position opening in my lab at the Multiscale Imaging Center, University of Münster, to work on membrane trafficking and epithelial tissue dynamics in Drosophila. For details, please see shorturl.at/auBW4 and apply by Feb 29th.