Shubham Kumar

✨ We are pleased to announce the conclusion of the final session of the 2025 @cambridgeflyclub.bsky.social talks series and are now preparing for next year’s sessions, which will be announced soon (check out our upcoming posts for more details).

The Golgi vesicle tether p115/USO1 can bind directly to the ER exit site organiser Sec16A Newly-made secretory and membrane proteins exit the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in COPII vesicles that form at specialised ER exit sites. These exit sites are typically near to the early Golgi compartm...

The Golgi vesicle tether p115/USO1 can bind directly to the ER exit site organiser Sec16A www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fwd: Fwd: “I hope this email finds you well”

The advent of confocal laser scanning microscopy in biological research Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Published online: 01 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41580-025-00905-5The advent of laser-scanning confocal microscopy revolutionized cell biology, offering unprecedented resolution and depth and enabling scientists to visualize cellular structures in 3D.

New Online! The advent of confocal laser scanning microscopy in biological research

Towards a unified framework for the function of endoplasmic reticulum exit sites - Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology Endoplasmic reticulum exit sites (ERES) are specialized ER subdomains that regulate the export of secreted cargo. This Roadmap explores how ERES integrate biochemical and mechanical signals to coordinate trafficking and proposes a multidisciplinary strategy to investigate their function, including in disease.

ER exit sites are dynamic ER subdomains that integrate signals, reshape membranes and steer secretion. Twelve groups in the field came together to map their diversity, regulation, unanswered questions and future directions.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Membrane protein export in developing axons, via axonal ERES and Golgi bypass #ER_Literature

A Genome-wide CRISPR Screen Reveals ZDHHC8-Dependent Gαq Palmitoylation as a Key Regulator of GPCR Signaling G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that couple to the Gαq signaling pathway control diverse physiological processes, yet the full complement of cellular regulators for this pathway remains unknown. H...

A Genome-wide CRISPR Screen Reveals ZDHHC8-Dependent Gαq Palmitoylation as a Key Regulator of GPCR Signaling
Muhammad Ahmad, Norbert Perrimon, Raghuvir Viswanatha, Ah-Ram Kim
bioRxiv 2025.08.06.668953; doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Multi-omic mapping of Drosophila protein secretomes reveals tissue-specific origins and inter-organ trafficking Secreted proteins regulate many aspects of animal biology and are attractive targets for biomarkers and therapeutics. However, comprehensively identifying the "secretome", along with their tissues of ...

New paper: Multi-omic mapping of Drosophila protein secretomes reveals tissue-specific origins and inter-organ trafficking
Bosch et al.
doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

fluorescence imaging of drosophila nerves

A new genetic toolkit lets researchers target most neuronal lineages in the #Drosophila ventral nerve cord across development and into adulthood, opening the door to mapping structure, chemistry, and behaviour.
buff.ly/zHQK9dC

Carmina Santa-Cruz Mateos from PDN, University of Cambridge: "Condensing the Message: How Notch Signaling Forms Transcriptional Hubs to Control Gene Activation" Jimena Berni from Medical Research Building, University of Sussex – “Hox Activity Levels Govern the Evolution of Behaviors” Expect refreshments and pizza, this is a great chance to meet colleagues, exchange ideas, and build collaborations. Spread the word, everyone is welcome!

🗓️#CambridgeFlyClub 2nd meeting this year on July 16th (Weds) 4pm at @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social. Our speakers are Carmina Santa-Cruz Mateos from Sarah Bray's lab @pdncambridge.bsky.social and Jimena Berni from University of Sussex.
It's not the Dmel on our poster, guess what species is it?

The mechanistic basis of cargo selection during Golgi maturation The multiple cisternae of the Golgi apparatus contain resident membrane proteins crucial for lipid and protein glycosylation. How Golgi residents remain in their designated compartments despite a cons...

The mechanistic basis of cargo selection during Golgi maturation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

An image montage advertising NeuroBioUK - 12th of September 2025 in York. The image is York cathedral superimposed over a fluorescent cortex mouse section coloured to look a bit like a dawn sky.

Registration is now open for NeuroBioUK 2025!
This year we're looking forward to hearing from our plenary speaker @cathyabbott.bsky.social. As ever, all other talks chosen from submitted abstracts so get submitting - we can't wait to see you there!

neurobiouk.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/registration

We currently have a call for support that has gone out to European labs, to support FlyBase-UK. We are asking our colleagues from labs in the US and other countries to wait for a similar call to them that will go out in the near future, to support the US sites. We thank you for your patience.

Oxr1 and Ncoa7 regulate V-ATPase to achieve optimal pH for glycosylation within the Golgi apparatus and trans-Golgi network | PNAS Maintenance of pH within membranous organelles is crucial for cellular processes such as posttranslational modifications, ligand–receptor interacti...

Oxr1 and Ncoa7 regulate V-ATPase to achieve optimal pH for glycosylation within the Golgi apparatus and trans-Golgi network | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

This is so bad :(

Welcome to the new serie of Cambridge Fly Club meetings. We organise several events every year to foster collaboration and maintain a positive dynamic between Drosophila groups in Cambridge.

Journal of Cell Science Meeting 2026 Imaging Cell Dynamics Date: 11 – 14 May 2026 Venue: Montanyà Hotel, Catalonia, Spain Register your interest

After the success of our 2023 Imaging Cell Dynamics conference, we’ll be hosting a second #JCSImaging meeting in 2026, organised by @franbottanelli.bsky.social, @guijacquemet.bsky.social‬, @drmichaelway.bsky.social‬ & Giulia Zanetti.
To register your interest: www.biologists.com/meetings/jcs...

Following the annual tradition, the student symposium of MRC LMB is happening on July 10th and 11th this year.

This year we are collaborating with Institut Pasteur!

Details 👇

Congratulations Maheva!

Sequential and independent probabilistic events regulate differential axon targeting during development in Drosophila melanogaster - Nature Neuroscience The developmental origin of behavioral individuality is unclear. The authors show that a temporal sequence of genetically encoded stochastic mechanisms explains variation in stereotyped neuronal circu...

Proud to share my main postdoc work! 🧠 I asked: How to build a #brain that lead to #individuality? We show that adult brain wiring isn't fully predictable from genes or environment alone— the #stochastic nature of #development is a key third factor. #NatureNeuroscience
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Neuronal processes contain the essential components for the late steps of ribosome biogenesis Neurons rely on spatial and temporal control of protein synthesis to respond rapidly and locally to external stimuli, a process facilitated by the dynamic localization and modification of ribosomes. W...

Neuronal processes contain the essential components for the late steps of ribosome biogenesis www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mouse egg cells stash endosomes, lysosomes, and autophagy regulators in giant structures called ELYSAs. After fertilisation, they break down, timing the embryo’s cleanup and recycling systems for early development.
buff.ly/aM5oMxt

A) Diagram of the RUSH system. The Halo-tagged cargo is retained in the ER by the binding of the Streptavidin binding peptide (SBP) to Streptavidin (StrepA), which is fused to the ER retention signal, KDEL. The cargo is synchronously released upon the addition of biotin, which outcompetes SBP for binding to Streptavidin.B) Diagram of the tagged cargo constructs used in this study. C) Steady state expression of UAS-SBP-Halo-Cadherin99c (magenta) under the control of traffic jam-Gal4, showing its localization to the apical microvilli. Phalloidin staining of F-actin (green) labels the apical microvilli in the follicle cells and the oocyte. Scale bar 10 µm. D) Steady state expression of UAS-SBP-SNAP-Ndg (magenta) under the control of traffic jam-Gal4, showing its localization to the basement membrane. Actin is shown in green. Scale bar 10 µm. E) En face view of SBP-SNAP-Ndg in the basement membrane. Scale bar 10 µm. F) Time course of SBP-Halo-Cadherin99C trafficking in fixed samples. G) 25 min after release from the ER, Cad99c (green) localizes to subapical puncta that are labeled by Rab11 (magenta). Scale bar 10 µm. In all figures with a cross-section of the follicle cells, apical is toward the top of the image and basal toward the bottom.

How are specific cargos targeted to apical & basolateral domains within #EpithelialCells? This study uses a novel #vesicle tracking software "MSP-tracker" to show that the secretory pathway in #Drosophila follicle cells is unexpectedly spatially organized @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3EfJsBp

Amazing microscopy from Bewersdorf/Rothman groups shows golgins in a striking four-layered structure at the Golgi rim. Biochemical reconstitution shows long filaments. Does a Golgi stack form due to golgin filament properties rather than dedicated stacking proteins?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Drosophila follicle showing retrotransposons (pink & yellow) expressed in somatic cells infecting the oocyte

1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬
But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯
Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread 🧵👇

Fast Antibiotic resistance-Based gene editing of mammalian cells with CRISPR-Cas9 (FAB-CRISPR) Protein tagging with CRISPR-Cas9 enables the investigation of protein function in its native environment but is limited by low homology-directed repair (HDR) efficiency causing low knock-in rates. We ...

Long in the making but our protocol for gene editing is online! FAB CRISPR is super easy and allows the generation of N and C terminal fusions with TurboID, SNAP, Halo and mStayGold. A single cloninf step to generate HDR templates! arxiv.org/abs/2502.12675 1/n

ÅNGSTRÖM-RESOLUTION IMAGING OF CELL-SURFACE GLYCANS 🧬🎨🍬

The glycocalyx, our cells' sugar coat, holds secrets in immunology, cancer, viral infections, and more. Visualizing its molecular architecture was impossible… until now. #glycotime #microscopy

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

"Imagine a DAPI-like stain, but for the extracellular matrix." That's basically how this work was pitched to me by Kayvon and Antonio a year or so ago. Now the final product really delivers. Read about their versatile label for ECM in living tissues here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Or what about the #Drosophila computer game? Loads of stuff that I almost forgot about: scratch.mit.edu/projects/744...

Sensory neurons (Class I, purple) are shown in the context of the Drosophila larval body wall. Epidermal cells that sit above the neurons are shown in green. The image was acquired by Pankajam Thyagarajan in the Melissa Rolls lab.

A previous study in @plosbiology.org found that Wnt receptors are housed in early endosomes and required for dendritic #microtubule nucleation. This Update Article shows that microtubule dynamics in #dendrites can be influenced non-autonomously by surrounding epithelial cells 🧪 plos.io/3DK0M0J