Shweta Nandakumar

Playing around with @kwolbachia.bsky.social 's LUT manager plugin. Absolutely love the campfire LUT🔥 😍#microtubulemonday

Absolutely love both the tools :) The LUT manager is so much fun. Thanks 😀

Beautiful 😍😍

Same. The withdrawal is real !!!

Expression of vimentin intermediate filaments in epithelial cells promotes cell migration and cell matrix interaction in 3D https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.18.677142v1

Thank you so much 🙌🙂

Have you ever wondered how microtubules withstand and respond to mechanical stress in cells?

Here we show by in vitro reconstitution assays that MAP65-1 and PRC1 promote microtubule nucleation on existing lattices, especially on those with structural irregularities linked to mechanical stress.

Here's some more exciting new news from the microtubule world ✨Great work from @marianattom.bsky.social the @schaedellab.bsky.social showing how MAP65-1/PRC-1 reinforce microtubules under mechanical stress.
Look at them microtubule arrays in plant cells 😍 ( To quote Verstappen, "Simply lovely")

Thank you so much ❤️ your comment made my day 🙌🙌❤️

A big thank you to my amazing PI Laura Schaedel, my colleagues @schaedellab.bsky.social , Mirko Wieczorek, Constantin Albrecht, @stefandiezlab.bsky.social , @manuelthery.bsky.social and the team of Ludger Santen😀🧵 (9/9).

Our findings suggest the intriguing possibility that cells may use intracellular factors to differentially regulate MT response to mechanical stimuli, making MTs either mechanosensitive (adaptive response) or resilient to stimuli based on functional needs.🧵(8/9)

Thus damage in buckling microtubules stems from a combination of curvature and motor activity with curvature acting as a key amplifier of motor induced damage. 🧵 (7/9)

But MT breakage is relatively infrequent in cells suggesting that intracellular factors may help boost MT resilience. To test this, we performed buckling assays in presence of HEK293 cell lysates and found enhanced MT survival. 🧵(6/9)

Interestingly, we also found that buckling MTs break (predominantly at points of high curvature) even in the presence of free tubulin indicating that buckling poses a mechanical challenge that can't be balanced by intrinsic self- repair alone. 🧵 (5/9)

We found that kinesin driven buckling causes extensive damage and self-repair showing higher levels of tubulin turnover along 40-60% of the MT lattice length.🧵 (4/9)

We set out to bend and buckle microtubules dynamically ( as seen in cells) invitro and reproduced MT behaviours typically seen in cells, in vitro. 🧵(3/9)

We found that self repair in bent MTs occurs both in vitro and in cells, with incorporations being more pronounced in cells (Image credit for cell images: @morgangazzola.bsky.social @manuelthery.bsky.social )🧵(2/9)

Despite their high rigidity, microtubules (MTs) dynamically bend and buckle in cells. MT-self repair is inherent to their metastable nature, but it remains unclear whether just inherent repair mechanisms are sufficient to maintain MT integrity🧵 (1/9)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thank you so much for your kind words ❤️ I am such a big fan of your work😍 It was a lot of fun to bend and break microtubules 😜

Congratulations, Subham 🎉🎉🎉 Great study and uber cool microtubule self-repair images that I can stare at for hours 😍😍😍

Upcoming interdisciplinary meeting: Cell Physics 2025
When? October 7-9, 2025
Where? Saarbruecken, Germany
Relevant dates? Early-bird deadline: June 30, regular registration by August 31
Several opportunities for short-talks selected from abstracts
More info at: cell-physics.uni-saarland.de

Love it 🤩🤩

I love Tj's writing. You should totally grab the sequel 'Somewhere beyond the Sea' 🙌🙌

All such amazing choices ❤️❤️Happy reading🙌🙌😊

Ughhh. I absolutely hate this. And they are not cheap too 🙄🙄

Beautiful 😍