Biology Open

Promotional graphic announcing Biology Open’s Global South Travel Grants for the 13th European Zebrafish Meeting (EZM2026). Logos for Biology Open and the European Zebrafish Society appear at the top. Text states that the grants support early‑career researchers from the Global South to attend EZM2026, taking place 7–11 July 2026 in Vienna, Austria. A teal banner at the bottom highlights the application deadline, 15 March 2026, and the link www.ezsociety.org/grants‑EZM2026.

📆 🐟 The deadline for the BiO Global South Travel Grants for #EZM2026 is approaching. Apply by 15 March 2026. @ezsociety.bsky.social
www.ezsociety.org/grants-EZM2026

The quality of the review remains key, and this is being monitored closely. The reviews are also published so they can be scrutinised by readers.

Models of gap gene regulation and spatiotemporal dynamics of gap gene expression in WT Tribolium embryos. (C,D) HCR FISH detecting subsets of the four core gap genes (hb, Kr, mlpt, gt) in staged WT embryos (14-38 h AEL). Panel C shows expression of hb, Kr, and mlpt concurrently in the same embryos, while panel D shows mlpt and gt concurrently in the same embryos. All embryos are oriented with anterior to the left and posterior to the right.

Embryonic patterning can arise from temporal gene activation translated into space; Mahla Ahmadi & co show that #Tribolium anterior-posterior patterning follows this logic at the genetic level. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

#TemporalPatterning #Segmentation #GeneExpressionWaves

Walter Dellisanti

Read our interview with author Walter Dellisanti, a postdoc in Michael Kühl's lab at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, investigating the metabolic performance of corals under current & future environmental changes through an interdisciplinary & multi-scale approach.
doi.org/10.1242/bio....

An image of microsensor analysis on coral Cladocora caespitosa, from the paper by Dellisanti et al., used to quantify the O2 microenvironment of the coral surface and gastrovascular cavity. Image licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Walter Dellisanti and colleagues demonstrate that the gastric cavity of Mediterranean corals hosts a highly diverse microbial community compared with the tissue or surrounding seawater. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Biology Open has embarked on an initiative to find out if the time from submission to first decision after #PeerReview can be greatly reduced, whilst maintaining our high standards of quality. Watch the full video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgR1...

#FastandFairPeerReview #ScientificPublishing

Karyotype evolution in laboratory cultures of M. lignano. (A) Brightfield image of an adult worm. Scale bar: 100 µm. (B) Karyotype polymorphisms with an increasing number of large chromosomes that can be found in M. lignano. Scale bars: 10 µm. (C) Dynamics of karyotype polymorphisms present in 12 experimental subcultures over a period of 26 months. All subcultures started with only the 2n=8 karyotype. The bars indicate the percentage of subcultures that also contain the 2n=9 and 2n=10 karyotypes as a function of time.

Stijn Mouton & co present a flow cytometric approach to identify karyotypic polymorphisms in Macrostomum lignano cultures, demonstrate de novo chromosome duplications under laboratory conditions, and propose a solution for controlling culture karyotypes. 🪱
doi.org/10.1242/bio....

#Flatworm

Fast & Fair peer review. A new initiative offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days of submission.

This article was handled through our Fast & Fair peer review workflow. This initiative aims to provide authors with a first decision post review within 7 working days. Read more articles handled through our Fast & fair peer review in our collection. bit.ly/4fiAxNE

Example images from the experiment. Extending from its 7 cm long natural (darker) tube located on the surface of transparent glass beads, individual L. conchilega (visible in red) re-built tubes from glass beads several centimeters long in narrow (0.6 cm wide) aquaria.

Nienke Zwaferink & co use a novel laboratory method to reveal how #temperature affects tube-building activity in a habitat-forming worm, improving understanding of performance limits and its ability to support coastal ecosystems under climate change. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

#Polychaete #Stress

Fast & Fair peer review. A new initiative offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days of submission.

This article was handled through our Fast & Fair peer review workflow. This initiative aims to provide authors with a first decision post review within 7 working days. Read more articles handled through our Fast & fair peer review in our collection. bit.ly/4fiAxNE

Experimental overview and measurement workflow. (A) Schematic of C. elegans body-wall musculature showing anterior (head), mid-body, and posterior (tail) regions analyzed. (B) Representative bright-field stills of worms during crawling on agar (left) and (C) swimming in liquid (right), illustrating posture and curvature over time (i–iii). (D,E) Confocal micrographs of phalloidin-stained mid-body myocytes from crawling and swimming animals, respectively. Actin filaments delineate sarcomeres used for morphometry. (F) Schematic diagram of C. elegans body-wall musculature styled after Gieseler et al. (2017). (G) Typical sarcomere arrangement in mammalian striated muscle compared with analogous structures in C. elegans (H).

Adina Fazyl, @andres-vidal-gadea.bsky.social & co show that swimming C. elegans develop shorter, denser #sarcomeres and elongated muscles compared to crawlers, revealing activity-dependent muscle remodelling. 🪱https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.062371

#MusclePlasticity #Locomotion #Mechanotransduction

Congrats! She's not just a Sloan Fellow and an amazing scientist, she's also one of the academic editors @biologyopen.bsky.social

Experimental set-up. 3 to 5-day-old virgin flies were collected and separated into groups of ten by sex, using ten vials of ten flies per sex/genotype/treatment combination. Flies in the exercise-treated group underwent five consecutive days of exercise using the Treadwheel, while animals in the control group were handled the same way, but without the treatment on the Treadwheel. 1 day after completing the exercise treatment, climbing ability of all animals was measured. At this point, the animals were weighed and frozen for metabolite analysis.

James Walts & co use #Drosophila melanogaster to investigate how exercise impacts body composition, specifically, protein content. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

#ExercisePhysiology #Metabolites #TreadWheel #GWAS

Naïve-like H9 hESC colonies exhibit distinct spatial patterns of pan Kla, LDHA, proteins involved in lactate transport, and general pluripotency markers. (A) Schematic showing the process of z-stack selection [left; created in BioRender by Betts Laboratory (2026); https://BioRender.com/k478v5i] and colony section assignment (right) for quantitative analysis of mean intensity. This figure was sublicensed under CC-BY 4.0 terms. (B) Representative immunofluorescence images of untreated naïve-like H9 hESC colonies stained for DAPI (nuclear marker), Pan Kla (global lactylation), LDHA, CX43, MCT1, SOX2, and OCT4. Scale bars: 50 μm.

Alexandra Kozlov, Robert Cumming & co from @westernu.ca examine the levels and spatial distribution of a newly identified protein modifier, lysine lactylation, and its relationship to cell fate in human embryonic stem cells. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

#PluripotentStemCells #Pluripotency #Lactylation

Fast & Fair peer review. A new initiative offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days of submission.

This article was handled through our Fast & Fair peer review workflow. This initiative aims to provide authors with a first decision post review within 7 working days. Read more articles handled through our Fast & fair peer review in our collection. bit.ly/4fiAxNE

C. elegans highlights potential molecular determinants involved in O. vulgaris nociception. Data for the drop assay is reported here as the number of actual reversals after exposure to the noxious cue (M9, pH 3). The heat map shows a colour coded indication of the strains' sensitivity to M9, pH 3 from non-sensitive che-3 (e1124)-like (magenta) to sensitive WT N2-like (green). Each colour block represents the average number of reversals across all the worms tested per strain. The WT N2 performance was characterised by at least three body reversals within 5 s of contact with the drop and was used to set our criteria for responsiveness.

An animal's ability to detect and withdraw from noxious stimuli is crucial for its survival and is mediated by nociceptors. Here, Pieroni & co venture into finding molecular candidates for nociceptors in Octopus vulgaris. 🐙 doi.org/10.1242/bio....

#Nociception #SensoryCues #Octopus

We are pleased to be a media partner for the @embo.org @embl.org Symposium - Microtubules: from atoms to complex systems
Abstract submission: 11 Mar 2026
Registration (On-site): 6 May 2026
Registration (Virtual): 10 Jun 2026

bit.ly/4jDTuMH
#EESMicrotubules

A promotional graphic for a workshop titled “Integrating Multi-Modal, Multi-Scale Models of Cardiovascular Disease Mechanisms.” The word “Workshop” appears in yellow at the top left, with the main title in large white text on a black background. Below, it lists the organisers: Jennifer Davis, Christine Mummery and Beth Pruitt. On the right, there is a yellow box stating: “Early-career researchers apply for funded places.” Bottom right shows the dates “8–11 November 2026” and the location “Buxted Park, East Sussex, UK.” Bottom left displays The Company of Biologists logo.

Applications are now open for funded ECR places at our Workshop 'Integrating Multi-Modal, Multi-Scale Models of Cardiovascular Disease Mechanisms', organised by Jennifer Davis, Christine Mummery & Beth Pruitt. Find out more & apply to attend: biologists.com/workshops/no...

@sharday-penn.bsky.social

Katrina Moore

Katrina Moore is a PhD candidate in Monica Daley's @birdbiomech.bsky.social lab in @ucirvine.bsky.social, investigating how #wildlifebehaviour changes across different contexts and how these insights can guide effective #conservation strategies. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Kaisa Pakari

Next, Kaisa Pakari @kpakari.bsky.social is a postdoc in the lab of Thomas Thumberger at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS), Heidelberg, Germany, investigating glycosylation disorders using #medaka fish as a model system. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Maryam Hekmatara

Maryam Hekmatara is a postdoc in @mrobichaux.bsky.social lab at West Virginia University School of Medicine, USA, investigating retinal cell biology and protein trafficking using super-resolution microscopy. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Jasmine Alqassar

Next, @jasminealqassar.bsky.social is a PhD student in @evolvwing.bsky.social lab at The George Washington University, Washington, USA, investigating how evolutionary changes in developmental processes facilitate adaptation. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Ekaterina Gribkova

Next, Ekaterina Gribkova is a postdoc Rhanor Gillette’s lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, investigating #neuroethology and #computationalmodelling, with a particular focus on bridging the gap between biological and artificial intelligence. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Anna Lennon

For #IDWGS, read our interviews with some of Biology Open's #WomeninSTEM first authors.

First up, Anna Lennon is a PhD student at Indiana University, USA, in @jaytlennon.bsky.social’s lab, investigating the evolution of division of the labour system engaged in dormancy. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

What's great about these global south travel grants? The money gets disbursed immediately after the winners are announced. Grantees can use the money to book travel, no paying out of pocket, no reimbursement necessary

Promotional graphic announcing Biology Open’s Global South Travel Grants for the 13th European Zebrafish Meeting (EZM2026). Logos for Biology Open and the European Zebrafish Society appear at the top. Text states that the grants support early‑career researchers from the Global South to attend EZM2026, taking place 7–11 July 2026 in Vienna, Austria. A teal banner at the bottom highlights the application deadline, 15 March 2026, and the link www.ezsociety.org/grants‑EZM2026.

We are proud to partner with EZS @ezsociety.bsky.social, offering BiO Global South Travel Grants for #EZM2026. Apply by 15 March 2026.
www.ezsociety.org/grants-EZM2026

This article was handled through our Fast & Fair peer review workflow. This initiative aims to provide authors with a first decision post review within 7 working days. Read more articles handled through our Fast & fair peer review in our collection. bit.ly/4fiAxNE

Xenopus laevis.

Anna Lennon & co analyse how a fungal infection, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, influences the movement of frogs through the production and secretion of a neurotoxin. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Ekaterina Gribkova

Learn more about this research in our interview with first author, Ekaterina Gribkova, a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Rhanor Gillette at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA. doi.org/10.1242/bio....

Still images , showing the octopus tonic immobiliy procedure and electrode implantation in an O. rubescens.

Octopuses are fascinating animals with arms that can act almost independently of the brain. Ekaterina Gribkova & co explore a novel method for octopus ‘hypnosis’, which provides opportunities for advancing octopus neurobehavioral research. 🐙 doi.org/10.1242/bio....

#Octopus #Anesthesia