Julia Wittes

demonstrated that the germline and somatic gonad appear to act in concert as part of a signaling relay.
This project has been so much fun to work on. Many thanks to my collaborator Grace, mentor Iva, and the worms!

exactly insulin is acting has been a long-standing mystery.
By tissue-specifically disrupting DAF-2 (the insulin receptor) and AKT in the somatic gonad, we discovered that insulin signaling in the somatic gonad is critical for regulating the dauer entry decision. Laser ablation experiments

When C. elegans worms are exposed to stressful conditions, they can put reproduction and development to adulthood on hold and arrest their development as stress resistant (and very weird/cool) dauer larvae. We have long known that insulin signaling influences the dauer entry decision, but where

Insulin signaling activity in the somatic gonad controls dauer entry via the germ line in C. elegans C. elegans dauer diapause is a facultative state of cellular and developmental quiescence that enables survival in adverse conditions. Przybyl et al. show that a canonical insulin signaling pathway ac...

My new paper is out in Current Biology!

This is such a clever idea!

Flybase is in trouble and needs emergency support. #Celegans community I know we have a friendly feud but maybe consider a donation to honor a fly colleague/mentor?

"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...