Reaper Grim? The Grim Reaper is seen exclusively as the bringer of death. However at the cellular level the mastermind behind death, the protein p53, also sparks life. Every tissue undergoes controlled cell death to ensure they continue to work properly. p53 orchestrates this death but also encourages cell division among the neighbours of an ill-fated cell. This protein exists in two forms; long and short. To discover how they work scientists turned to the undead – that is the undead cells of genetically altered fly embryos. More specifically, their imaginal discs from which the wings develop (pictured). These discs were tweaked so death could be triggered but not completed, giving scientists enough time to see what p53 is up to. Comparing long and short p53 revealed that both caused cell death via a pathway aptly named Reaper-Hid-Grim. However when it came to getting neighbouring cells to divide short p53 was the winner. Written by Lux Fatimathas — Research published in Cell Death & Differentiation Image published in Journal of Cell Biology 196(4):513-527, (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Courtesy Anat Florentin & Eli Arama
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Reaper Grim?

The Grim Reaper is seen exclusively as the bringer of death. However at the cellular level the mastermind behind death, the protein p53, also sparks life. Every tissue undergoes controlled cell death to ensure they continue to work properly. p53 orchestrates this death but also encourages cell division among the neighbours of an ill-fated cell. This protein exists in two forms; long and short. To discover how they work scientists turned to the undead – that is the undead cells of genetically altered fly embryos. More specifically, their imaginal discs from which the wings develop (pictured). These discs were tweaked so death could be triggered but not completed, giving scientists enough time to see what p53 is up to. Comparing long and short p53 revealed that both caused cell death via a pathway aptly named Reaper-Hid-Grim. However when it came to getting neighbouring cells to divide short p53 was the winner.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

Ageing Flies Flies, like humans, can show signs of brain degeneration as they reach old age. Affected insects possess gene mutations, which lead to shaking and difficulty walking as brain function is lost. By looking for early warning signs in the brains of these insects, scientists hope to improve early detection of human neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington’s and Parkinson’s. However, flies’ brains are delicate, and the traditional way of imaging them - preparing thin slices of the organ to view under a microscope – is laborious and requires great precision. Scientists have found a neat way to overcome this. By simply bleaching the fly’s dark pigmentation they can take images through the intact head (shown above) to the brain underneath. Written by Manisha Lalloo — Mary O’Connell Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit, UK Originally published under Creative Commons (CC-BY 2.0) Published in PLoS One
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Ageing Flies

Flies, like humans, can show signs of brain degeneration as they reach old age. Affected insects possess gene mutations, which lead to shaking and difficulty walking as brain function is lost. By looking for early warning signs in the brains of these insects, scientists hope to improve early detection of human neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington’s and Parkinson’s. However, flies’ brains are delicate, and the traditional way of imaging them - preparing thin slices of the organ to view under a microscope – is laborious and requires great precision. Scientists have found a neat way to overcome this. By simply bleaching the fly’s dark pigmentation they can take images through the intact head (shown above) to the brain underneath.

Written by Manisha Lalloo

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

Wing It As a three-day-old fruit fly larva starts its transformation into an adult, important changes are going on beneath its skin. This raindrop-shaped structure is the nascent wing, forming from a tiny pocket of cells (stained blue) as they grow in a carefully coordinated fashion. Cells containing a chemical messenger called dpp have been labelled with green fluorescent protein. Dpp helps to control how the wing takes shape, accumulating in a narrow band down the middle to divide its anterior [front] and posterior [back] ends. And it tells nearby cells to ‘switch on’ genes (stained red), which control the development of different parts of the wing. Scientists recently discovered that another protein – called pent – makes sure different parts of the wing grow in proportion with one another. Written by Emma Stoye — Fisun Hamaratoglu University of Basel, Switzerland Originally published under Creative Commons (CC-BY 2.0) Published in PLoS Biology
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Wing It

As a three-day-old fruit fly larva starts its transformation into an adult, important changes are going on beneath its skin. This raindrop-shaped structure is the nascent wing, forming from a tiny pocket of cells (stained blue) as they grow in a carefully coordinated fashion. Cells containing a chemical messenger called dpp have been labelled with green fluorescent protein. Dpp helps to control how the wing takes shape, accumulating in a narrow band down the middle to divide its anterior [front] and posterior [back] ends. And it tells nearby cells to ‘switch on’ genes (stained red), which control the development of different parts of the wing. Scientists recently discovered that another protein – called pent – makes sure different parts of the wing grow in proportion with one another.

Written by Emma Stoye

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk