Ethan (Chee Kiang) Ewe

Heat stress-induced condensation of G3BP1 in perinuclear P-bodies in C. elegans' germline https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.05.709961v1

Transcriptional feedback targeting Wnt pathway components reveals hidden heterogeneity in C. elegans seam cell lineages. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.04.709659v1

First 24 hours of embryonic development in 9 different animal species: (From left to right) Zebrafish, Sea urchin, Black widow spider, Tardigrade, Sea squirt, Comb jelly, Parchment tube worm, Roundworm, Slipper snail. Credit to @tessamontague.bsky.social & Zuzka Vavrušová. #ZebrafishZunday #devbio 🧪

DICER cleavage fidelity is governed by 5′-end binding pockets - Nature Cryo-electron microscopy and massively parallel assays shed light on the mechanism by which DICER, a key enzyme in the RNase III family, cleaves RNA at precise locations to produce small RNAs.

this seems to be a very interesting paper on the (reality) and the significance of 5'G micorRNAs for Dicer processing

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Beautiful work on host-microbe interaction @nickburton.bsky.social !

Bacterial pyruvate metabolism regulates host insulin sensitivity in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.04.709558v1

Biology is so beautiful!! 🤩

(Below, a cute movie generated during revision: a cellular love story with two cells timidly encountering each other, finally holding hands, and deciding never to let go.)

Feel the Antiviral Vibrations! Seriously.

I believe that I can guarantee that you will *not* have guessed this potential antiviral mechanism or even thought about it before:

Intracellular buffering enables developmental robustness after genome doubling in C. elegans embryos Genome doubling challenges animal embryogenesis. Using single-cell phenotypic analyses, Yang et al. show that tetraploid C. elegans embryos preserve developmental fidelity and molecular homeostasis by...

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Intracellular buffering enables developmental robustness after genome doubling in C. elegans embryos

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Preprint Editors – Development's next step into the preprint landscape Summary: This Editorial announces a call for Preprint Editors in Development to help expand the journal's relationship with preprints by curating our ‘In preprints’ articles.

New from @dev-journal.bsky.social: we're launching a new initiative and hiring Preprint Editors to help navigate the growing world of preprints in developmental & stem cell biology

Join our community & shape the future of research

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Fig. 6. The Mexican tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, as a model to study nutritional control of development. This species of small fish (~4–6 cm as adults) consists of cave-dwelling morphotypes (cavefish, A, C) and ancestral river-dwelling morphotypes (surface fish, B, D). Cavefish evolved from surface fish in perpetually dark caves and adapted to a nutrient poor diet of bat guano and material brought in by seasonal floods. The fish are easy to maintain in the laboratory and are interfertile. Cavefish larvae (C, 4 days post fertilization (dpf)) have more yolk and the yolk appears more yellow compared to surface fish (C, 4dpf) suggesting a difference in nutritional content. The yolk of F1 surface cave/hybrids produced from cavefish females (E) is more yellow compared to those produced from surface fish females (F). Comparing these reciprocal crosses will be useful for understanding how maternally provided nutrients in the yolk impact development. Scale bars ​= ​0.5mm. (A, B) Images provided by Nicholas Rohner, Stowers Institute for Medical Research. (C–D), Images reproduced with permission from (Riddle et al., 2020). Credit figure and text to Riddle and Hu (2021).

A. mexicanus are a promising model to study nutritional control of development as cavefish larvae yolks are larger & appear more yellow compared to surface fish suggesting differences in nutritional content. Reciprocal crosses show how maternally-provided nutrients impact development. #TeleostTalk 🧪

New version of our preprint on bioRxiv about bioRxiv up. Now that’s what I call a revision – 6 years after the first version!
It has new data about our progress and highlights from a massive user survey. 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Congrats!! #inspiration

Non-visual light modulates behavioral memory and gene expression in Caenorhabditis elegans Visible light engages a non-visual, bZIP-dependent transcriptional pathway in peripheral tissues that communicates with the nervous system to shape behavioral plasticity and memory, enabling optogenetic-like gene control without photoreceptors.

Congratulations to Dr Chandra and Dr Ma and other co-authors on this provocative work! They convincingly show e. coli interact with light and this disrupts memory consolidation.

Non-visual light modulates behavioral memory and gene expression in Caenorhabditis elegans doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Heat hormesis engages specific regulators to induce thermotolerance in WT and glp-1(ts) mutant. This study reveals that heat hormesis promotes longevity in WT and induces thermotolerance in both WT and glp-1(ts) mutant animals. The authors' multiomic data lead to the identification of several key regulators of heat hormesis, all of which are evolutionarily highly conserved, and participate in different regulatory steps of gene expression. HSF-1 is the master transcription factor of heat shock response and its emergence from the analyses proves that the investigative strategy is effective. FOS-1 points to a potential role for the AP-1 pioneer transcription factor complex in encoding heat hormesis memory through chromatin remodeling. ELT-2 suggests an interaction between the germline and the intestine in stress adaptation. DPY-27 suggests a connection between the dosage compensation complex (DCC)-mediated chromosome architecture and heat stress management. HSF-1, ELT-2, and DPY-27 regulate heat hormesis differently in worms with or without germline. SNPC-4 implicates a role of piRNA-mediated post-transcriptional regulation in stress responses. MARS-1 implicates a role of methionine incorporation during protein synthesis in heat hormesis. Created in BioRender. Lee, S. (2026)

Exposure to mild #HeatStress can promote stress resilience & healthy aging ("heat hormesis"). siusylvialee.bsky.social &co characterize #transcriptomic & #chromatin accessibility changes during heat #hormesis in #Celegans, identifying several novel regulators @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4cJFEa9

Evolutionary causes and consequences of gene duplication www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧬💻🧪 (🔓 rdcu.be/e4CYK)

Bacterial diet influences mutation rate in Pristionchus pacificus Abstract. Mutation is a major force of evolution and its accumulation is suggested to be influenced by environmental and genetic factors in both unicellula

Bacterial diet influences mutation rate in Pristionchus pacificus

academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Molecular insights into diverse heat hormesis regimens in Caenorhabditis elegans Abstract. Heat hormesis describes a biphasic, dose-dependent response in which low levels of heat stress induce beneficial effects, such as enhanced lifesp

Molecular insights into diverse heat hormesis regimens in Caenorhabditis elegans

academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

Congratulations!!!

No matter how many times I come across this specific cartoon, it makes me happy. ♥️

Here is a robust biochemical & functional difference between young and old mammalian cells:

- The fraction of new amino acids incorporated into proteins.

The difference is consistent, quantitative, cell-type specific, and deeply intriguing.

What aging mechanisms cause it ?

1/

Programmed mitophagy at the oocyte-to-zygote transition promotes lineage endurance - Nature Cell Biology Thendral et al. describe a mitophagic programme that removes deleterious mtDNA during the oocyte-to-zygote transition in Caenorhabditis elegans, promoting mitochondrial health and offspring survival. ...

☕Thendral et al. describe a mitophagic programme that removes deleterious mtDNA during the oocyte-to-zygote transition in C. elegans, promoting #mitochondria health and offspring survival. Loss of this #mitophagy leads to mutant mtDNA accumulation.
👉https://rdcu.be/e3tpJ
bit.ly/4aqi7Zk

The Dream and MEC NuRD complexes reinforce SPR-5/MET-2 maternal reprogramming to maintain the germline-soma distinction Abstract. The proper coordination of transcription factors, ATP dependent chromatin remodelers and histone modifications is essential for tissue specific g

Excited to Share Our New Publication in #GENETICS!

academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

Check out our new publication of our research exploring how the DREAM and MEC NuRD complexes reinforce SPR 5/MET 2 maternal reprogramming to safeguard proper developmental cell fates in C. elegans.

Great work! Congratulations :)

A pilot study for whole proteome tagging in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.09.704846v1

Labeling of nascent RNA in the C. elegans intestine Transcriptional regulation in C. elegans has been difficult to study at the level of nascent RNA because nucleotide analogs do not readily penetrate the cuticle. Here, we establish an ex vivo…

A Lab Protocol by Omid Gholamalamdari and Stephanie C. Weber details an optimized method for labeling of nascent RNA transcripts in the C. elegans intestine, enabling spatial analysis of transcription dynamics.

plos.io/3Ox4rnO

@protocolsio.bsky.social link: plos.io/3O9Jv6g

Epitope-based labeling for improved live-imaging of endogenous proteins in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.05.703904v1

Publish houses of brick, not mansions of straw - PubMed Publish houses of brick, not mansions of straw

... this is a reference to William Kaelin's essay: Publish houses of brick, not mansions of straw.