During the earliest division stages, zebrafish embryos have large cells that divide rapidly and synchronously to create a cellular layer on top of the yolk. In this study we describe a protocol for monitoring spindle dynamics during these early embryonic divisions. We outline techniques for injecting zebrafish embryos with small-molecule inhibitors toward polo-like kinases, preparing and mounting embryos for three-dimensional imaging using confocal microscopy. These techniques are used to understand how the early zebrafish embryo’s centrosome constructs the mitotic spindle.
Check out the cool study from Jules Riley, a recent undergraduate from the Castaneda lab who is off to graduate school at UPENN. The Hehnly lab had the pleasure to work with Jules on tissue culture and learning quantitative light microscopy. Jules and Carlos put together this beautiful study on UBQLN2 behavior under stress in cells!
Check it out on BioRxiv here:https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.17.335380v1
From Fig 1, showing UBQLN2 forms membraneless liquid-like bodies following stress.
A favorite Jules shot (middle) with two Hehnly lab members, Nikhila (Left) and Julie Manikas (right, currently a grad student at NYU). This was after ASCB in 2019.
Our new study at Current Biology is online! Lindsay Rathbun and Abrar Aljiboury identified that in the zebrafish embryo mitotic centrosomes scale with cell size and are asymmetric in size! We had a great collaboration with the Bembenek Lab at Univ of Michigan along with his student Bai to also examine that this phenomenon is consistent in C. elegans. We had additional great contributions from undergrads to postbacs Nicole Hall and Julie Manikas. Finally we wouldn’t have been able to do any of it if the Amack Lab at SUNY Upstate didn’t introduce us to zebrafish and how awesome they are!
Check out the sweet video of zebrafish embryonic centrosomes:
Microtubules (EMTB-3xGFP) and centrosomes (Centrin-GFP)
