Nuclear (Bio)physics in the Embryo

Nuclear bodies: the emerging biophysics of nucleoplasmic phases.

The cell nucleus contains a large number of membrane-less bodies that play important roles in the spatiotemporal regulation of gene expression. Recent work suggests that low complexity/disordered protein motifs and repetitive binding domains drive assembly of droplets of nuclear RNA/protein by promoting nucleoplasmic phase separation. Nucleation and maturation of these structures is regulated b...

“Parking-garage” structures in nuclear astrophysics and cellular biophysics

D. K. Berry,1,* M. E. Caplan,1,† C. J. Horowitz,1,‡ Greg Huber,2,§ and A. S. Schneider3,‖ 1Center for Exploration of Energy and Matter and Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA 2Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kohn Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-4030, USA 3TAPIR, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, MC 350...

Nuclear Trapping Shapes the Terminal Gradient in the Drosophila Embryo

Patterning of the terminal regions of the Drosophila embryo relies on the gradient of phosphorylated ERK/MAPK (dpERK), which is controlled by the localized activation of the Torso receptor tyrosine kinase [1-4]. This model is supported by a large amount of data, but the gradient itself has never been quantified. We present the first measurements of the dpERK gradient and establish a new intrace...

Nuclear position in the cells of the mouse early embryo.

The nuclei of preimplantation mouse embryos were identified after labelling with either DAPI or Hoechst 33258. During the 4- and 8-cell stages the peripherally located nuclei become clustered nearer the centre of the embryo. This nuclear migration towards the base of each cell was also observed during the development of couplets of 2/4 and 2/8 cells. Most blastomeres isolated from compact 8-cel...

Biophysics.