Not all nuclei are regular spheres as is often shown in textbooks. For example, in Drosophila embryos, nuclei are initially spherical but they elongate and acquire an irregular lobulated morphology during cellularisation. These morphological changes coincide with transcriptional activation of the zygotic genome and reflect poorly understood changes in nuclear envelope (NE) mechanics. Here (see p. 3377), Thomas Lecuit and co-workers provide new insights into NE morphogenesis in early Drosophila embryos. Microtubule (MT) polymerisation events produce the forces necessary for NE dynamics, they report, and the large-scale NE deformations associated with lobulation require both a concentration of MT polymerisation in bundles that are organised by dynein and the presence of the farnesylated inner nuclear membrane protein Kugelkern. The researchers also show that MT-induced NE deformations control the dynamics of chromatin and its organisation at steady state. They suggest, therefore, that the mechanical regulation of chromatin dynamics by MT-induced NE fluctuations might be important for gene regulation in Drosophila embryos.
Pushing the nuclear envelope
Pushing the nuclear envelope. Development 15 August 2011; 138 (16): e1601. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.