In the latest episode of Genetics Unzipped, presenter Kat Arney is getting in harmony with the science of music. Is there a music gene? Does musical talent really run in families? And how does the inability to perceive music impact on daily life?

Music is a deeply human characteristic – whether it’s clapping, tapping, singing or playing, most of us love to listen – and maybe move – to good tune or a funky beat, and there are plenty of music makers in the world, from schoolkids playing the recorder or making beats on a laptop to virtuoso concert pianist and global pop stars. But where does our musical urge come from? And is it in our genes? 

Kat chats with Reyna Gordon. associate professor and director of the Music Cognition Lab in the Department of Otolaryngology and the Genetics Institute at Vanderbilt university in Tennessee. She’s the recipient of a prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award for her work looking at the underlying biology of why rhythm means so much to us.

Our second guest is Jasmin Pfeifer, from Heinrich-Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany. A linguist by training, Jasmin has found herself involved in the world of genetics through her studies of a condition called congenital amusia, or hereditary tone-deafness.

Genetics Unzipped is the podcast from The Genetics Society. Full transcript, links and references available online at GeneticsUnzipped.com.

Subscribe from Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Head over to GeneticsUnzipped.com to catch up on our extensive back catalogue.

If you enjoy the show, please do rate and review on Apple podcasts and help to spread the word on social media. And you can always send feedback and suggestions for future episodes and guests to podcast@geneticsunzipped.com Follow us on Twitter – @geneticsunzip

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This meeting will showcase state-of-the-art developmental biology across the lifecourse. The multidisciplinary programme will highlight the latest innovations in live imaging of developing systems, organoid approaches to unravel developmental mechanisms, and the mathematical modelling of morphogenesis and organ homeostasis. Featuring 17 internationally renowned plenary speakers, alongside short and flash talks selected from the submitted abstracts of early career researchers.

Discounted early-bird registration until 3rd December

Abstract submission deadline: 16th December

Registration, abstract submission and speaker biogs here:

https://tinyurl.com/4ce6y6r3

Twitter: #beddingtonconf

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Applications are now open for fully funded, 4 year studentships in the Molecular Cell Biology in Health and Disease Programme at the Dunn School of Pathology, the University of Oxford.

The programme offers generous four-year DPhil studentships which cover full fees, pay a tax-free, enhanced stipend of ~£17,609 pa, and provide £5,300 pa for research and travel costs.

Student on this programme start research on their main projects immediately and so they have a full four years to work on their research project. If their work is delayed by the pandemic students will be given a fully funded extension.

Individuals of all nationalities are welcome to apply.

Applications for entry in October 2022 must be submitted before 12 noon, 3^rd December 2021.

More information: https://www.path.ox.ac.uk/content/departmental-prize-dphil-studentship-competition

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Wednesday 10 November 2021 – 15:00 GMT

For our twelfth webinar in the Development presents… series, Development Editor James Wells (Cincinnati Childrens’ Hospital) has invited three authors to discuss stem cells and disease models.

The webinar will be held in Remo, our browser-based conferencing platform. After the talks you’ll have the chance to meet the speakers and other participants at virtual conference tables. If you can’t make it on the day, talks will be available to watch after the event on the Node. You can also sign up to our mailing list for email alerts.

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Welcome to our light-hearted look at the goings on in the world of developmental biology in the last two weeks (or so).

Lab Life on twitter

• Read about the controversial opinions/science-life hacks

• Plans versus reality

• A storybook ending

Science in the News

• The current NIH director, Francis Collins, is retiring at end of the year. He urged that a woman should succeed him, but what would your list of eligibility requirement be?  Is a medical degree an essential? The ability to address the inbuilt inequity in science?

Articles in Science and Nature address these and many other issues with the appointment.

https://www.science.org/content/article/should-next-nih-director-hold-medical-degree

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02842-7

• HHMI has launched their own $2 billion program to improve diversity and inclusion in science

https://www.hhmi.org/news/hhmi-launches-2-billion-10-year-investment-advance-diversity-and-inclusion-science

• Inequity in science

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02601-8

• Science and politics

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02885-w

Career advice and opportunities

• You are not alone. Even Nobel laureates fail to get all grants funded

• Undergradute Research opportunity with the SDB

https://www.sdbonline.org/choose_development

• American Association for Antomy scholar program and the story behind it.

Science communication

Dance your PhD contest is back, including a new machine learning category

https://www.science.org/content/page/announcing-annual-dance-your-ph-d-contest

prelight in #devbio

Deciphering the epicardial signals that promote myocardial growth

Hedgehog and glycolysis: the perfect team to regulate energy production in the developing Drosophila wing disc

Thanks to the #DevBio community for sharing their thoughts, especially on twitter. If you have some news that you think we should share on our blog, please get in touch at thenode@biologists.com. If you are interested in getting involved with writing preLights you can find out more here.

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Register your interest by October 31st 2021 for the Edinburgh Gallus Genome and Embryonic Development (EGGED) Workshop in 2022. EGGED 2022 will run on the 12-15^th of July 2022 at The Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS, Easter Bush Campus, The University of Edinburgh. Full registration will open in due course and spaces will be limited due to the nature of the workshop.

The EGGED 2022 Workshop will provide hands-on training for developmental biologists that use or would like to use the chicken embryo in their research. Instruction will include fundamental techniques, ex ovo culture, and imaging to advances in transgenics, gene editing, and genomics and using the chicken embryo to teach developmental biology. This practical workshop is open to researchers with a range of experience; from students and early career researchers to group leaders and principal investigators. The workshop will also provide an opportunity for scientists to share, learn and develop embryological techniques that use chicken embryos.

The UKRI-BBSRC funded Roslin Institute and the National Avian Research Facility (NARF) have developed globally unique chicken resources, including a range of transgenic fluorescent reporter chicken lines. EGGED will bring together the world’s embryology experts to share their skills and showcase these exceptional resources. To date, speakers for EGGED 2022 include; Prof Marian Ros, Prof Claudio Stern, Prof Tatjana Sauka-Spengler, Prof Neil Vargesson, Dr Raman Das, Dr Hervé Acloque, Dr Ben Steventon, Dr Jérôme Gros, Dr Mike McGrew, Dr Jacqueline Smith, Dr Joe Rainger, Dr Adam Balic, and Dr Denis Headon.

A Royal Society of Edinburgh Saltire Facilitation Network Award has been awarded to The Roslin Institute, R(D)SVS and the NARF, both based at The University of Edinburgh Easter Bush Campus, to hold these practical workshops in both 2022 and 2023. EGGED is also supported by The Company of Biologists, including support towards making the meeting sustainable.

We also aim to document the specialist skills demonstrated at the EGGED workshops and make them available online as an important developmental biology community resource.

EGGED is held in memory of Dr Donald Ede, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, a talented chicken embryologist and member of the RSE, who passed away in 2018.

Event organisers are Dr Megan G Davey (The Roslin Institute, R(D)SVS) and Dr Lindsay Henderson (The Roslin Institute, NARF). Read more on the EGGED website and register your interest here.

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In the latest episode of Genetics Unzipped, presenter Kat Arney is squelching through the Californian mud, swimming with platypuses, bearing witness to daylight robbery and even finding time to catch an episode of Star Trek as she looks back on some of the most mind-blowing stories from the world of genetics in 2021.

We meet the Borgs – huge genetic elements in archaea that can assimilate genes from their neighbours – and discover how whitefly pulled off a genetic theft that enabled them to become one of the world’s most destructive agricultural pests.

We hear how researchers are developing mirror-image DNA polymerases that can make mirror-image DNA – perfect for long-term, stable data storage. Then there’s the strange discovery that hundreds of viruses use a DNA base called 2-aminoadenine, known as Z, instead of the usual adenine (A), with big implications for our understanding of the genetic code as we know it.

And finally, we take a dive into the duck-billed platypus genome, to discover what these mysterious monotremes can teach us about mammalian evolution.

Genetics Unzipped is the podcast from The Genetics Society. Full transcript, links and references available online at GeneticsUnzipped.com.

Subscribe from Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Head over to GeneticsUnzipped.com to catch up on our extensive back catalogue.

If you enjoy the show, please do rate and review on Apple podcasts and help to spread the word on social media. And you can always send feedback and suggestions for future episodes and guests to podcast@geneticsunzipped.com Follow us on Twitter – @geneticsunzip

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The 8^th Edition of the Annual Portuguese Drosophila Meeting (#DrosTuga2021), aims at bringing together national and international members of the Portuguese Drosophila community. Along with them, Portuguese Drosophila scientists abroad and any participant from other country interested in Drosophila and developmental research are invited. https://igc.idloom.events/drostuga2021

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The purpose of this Drosophila meeting is to promote open sharing of data and ideas, as well as to provide a rich forum for discussion of new research findings and conceptual breakthroughs in an informal environment. 

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Due to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this edition will be held entirely ONLINE on the afternoons of the 29th and 30th of November 2021. 

The event will include selected short and long talks presented at the Plenary Sessions via Zoom. Thanks to our sponsors, the best talks and posters will receive a prize. In addition to the presentations, there will be time for discussion and mixing between researchers at all career stages during the two interactive Poster Sessions (held in the Hopin platform). You can take a look at the programme for more details.

In this DrosTuga 2021 edition, we will have the pleasure of listening to two great Keynote Speakers. Their exciting work spans a broad range of topics of interest to our community: Isabel Palacios and Nicolas Gompel. Besides our speakers research, we will have the opportunity of talking about outreach and the importance of Drosophila studies in science.

Attendance is FREE, but registration is compulsory.

NEW Abstract submission deadline for posters only: 7^th November 2021 (23:59h GMT+1). Click here to submit your abstract. The deadline for short and long talks is now closed (24th October 2021).

Registration deadline: 24^th November 2021 (23:59h GMT+1). Click here for registration.

Looking forward seeing all you there!

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The Organising Committee:

• Clara Ferreira (Champalimaud Research – CR)
• Florence Janody (Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde – i3S)
• Nélson Martins (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência – IGC)
• Pilar Okenve-Ramos (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência – IGC)

Write to us for any doubt or suggestion you may have at drostuga.meeting@gmail.com

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#DrosTuga2021 https://igc.idloom.events/drostuga2021

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On Wednesday 13 October, Development hosted three talks from authors of selected papers from our Special Issue: Imaging Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration

Below you’ll find each of the talks, plus a Q&A chaired by Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe. The next #DevPres webinar will be held on 10 November 2021, and chaired by James Wells – subscribe to our mailing list for updates.

Daisy Vinter (University of Manchester) – Dynamics of hunchback translation in real time and at single mRNA resolution in the Drosophila embryo

Daisy’s work was published in our Special Issue: Imaging Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration

Ping Wu (University of Southern California) – Cyclic growth of dermal papilla and regeneration of follicular mesenchymal components during feather cycling

This work was published in the most recent Special Issue of Development: Imaging Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration

Yan Gong & Dominique Bergmann (Stanford University) – The Arabidopsis stomatal polarity protein BASL mediates distinct processes before and after cell division to coordinate cell size and fate asymmetries

You can find our more about the research from Yan and Dominique in our Special Issue: Imaging Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration

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Workshop vs. Webinar

In April 2020, I should have attended The Company of Biologists Workshop “The Cytoskeletal Road to Neuronal Function”. If only there was not the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The Workshop was ultimately canceled, however the organizers suggested to us (the enthusiastic and disappointed participants) to initiate a Webinar as a virtual platform for the neuronal cytoskeleton research community. I and four other participants (Satish Bodakuntla, Meng-meng Fu, Oliver Glomb and Lisa Landskron) volunteered as organizers, and this is how “The Cytoskeleton of Neurons and Glia” Webinar was established in April 2021. Since then, we hosted more than twenty diverse and inspiring speakers. On October 7^th our efforts reached a milestone – the twelfth Webinar marked six months of its existence!

Actin monomers as cellular cobblestones

I wrote this Node inspired by one of our speakers – Dr. Eric Vitriol. He presented a work from his Lab focusing on how actin dynamics are affected by actin monomers in neuronal cells. But first, let us take one step back and borrow the cytoskeletal road metaphor from The Company of Biologists workshop. Imagine a trail made of cobblestones, assembling underneath your feet and in front of you while you are walking. This trail will fall apart at the back once it is no longer needed. Next, imagine the cobblestones are self-aware of their numbers, and they will never start making the trail unless they “know” there is a sufficient number of them to start the construction (“critical concentration”). Additional factors like a solid ground to build on, stabilizing mortar, continuous supply of high quality cobblestones, all facilitate the trail assembly. While a self-aware and self-building trail is still far from our reality, practically all cells in our bodies have plenty of “cobblestones” called actin monomers. The monomers are present way above the critical concentration and can assemble into trails and many different cellular structures. As a matter of fact, with such a good supply of actin monomers why not building all the time?!? Well, cells have figured a way to protect themselves from an energy-costly unproductive actin assembly. This is achieved by sequestering actin monomers via another molecule called Profilin (PFN), that will release the “cobblestones” once there is a “construction permit”.

Profilin, actin monomers and neurons

In cells with neuronal origins, the team of Dr. Vitriol studied how different actin structures assemble from a common monomer pool and how Profilin 1 (PFN1) is influencing this process. They varied the concentration of PFN1 and induced cellular shortage, normal levels, or excess of PFN1. In those three conditions, they analyzed two established actin assemblies (branched Arp2/3-mediated and linear Mena/VASP based) at a highly dynamic part of the cell called leading edge. The cells responded with downsizing actin assembly throughout the cell when there is a shortage of PFN1. In addition, the lack of PFN1 repositioned the Arp2/3 nucleator complex towards the center of the circular cells, and reduced Mena/VASP function, ultimately disrupting the architecture of the leading edge. At low concentration of PFN1 cells seem to employ a mechanism to be resourceful and favor linear networks constructions. Abundance of PFN1 signals that both linear and dendritic actin networks can be reestablish. You can find more details in the paper published in 2020 in Current Biology, with Dr. Kirsten Skruber as a first author (1). This study provides us with a glimpse on how mammalian cells reshape actin assemblies when they face challenging situations when the concentrations of a major “guardian” and nucleators of the actin building blocks are changed. These disturbances must come at high costs for cell fitness, especially in long-lived, specialized cells like neurons. And while short term each cell has certain capacity to cope with different intra- and extracellular challenges, long-term exposure to the same “stretch” will eventually lead to neuronal dysfunction.

Mutations in PFN1 are direct cause of a late onset, incurable neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (very recent review from another speaker in the Webinar series Dr. Kai Murk (2)). In addition, decreased levels of PFN2 were detected in cells from patients with Charcot Marie Tooth disease – genetically heterogeneous disorder affecting the peripheral nerves, as found by the team led by one of my PhD supervisors – Dr. Vincent Timmerman (3). Thus, the building blocks of the actin cytoskeleton are getting the closer attention they deserve, as there are plenty missing pieces in the puzzle that costs humans their health.

1. Skruber et al., 2020, Current Biology 30, 2651-2664;
2. Murk et al., 2021, Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 9, 681122;
3. Juneja et al., 2018, J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 89, 870-878.

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