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A land-plant-specific p-GPAT family links cuticle formation and arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis, suggesting that one biochemical innovation may have helped early plants adapt to life on land.

Separated by only a few hours! These two novel preprints detail new and complementary ways to match mechanical readouts from tissues to OMICs

Watch the story of foregut folding unfold

DNA barcoding systems that uniquely label progenitors allow us to trace their fate. This preprint presents a novel method to analyse complex clonal patterns.

Skin exhibits a remarkable capacity for regeneration, which requires the coordinated reconstitution of diverse cell types and structures. Merkel cells are mechanosensory cells that detect gentle touch...

Genetically encoded biosensors are central to plant cell biology, but low reporter signal can limit their use. Here, we developed modular intronised fluorophores to improve reporter output in transien...

Paying peer reviewers: It's not Science Fiction

To see, or not to see: fruit flies selectively suppress visual input via electrical transmission of an efference copy

Opening up peer review

SPOT(-TER) the difference: spatial proteomics painted by (TMT-channel) numbers

This preList brings together a selection of preprints discussed at the Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting 2026, held at UC Santa Cruz with the theme “Biomedicine, Biomechanics, and the Biosphere.” Reflecting the meeting’s broad scientific scope, from development and regeneration to evolution, tissue mechanics, and emerging technologies, this curated collection showcases work that contributed to conversations throughout the meeting.

Hand in hand - E-cadherin with E-cadherin: The number of E-cadherin connections influences morphogenetic tissue movements.

How liver endothelial cells decode blood flow to kick-start regeneration.

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A common epigenetic circuit may unite genetically diverse Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Targeting the SAGA complex dismantles leukemic identity.

The surprising plasticity of node endoderm in early development

Can parasite genomes tell us more than prevalence? A new preprint uses genomic data to reveal localized transmission, cross-village connectivity and persistent parasite diversity despite prolonged con...

Imaging spotlight: Live imaging reveals epithelial cell extrusion in a sea anemone - News

Opening up peer review

Neural crest migration and neural tube closure: two tissues in conversation. Neural crest cells help the neural tube close by building a fibronectin-rich interface, while neural tube bending mechanica...

The surprising plasticity of node endoderm in early development

Mice can do what now?? Is this just another catchy title?

How does the eye wire together? Eyewire II is a connectomics resource mapping the circuits behind vision

A desert plant that air-conditions itself. Tidestromia oblongifolia survives 60 °C air by cooling its own leaves about 10 °C below it, and this study by Feehan and co-authors shows that self-cooling i...

The clock under pressure: How presomitic mesoderm cells sense physical rigidity to control developmental timing

Same origin, different environment, different job: AGM niche shapes macrophages to support blood cell development

What drives evolutionary change in early embryonic gene expression?

Mechanical forces don’t just shape the cortex, they instruct it: LINC-mediated nuclear mechanosensing governs progenitor fate, neuronal identity, and human cortical patterning.

Cellularization as a mechanism to build cells

Bad company: how microglial function is corrupted in diffuse midline glioma, to promote pathogenic neuronal hyperexcitability.

Multicellular development is tightly coupled to the polarization of individual cells, which partitions polar proteins along the cell cortex and can control asymmetric cell division, anisotropic growth...

One gene loss, two surveillance mechanisms broken: how cancer cells prevent genome doubling.

Sensing before specialization: a diverse and spatially organized TRP channel toolkit in the unicellular ancestor of animals