Microscopy preprints – applications in biology

Posted by FocalPlane, on 12 December 2025

Here is a curated selection of preprints published recently. In this post, we share preprints that use microscopy tools to answer questions in biology.

Lipid-induced Caveolin1-Lipid droplet trafficking is associated with lipid droplet growth
Esther Ocket, Tamara Pietrucik, Luis Wong-Dilworth, Michaela Rath, Daniel Aik, Dmytro Puchkov, Max Ruwolt, Martin Lehmann, Claudia Matthaeus

α-Parvin regulation of cell re-arrangement is critical for ureteric bud branching morphogenesis
Xinyu Dong, Fabian Bock, Ali Hashmi, Nada Bulus, Glenda Mernaugh, Gema Bolas, Shensen Li, Wanying Zhu, Meiling Melzer, Kyle Brown, Colton Miller, Olga Viquéz, Eloi Montañez, Ambra Pozzi, Sara A. Wickström, Roy Zent

Figure extracted from Dong, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

3D multi-omic mapping of whole nondiseased human fallopian tubes at cellular resolution reveals a large incidence of ovarian cancer precursors
André Forjaz, Vasco Queiroga, Yajuan Li, Alfredo Hernandez, Ashleigh Crawford, Xiaoyu Qin, Mei Zhong, Margarita Tsapatsis, Saurabh Joshi, Donald Kramer, Oliver Nizet, Habin Bea, Yuhan Li, Shuo Qin, Robert O’Flynn, Mingder Yang, Brittany Pratt, Fan Wu, Paul Gensbigler, Max Blecher, Pei-Hsun Wu, Luciane T. Kagohara, Ie-Ming Shih, David Zwicker, Mark Atkinson, Lingyan Shi, Rong Fan, Ashley L. Kiemen, Denis Wirtz

SPIN90 modulates the architecture of lamellipodial actin in an ARPC5L dependent fashion
LuYan Cao, Angika Basant, Miroslav Mladenov, Naoko Kogata, Antoine Jegou, Guillaume Romet-Lemonne, Sophie Brasselet, Manos Mavrakis, Michael Way

Figure extracted from Cao, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

Identifying the internalization pathways of magnetotactic bacteria and magnetosomes by cancer cells
Lucía Gandarias, Lide Arana, Alicia G. Gubieda, Ana J. Pérez-Berná, Ana Abad-Díaz-de-Cerio, M. Luisa Fdez-Gubieda, Alicia Muela, Ana García-Prieto

A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes
H. Beryl Rappaport, Natalie A. Petek-Seoane, Tomáš Tyml, Felix Mikus, Kurt LaButti, Godwin Ani, Jessica K. Niblo, Ethan MacVicar, Rachel M. Shepherd, Ignacio de la Higuera, Samuel J. Lord, Gautam Dey, Gordon V. Wolfe, Omaya Dudin, Shahar Sukenik, Laura A. Katz, Kenneth M. Stedman, Kristen Skruber, Frederik Schulz, R. Dyche Mullins, Angela M. Oliverio

The CENP-A chaperone complex spatially organizes centromeres
Hindol Gupta, Julian Haase, Yicong Wu, Jiji Chen, George Karadimov, Hari Shroff, Alexander E. Kelly

A self-organizing single-cell morphology circuit optimizes Podophrya collini predatory trap structure
Zhejing Xu, Lauren E. Mazurkiewicz, Marine Olivetta, Marisol Morrissey, Omaya Dudin, Amy M. Weeks, Scott M. Coyle

Tissue surface mechanics constrains proliferation-driven forces to guide mammalian body axis elongation
Marc Trani-Bustos, Ryan G Savill, Arthur Boutillon, Petr Pospíšil, Deniz Conkar, Claudia Froeb, Johannes R Soltwedel, Heidi L van de Wouw, Ellen M Sletten, Jesse V Veenvliet, Otger Campàs

Figure extracted from Trani-Bustos, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.

Structural insights into cobalamin loading and reactivation of human methionine synthase
Douglas S. M. Ferreira, Katie McLennan, Calum Diamond, Melanie Vollmar, Wasim Kiyani, D. Sean Froese, Jola Kopec, Henry J. Bailey, Rod Chalk, Arnaud Baslé, Jonathan M. Elkins, Jesse A Coker, Wyatt W. Yue, Thomas J. McCorvie

ERK builds a population of short-lived nascent adhesions that produce persistent edge protrusion and cell migration
Andrew P. Shepherd, Keith R. Carney, Andrew Elliott, Sangyoon J. Han, Michelle C. Mendoza

Viscoelasticity driven deformation dynamics of the substrate affect mechanically induced Ca2+ signals
H Peussa, S Peltola, A Tervonen, S Lehtimäki, M Kauppila, R Bhati, C Fedele, H Tran, E Mäntylä, A Priimägi, S Nymark, TO Ihalainen

Multiplexed imaging of G-proteins and ERK activity upon activation of CaSR
Sergei Chavez-Abiega, Luca Bordes, Marten Postma, Frank J. Bruggeman, J. Goedhart

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments
Fraser I. MacLeod, Andriko von Kügelgen, Magdalena K. Lechowska, Joe Parham, Iain A. Richard, Emily J. Aguilar-Pine, Brendan P. Burns, Brett J. Baker, Tanmay A.M. Bharat, Buzz Baum

Figure extracted from MacLeod, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

Combining FRET and super-resolution microscopy reveals kinase activation and mitochondrial activity at the nanoscale
Nicolas Y. Jolivet, Pierre-Jean Desmaison, Xavier Pinson, Olivier Delalande, Giulia Bertolin

Prohibitin complexes associate with unique membrane microdomains in cells
Michaela Medina, Hamidreza Rahmani, Ya-Ting Chang, Benjamin A. Barad, Danielle A. Grotjahn

Figure extracted from Medina, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

Combinatorial Cell-Adhesion and Activity Codes Instruct Cortical Modality Identity
T. Guillamón-Vivancos, L. Puche-Aroca, L. Wang, D. Vandael, D. Torres, M. Aníbal-Martínez, I. Fuentes-Jurado, FJ. Martini, G. López-Bendito

Sonic hedgehog signaling promotes basal epidermal fibrillin 3 expression for zebrafish fin ray branching
Samuel G. Horst, Gabriel A. Yette, Astra L. Henner, Scott Stewart, Kryn Stankunas

De novo E-cadherin/catenin complex formation controls basal epithelial mechanics and force transmission for apoptotic cell clearance
Hanna-Maria Häkkinen, Marta Batet, Laura F. Bianchi, Senda Jiménez-Delgado, Fabio Pezzano, Stefan Wieser, Esteban Hoijman, Carina Vibe, Sofie Wijma, Verena Ruprecht

SPEF1 mediates assembly of the central pair microtubule complexes in cilia of Tetrahymena
Mayukh Guha, Krishna Kumar Vasudevan, Yu-Yang Jiang, Panagiota Louka, Neeraj Sharma, Mireya Parra, Karl F. Lechtreck, Raphaël F.-X. Tomasi, Charles N. Baroud, Pascale Dupuis-Williams, Gerard W. Dougherty, Heymut Omran, Courtney Ozzello, Chad G. Pearson, Ewa Joachimiak, Dorota Wloga, Zachary W. Nurcombe, Corbin Black, Avrin Ghanaeian, Lina Mougharbel, Thomas M. Kitzler, Khanh Huy Bui, Jacek Gaertig

Molecular basis for cellular compartmentalization by an ancient membrane fission mechanism
Javier Espadas, Diorge P. Souza, Markku Hakala, Juan Manuel García-Arcos, Joshua Tran, Ashutosh Kumar, Carlos Marcuello, Andrea Merino, Adai Colom, Stefano Vanni, Marko Kaksonen, Buzz Baum, Christopher P. Toret, Aurélien Roux

cAMP promotes acute lysosome biogenesis through TFEB nuclear import-export dynamics
Saumya Bhatt, Mohammad Ali Abbas Zaidi, Nicholas Woods, Cody N. Rozeveld, Micah B. Schott

Apical and basolateral plasma membranes in epithelial cells have distinct lipidomes and biophysical properties
Carolyn R. Shurer, Kandice R. Levental, Ilya Levental

Figure extracted from Shurer, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.

Inactivation of microtubule organizing center function of the centrosome is required for neuronal development and centriole elimination
Rachel Ng, Jérémy Magescas, Jessica L. Feldman

Human airway epithelia clear rhinovirus-infected cells using two waves of cell extrusion
Faith Fore, Dustin Bagley, Rocio Teresa Martinez-Nunez, Julia Aniscenko, Sebastian Johnston, Jody Rosenblatt

Reconstructing the emergence of the human chorion via HIPPO-mediated trophoblast induction
Miaoci Zhang, Ryan L. Lim, Alice H. Reis, Walter Piszker, Wallis W. Boyd, Athena Pagon, Aman Mahajan, Linlin Wu, Cheng Zhao, Sophie Petropoulos, Carlotta Ronda, Mijo Simunovic

A multiplexed approach for genetic screening of human cells by electron microscopy uncovers a critical effector of mitochondrial cristae shape
Sarah Hassdenteufel, Yury Bykov, Benjamin Dubreuil, Katja Noll, Ofrah Faust, Roman Kamyshinsky, Maxim Itkin, Nir Cohen, Sergey Malitsky, Yoav Peleg, Shira Albeck, Karina von der Malsburg, Deborah Fass, Martin van der Laan, Maya Schuldiner

Figure extracted from Hassdenteufel, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

Autolamellasomes: An Autophagy-Dependent Parallel Pathway for Bulk ER Degradation and Lysosome Biogenesis
Di Lu, Rouxuan Zhang, Wanjing Shi, Delin Zhan, Yuntian Yang, Xulin Sun, Han Zhang, Ying Li, Xueming Li, Li Yu

Intercellular mitochondrial transfer and transmitophagy in response to protein import dysfunction
Emily Glover, Beth Wiseman, Celyn Dugdale, Lorna Hodgson, Kevin Wilkinson, Ian Collinson

Figure extracted from Glover, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

Drosophila HS dendrites are resilient to adult-onset deficits in mitochondrial dynamics
Hailey Q. Wang, Demetria G. Fortson, Eavan D. Burton, Hunter S. Whitbeck, Briana M. Robles, Letitia Bortey, Avi J. Adler, Jordan I. Kalai, Giovanna Napoleone, Erin L. Barnhart

Fission yeast cells use distinct cell size control mechanisms for size adaptation to osmotic, oxidative, or low glucose conditions
Elena J. Cabral, Pablo Andres, Geraldin Argandona, Paige Duggan, Benjamin M. Kuran, Kristi E. Miller

A role for the Stentor syntaxin protein in post-wound cell survival
Ambika V. Nadkarni, Ulises Diaz, Kevin S. Zhang, Sindy KY Tang, Wallace F Marshall

Intrinsic mechanotransduction during apical constriction licenses lineage competence in pluripotent stem cells
Mehdi Seif Hamouda, Celine Labouesse, George W. Wylde, Daniel Yamamoto, Yekaterina A. Miroshnikova, Srinjan Basu, Clare M. Waterman, Kevin J. Chalut

A whole-body cell type atlas mapped into an electron microscopy volume of an annelid worm
Oel Adam Phillip, Cros Cyril Christophe Daniel Robert, Pan Leslie, Buglakova Elena, Haury Parra Samuel, Santangeli Luca, Gerber Tobias, Papalopoulos Nikolaos, Vergara Hernando Martinez, Puga David, Disela Vanessa, Niederhaus Lara, Bertucci Paola Yanina, Witte Victoria, Bilgesu Kilic Asli, Quintana Urzainqui Idoia, Acevedo Julieta Maria, Musser Jacob, Kreshuk Anna, Arendt Detlev

Figure extracted from Oel, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

Quantitative profiling of whole-brain connectomes at single-axon resolution using deep learning and high-resolution light sheet microscopy
Ahmadreza Attarpour, Misha Raffiee, Tony Xu, Jonas Osmann, Shruti Patel, Fengqing Yu, Braedyn Au, Andrew Clappison, Mahdi Biparva, Rui Zhu, Ailey Crow, Barsin Eshaghi Gharagoz, Matthew Rozak, Isabelle Aubert, JoAnne McLaurin, Karl Deisseroth, Bojana Stefanovic, Maged Goubran

Quantitative Analysis of Cytoplasmic Viscosity in Colorectal Cancer Cells by Differential Dynamic Microscopy of Genetically Encoded Nanoparticles
Steven Huysecom, Kiki Schouwstra, Samet Aytekin, Natalie Neyrinck, Yana Heyvaert, Boris Louis, Susana Rocha, Guillermo Solís-Fernandez

Cooperative Binding of Cytosolic Type III Secretion System Proteins to the Injectisome Revealed by Live-Cell Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy
Olivia I.C. de Cuba, Gopika A. Lekshmi, Caroline F. Tyndall, Andreas Gahlmann

Super-resolution microscopy of nanoscopic alpha-synuclein aggregates in brain samples indicates a subset of cells have disrupted protein homeostasis prior to Lewy body formation in Parkinson’s disease
Emre Fertan, John S. H. Danial, Stephen Neame, Jeff Y. L. Lam, Matthew W. Cotton, Melanie Burke, Zengjie Xia, Yunzhao Wu, Ben Powney, Yoichi Imaizumi, Annelies Quaegebeur, Georg Meisl, James Staddon, David Klenerman

Stress-induced switch in small extracellular vesicle secretion: from constitutive “torn bag mechanism” to exocytosis
Dorina Lenzinger, Lilla Lankovics, István Dudás, Tünde Bárkai, Zsófia Szász, Krisztina V Vukman, Kelsey Fletcher, Attila Csomos, Zoltán Mucsi, Edina Bugyik, Csaba Cserép, Ádám Dénes, Szilvia Bősze, Edit I Buzás, Tamás Visnovitz

Figure extracted from Lenzinger, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

Mechanisms involved in the lipid membrane tubulation activity of the pH-responsive MakA protein from Vibrio cholerae
Athar Alam, Abdelbasset Yabrag, Naeem Ullah, Rasmus Sten, Jörgen Åden, Nandita Bodra, Hudson Pace, Marta Bally, Karina Persson, Bernt Eric Uhlin, Sun Nyunt Wai, Aftab Nadeem

Acridine Orange dye for long-term staining and live imaging of cnidarian development and regeneration
Vaidehi Patel, Valeria Dountcheva, Labib Rouhana

Two-photon volumetric study of cleared, invasive ductal carcinoma breast tissue samples and associated axillary lymph nodes
Uma Pisarović, Loes F.S. Kooreman, Thiemo J.A. van Nijnatten, Albert Bitorina, Sven Hildebrand, Anna Schueth

Mycobacterial surface shedding drives bystander cells response during early intracellular infection
Davide D’Amico, Lyudmil Raykov, Thierry Soldati, Mélanie Foulon

Spatial deconstruction of the plasma membrane
Venkata Shiva Mandala, Chen Zhao, Qiuying Chen, Steven Gross, Jacob Geri, Roderick MacKinnon

Ribosome-Associated Vesicles promote activity-dependent local translation in neurons
Eva Martin-Solana, Stephen D. Carter, Karthik Krishnamurthy, Giovanni de Nola, Jiying Ning, Jill R. Glausier, Matias A. Preisegger, Laura Hughes, Lauren Meyer, Leanna Eisenman, Paul N. Joseph, Cedric Bouchet-Marquis, Ken Wu, Catherina L. Mobini, Amber N. Frantz, Stephanie Puig, Cheri M. Hampton, Nadine Kabbani, David Mankus, Eric K.F. Donahue, Kristopher Burkewitz, Grant J. Jensen, Simon C. Watkins, Karl Deisseroth, Lief E. Fenno, Michael S. Gold, Zachary P. Wills, Abigail K R Lytton-Jean, Sulagna Das, Zachary Freyberg

Modulating MyoD1 dosage activates alternate cell fate beyond myogenic differentiation
Oscar N. Whitney, Gina M. Dailey, Joseph K. McKenna, Xavier Darzacq, Robert Tjian

Tether-mediated extraction of myelinoid bodies by microglia and astrocytes can maintain myelin integrity
Erik Späte, Kieran P. Higgins, Yeonsu Kim, Carolina Mangana, Lina Komarek, Mohammadhossein Teymouri, Ulrike C. Gerwig, Svea Melzer, Boguslawa Sadowski, Torben Ruhwedel, Predrag A. Janjic, Bastiaan Lodder, Andrew J. Dwork, Maarten H.P. Kole, Anna M. Steyer, Wiebke Möbius, Klaus-Armin Nave, Sandra Goebbels

Longitudinal three-photon imaging for tracking amyloid plaques and vascular degeneration in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease
Eline Stas, Mengke Yang, Simon Schultz, Mary Ann Go

Figure extracted from Stas, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

Membrane rupture and independent extension of sister membranes drive cytokinesis in C. elegans embryos
Jingjing Liang, Tingrui Huang, Xun Huang, Mei Ding

RanBP2-dependent annulate lamellae drive nuclear pore assembly and nuclear expansion
Junyan Lin, Arantxa Agote-Arán, Yongrong Liao, Mehdi Cloarec, Leonid Andronov, Rafael Schoch, Paolo Ronchi, Victor Cochard, Rui Zhu, Erwan Grandgirard, Xiaotian Liu, Marianne Victoria Lemée, Charlotte Kleiss, Christelle Golzio, Marc Ruff, Guillaume Chevreux, Yannick Schwab, Bruno P. Klaholz, Izabela Sumara

Shaft versus spine localization affects the structural plasticity of glutamatergic synapses
Tomas Fanutza, Yannes Popp, Arie Maeve Brueckner, Nathalie Hertrich, Judith von Sivers, Matthew Larkum, Sarah A. Shoichet, Marina Mikhaylova

Lipid transfer by ORP3 is required for the regulation of PI4P and PI(4,5)P2 at the plasma membrane in mitosis
Anaïs Vertueux, Agathe Verraes, Christie Ouaddi, Emilie Pellier, Véronique Proux, Laurence Walch, Mélina Heuzé, Cathy L. Jackson, Jean-Marc Verbavatz

Figure extracted from Vertueux, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

Synaptic MEMOIR: mapping individual synapses of neurons with protein barcodes
Carsten H. Tischbirek, Linjing Fang, Duncan M. Chadly, Saori Lobbia, Jose David Aguirre, Yodai Takei, Chun-Hao Chen, Paul W. Sternberg, Carlos Lois, Michael B. Elowitz, Long Cai

Homotypic endoplasmic reticulum membrane tethering is critical for flavivirus replication
Jonathan Einterz Owen, Cheyanne Lee Bemis, Qingyi Wang, Ambarish C. Varadan, Jacob W. Vander Velden, Laura Andačić, Olus Uyar, Mansi Gupta, Christopher D. Scharer, Laurent Chatel-Chaix, Pietro Scaturro, Mehul S. Suthar, Christopher J. Neufeldt

Display of clustered antigen by follicular dendritic cells tunes B-cell receptor activation
Ali Shahrokhtash, Hiroaki Ogasawara, Kristian Savstrup Kastberg, Khalid Salaita, Søren E. Degn, Duncan S. Sutherland

Tom70-mediated mitochondria–nuclear envelope contacts regulate nuclear pore complex inheritance during gametogenesis
Cyrus T. Ruediger, Benjamin S. Styler, Eric M. Sawyer, Silvan Spiri, Grant King, Madison E. Walsh, Gloria A. Brar, Danielle M. Jorgens, Elçin Ünal

Spatial Regulation of Lck Activation at the Immune Synapse Revealed by a FRET-Based Biosensor
Clara Meana, Gonzalo San-José, María Beatriz Durán-Alonso, Javier Casas

Filopodome proteomics identifies CCT8 as a MYO10 interactor critical for filopodia functions
Ana Popović, Neil J. Ball, Mitro Miihkinen, Omkar Joshi, Michal Dibus, Marjaana Ojalill, Joanna Pylvänäinen, Johanna Ivaska, Benjamin T. Goult, Guillaume Jacquemet

How endosomal PIKfyve inhibition prevents viral membrane fusion and entry
Nicholas Chow, Gustavo Scanavachi, Anand Saminathan, Tom Kirchhausen

3D Mapping of Intact Ovaries Reveals the Aging Dynamics of the Ovarian Reserve
Arturo D’Angelo, Daniel Franco-Barranco, Marco Musy, James Sharpe, Ignacio Arganda-Carreras, Elvan Böke

Tripartite ER-Mitochondria-Lipid Droplets contact sites control adipocyte metabolic flexibility
Marie Palard, Gilliane Chadeuf, Maxime Carpentier, Samuel Frey, Mikael Croyal, Rola Shaaban, Samy Hadjadj, Chloe Cloteau, Naima El Khallouki, Perrine Bomme, Soazig Le Lay, Manuel Marjouh, Perrine Paul-Gilloteaux, Alexandre Humbert, Christine Durand, Nicolas Bertocchini, Yoann Combot, Antria Antreou, Cedric Le May, Simon Ducheix, Bertrand Cariou, Francesca Giordano, Jennifer Rieusset, Abdou Rachid Thiam, Xavier Prieur

Axially swept dithered light-sheet microscope to reveal cardiac morphology
Milad Almasian, Alireza Saberigarakani, Xinyuan Zhang, Jonathan A Brewer, Rayaan Hameed, Jichen Chai, Yangyang Lu, Sarah A. Ware, Shuyue Zhou, Yufeng Wen, Hamza Lalami, Hedyeh Hossein Beigi, Jie Yuan, Jun Liao, Yi Hong, Mingfu Wu, Dan Tong, Darshan Sapkota, Yichen Ding

Structure and Function of Lens Suture Examined by 2-photon Fluorescence Microscopic Imaging
Qinrong Zhang, Jun Zhu, Taishi Painter, Chun-Hong Xia, Na Ji, Xiaohua Gong