Microscopy preprints – applications in biology

Posted by FocalPlane, on 23 January 2026

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

The vault associates with membranes in situ
Katharina Geißler, Jan Philipp Kreysing, Yuning Wang, Desislava Glushkova, Agnieszka Obarska-Kosinska, Patrick C. Hoffmann, Stefanie Böhm, Alexander Schmidt, Jakob Meier-Credo, Julian D. Langer, Gerhard Hummer, Martin Beck

Membrane-associated periodic skeleton regulates major forms of endocytosis in neurons through a signaling-driven positive feedback loop
Jinyu Fei, Yuanmin Zheng, Caden LaLonde, Yuan Tao, Ruobo Zhou

Mammalian Cells Integrate Endoplasmic Reticulum and Nuclear Envelope signals to time mitotic entry
Yusuke Takagi-Shiozaki, Nicholas Codallos, Natasha Saik, David Jenkins, Pablo Lara-Gonzalez, Andrew K. Shiau, Katharine S Ullman, Maho Niwa

Rab27-dependent egress of SARS-CoV-2 via secretory amphisomes
Wilco Nijenhuis, Hugo G.J. Damstra, Emma J. van Grinsven, Patrique Praest, Mariëlle M.P. van Grinsven, Zahra E. Soltani, Dorien C.M. de Jong, Jori Symons, Gimano D. Amatngalim, Frederik J. Verweij, Anna Akhmanova, Monique Nijhuis, Jeffrey M. Beekman, Robert Jan Lebbink, Lukas C. Kapitein

Spatial gene expression maps in vertebrate limbs display conserved and regenerative species-specific features within connective tissue
Conor L. McMann, Chanyoung Park, Jennifer K. Cloutier, Peter W. Reddien

Control of cellular cortical tension and shape by RhoGTPase signalling
Pierre Bohec, Diana Khoromskaia, Manasi Kelkar, Emma Ferber, Guillaume Duprez, Geneviève Lavoie, Léo Valon, Philippe P. Roux, Guillaume Salbreux, Guillaume Charras

Taxane-Induced Conformational Changes in the Microtubule Lattice Activate GEF-H1-Dependent RhoA Signaling
Joyce C. M. Meiring, Varsha Mahapatra, Molly S.C. Gravett, Daan Morren, Harriet A.J. Saunders, Sung Ryul Choi, Andressa Pelster José, Adela Karhanova, Ioanna Metallidou, Alex Moore, Marèl F.M. Spoelstra, Ruijie Liu, Matteo Giono, Saishree S. Iyer, J. Fernando Díaz, Zdenek Lansky, Kelly E. Stecker, Michel O. Steinmetz, Stuart C. Howes, Lukas C. Kapitein, Anna Akhmanova

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

Role of the obligate STRIPAK complex component Mob4 in zebrafish vascular development and stability
Tvisha Misra, Shimon M. Rosenthal, Mengyi Song, Nathan J. Stutt, Laura McDonald, Ashish R. Deshwar, Anne-Claude Gingras, Ian C. Scott

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

Spatial inhibition of RhoA by RhoGAP15B promotes protrusive activity during collective migration
Vitor Yang, Cristian Marchant, Bing Liu, Mariana Osswald, Jesus Lopez-Gay, Yohanns Bellaiche, Xiaobo Wang, Eurico Morais-de-Sá

Peristaltic contractions drive gut anisotropic growth through collective cell rearrangements
Koji Kawamura, Yoshiko Takahashi, Masafumi Inaba

Optogenetic SH3 nanoclustering of SRC and HCK uncovers the functional specificity of these redundant kinases in macrophages
Cristina Torres-Torres, Paul Rivier, Satish Babu Moparthi, Benjamin Graedel, Lucien Hinderling, Lucia Campos-Perello, Christiane Oddou, Ingrid Bourin-Reynard, Alexei Grichine, Eva Faurobert, Emmanuelle Planus, Fabrice Senger, Olivier Pertz, Stéphane Vassilopoulos, Olivier Destaing

Direct labeling of microtubule turnover reveals in-lattice repair and stabilization patterns in developing neurons
Ciarán Butler-Hallissey, Harrison M. York, Florence Pelletier, Jean-Marc Goaillard, Jérémie Gaillard, Manuel Théry, Pascal Verdier-Pinard, Christophe Leterrier

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

Multiscale curvature modulates epithelial architecture and nuclear organization
Marine Luciano, Quentin Vagne, Guillaume E. Pernollet, Guillaume Salbreux, Caterina Tomba, Aurélien Roux

Organelles harbour pH gradients
Sangyoon Lee, Sandip Chakraborty, Soyoung Kim, Asif Ali, Koushambi Mitra, Matthew Zajac, Anastasia Brown, David Pincus, Yamuna Krishnan

ARF-1 Coordinates Cargo Sorting at FERARI Endosomal Recycling Hubs
Jachen A. Solinger, Curdin A. Franziscus, Trian Nuredini, Dominic L. Müller, Petia Adarska, Francesca Bottanelli, Anne Spang

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

Adhesion to a common ECM mediates interdependence in tissue morphogenesis in Drosophila
LE Sánchez-Cisneros, M Barrera-Velázquez, Dimitri Kromm, P Bun, H Merchant-Larios, LD Ríos-Barrera

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

Oligomeric assemblies of plant biotin carboxylase revealed by cryo-EM and cross-linking
Hunter J. Madison, Luke Dunn, Youngki You, Gabriel Lemes Jorge, Ljiljana Paša-Tolić, Jay J. Thelen, Steven R. Van Doren, Adam L. Yokom

Nanoscale regulation of ROS signaling at the plasma membrane tunes the plant response to osmotic stress
Arthur Poitout, Jose Manuel Ugalde, Lucille Gorgues, Armelle Dongois, Patricia Scholz, Philippe Nacry, Carine Alcon, Jean Bernard Fiche, Xavier Dumont, Marcelo Nollman, Komal Jhala, Anton Schaeffner, Yvon Jaillais, Lionel Verdoucq, Andreas Meyer, Alexandre Martiniere

Restoring Shugoshin 1 reduces chromosome errors in human eggs
Debojit Saha, Saba Manshaei, Tommaso Cavazza, Zuzana Holubcová, Barbora Maierova, Agata P. Zielinska, Lena Wartosch, Martyn Blaney, Kay Elder, Melina Schuh

Proteo-transcriptomics and morphometrics of teleost cardiac cells define regulatory networks and exercise-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and hyperplasia
Osvaldo Contreras, Gabrielle D. Smith, Celine Santiago, Moumitha Dey, Chris Thekkedam, Renee Chand, Álvaro González-Rajal, Ling Zhong, John G. Lock, Emily Wong, Diane Fatkin, Richard P. Harvey

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

A PKD-caveolin axis drives secretory carrier biogenesis at the TGN
Hideaki Sugiura, Megumi Fujii, Yugo Terashima, Yuhei Takagi, Jessica Angulo-Capel, Mitsuo Tagaya, Hiroki Inoue, Kohei Arasaki, Felix Campelo, Yuichi Wakana

Vimentin bridges scales to convert polarized cell locomotion into coordinated collective migration
Sudheer Kumar Peneti, Satish Babu Morparthi, Joseph d’Alessandro, Lucas Anger, Julia Eckert, Ranjith Chilupuri, Tien Dang, Manon Arnaud, Stéphane Vassilopoulos, Benoit Ladoux, René-Marc Mège

Cell cycle-dependent transitions in PCP protein mobility erase and restore planar cell polarity in mitosis
D. Ouyang, L.P. Basta, P. Sil, B.W. Joyce, E. Posfai, D. Devenport

Fluorescence based microviscosity mapping in membraneless organelles
Avantika Kapoor, Pascal Didier, Carla Faivre, Chloé Frey, Pierre Hener, Tania Stefan, Thiebault Lequeu, Eleonore Réal, Andrey Klymchenko, Nicolas Anton, Mayeul Collot, Halina Anton

AXL governs axolotl cardiac regeneration and directs mammalian cardiomyocyte dedifferentiation
Elad Bassat, Jingkui Wang, Jorge Peña Peña, Inés Rivero-García, Agnieszka Piszczek, Francisco Falcon, Yuka Taniguchi-Sugiura, Jiaye Yang, Paula Fernández-Montes, Thomas Lendl, Lorena Domínguez, Katharina Lust, José Antonio Enríquez, Fátima Sánchez Cabo, Miguel Torres, Elly M. Tanaka

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

Near-atomic in-situ architecture and membrane-coupled dynamics of the Vibrio cholerae sheathed flagellum
Wangbiao Guo, Jian Yue, Jin Hwan Park, Diana Valverde Mendez, Jack M. Botting, Rajeev Kumar, Huaxin Yu, Avijay Sen, Jing Yan, Fitnat H. Yildiz, Jun Liu

Landscape Expansion Microscopy Reveals Interactions between Membrane and Phase-Separated Organelles
Yinyin Zhuang, Zhao Zhang, Zhipeng Dai, Xiaoyu Shi

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

Cryogenic 3D electron microscopy captures whole plant cell native ultrastructure
Xiao Zhang, Zihan Lin, Jake Kaminsky, Liguo Wang, Qun Liu

Figure extracted from Zhang, *et al.* The image is made available under a CC-BY-NC 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, Arthur Masson, Olivier Delalande, Giulia Bertolin

Membrane systems for lipid secretion in the hairy roots of Lithospermum erythrorhizon observed by electron microscopy
Shingo Kiyoto, Takuji Ichino, Tatsuya Awano, Kazufumi Yazaki

Two-photon microscopy of brain endothelial glycocalyx uncovers spatial heterogeneity, vesicular transport, and lectin-binding kinetics in the living brain
Oleg Zhukov, Nikolay P. Kutuzov, Teddy Groves, Mette Mathiesen Janiurek, Sally Dabelsteen, Anders Hay-Schmidt, Hans H. Wandall, Christoffer Goth, Brian DellaValle, Martin Lauritzen, Krzysztof Kucharz

Cdhr1a and pcdh15b link photoreceptor outer segments with inner segment calyceal processes revealing a potential mechanism for cone-rod dystrophy
Meet K. Patel, Warlen Piedade, Jakub K. Famulski

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

Membrane contacts between caveolae and the endoplasmic reticulum regulate uptake and metabolic trapping of long-chain fatty acids
Sebastian Rönfeldt, Elin Larsson, Björn Morén, Alexander J. Craig, Lindon W. K. Moodie, Robert G. Parton, Richard Lundmark

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

Coronavirus membrane protein with a fluorescent protein tag enables tracking of virus particles in live cells
Bereket Stefanos, Noe R. B. Green, Isha Nadig, Lynn A. Lapierre, James R. Goldenring, Ian B. Hogue, Honor L. Glenn, Brenda G. Hogue

Characterizing the role of mitochondrial dynamics during Drosophila convergent extension using NADH fluorescence lifetime imaging
Maria Espana-Pena, Alan Woessner, Colten Nichols, Kyle P. Quinn, Adam C. Paré

Ultrastructural organization and dynamics of TIRAP filaments
Arthur Felker, Jan-Hannes Schäfer, Kevin Tanzusch, Marvin Wortmann, Arne Moeller, Jacob Piehler

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

Evolutionarily Conserved T-tubule-Mitochondria Contacts in Striated Muscle
Haonan Qi, Le Cao, Ao Li, Qiongqiong Wu, Jing Wang, Mengye Cao, Zhike Liu, Wenjie Sun, Qi Lai, Weijun Pan

MyoL-Dependent Coupling of Preconoidal Rings to Conoid Is Required for Motility in Toxoplasma gondii
Romuald Haase, Albert Tell i Puig, Nicolas Dos Santos Pacheco, Bohumil Maco, Oscar Vadas, Dominique Soldati-Favre

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

Architecture of the cardiac transverse-axial tubular system across different mammalian species
Joachim Greiner, Frédéric Sonak, Wesley Dean Jones, Josef Madl, Kathrine Albertine Ryeng, Igor R Efimov, Zafar Iqbal, Thomas Seidel, Peter Kohl, Eva A. Rog-Zielinska

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

The essential function of the apical polar ring during the blood stage of Plasmodium falciparum
Pratima Gurung, Peter S. Back, Ilzat Ali, Gabrielle M. Hernandez, Jeffrey D. Dvorin

In-cell cryo-electron tomography reveals differential effects of type I and type II kinase inhibitors on LRRK2 filament formation and microtubule association
Tamar Basiashvili, Joshua Hutchings, Siyu Chen, Eva P. Karasmanis, W. Alexander Flaherty, Andres E. Leschziner, Elizabeth Villa

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

Sixteen isotropic 3D fluorescence live imaging datasets of Tribolium castaneum gastrulation
Franziska Krämer, Stefan Münster, Frederic Strobl

Nucleus softens during herpesvirus infection
Aapo Tervonen, Visa Ruokolainen, Simon Leclerc, Katie Tieu, Sébastien Lyonnais, Henri Niskanen, Jian-Hua Chen, Alka Gupta, Minna U Kaikkonen, Carolyn A Larabell, Delphine Muriaux, Salla Mattola, Daniel E Conway, Teemu O Ihalainen, Vesa Aho, Maija Vihinen-Ranta

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

Distinctive spore architecture and developmental biology of Turicibacter sanguinis reveal unexpected diversity among gut spore formers
Catalina Cortés-Tapia, José García-Yunge, Ana Moya-Beltrán, Francisca Cid-Rojas, Matías Castro, C Camila Rojas-Villalobos, Fernando Gil, Raquel Quatrini, Marjorie Pizarro-Guajardo, Daniel Paredes-Sabja

Two-step polar plastid migration via F-actin and microtubules ensures unequal inheritance during asymmetric division of Arabidopsis zygote
Keigo Tada, Hikari Matsumoto, Takao Oi, Zichen Kang, Tomonobu Nonoyama, Satoru Tsugawa, Yusuke Kimata, Shuhei Kusano, Shinya Hagihara, Shintaro Ichikawa, Yutaka Kodama, Minako Ueda