Microscopy preprints: applications in biology

Posted by FocalPlane, on 21 August 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.

DAAM1 formin and Ena/VASP proteins assemble functionally distinct actin filaments for focal adhesions
Xiang Le Chua, Parijat Biswas, Hugo Wioland, Pekka Lappalainen

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

Kinetochore diversification in Naegleria reveals plasticity in the kinetochore-microtubule interface
Andrew S Kennard, Emily M Larkin, Jacob M Ritz, Brittania Moodie, Lillian Fritz-Laylin

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

The Z-shaped N-terminal Domain of Atg11 Coordinates Atg9 Recruitment in Selective Autophagy
Sarah I Najera, Devika Andhare, Anna E Hill, Zhanibek Bekkhozhin, Michael J Ragusa

RNA-dependent chromatin organization during development
Alexa Alipour, Nidhi Rani Lokesh, Mark E. Pownall

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

Dissection of centrosomal γ-TuRC activation pathways controlling microtubule density in interphase cells
Yinlong Song, Dipti Rai, Lilian M. Sluimer, Marèl F.M. Spoelstra, Quinten J. Kleijnen, Bert Jan Korte, Silas T. Koot, Kelly E. Stecker, Fangrui Chen, Anna Akhmanova

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

Mapping 3D cellular mechanical activity with matrix-embedded DNA force-history probes
Yu-Hsuan Peng, Mathilde Lettinga, Anna Taubenberger, Elisha Krieg

Shroom3-dependent pillar cell constriction establishes a mechanical threshold for respiratory lamellar stability
Mathieu Preußner, Alisa Kahler, Marion Basoglu, Anna Mertens, Daniela S. Krause, Stefan Eimer, Virginie Lecaudey

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

The SPFH protein flotillins form endolysosome-ERES contacts that promote unconventional secretion
Cecile GAUTHIER-ROUVIERE, LAYAL RAJEH, Sylia CHEHADE, Franck Comunale, Damien PLANCHON, Philippe Fort, Martial Seveno, Serge Urbach, Lucien DAUNAS, Sophie HUVER, Fabien ALPY, Stephane Bodin2

A switch in clathrin turnover controls endocytic coat size and organisation
Anne-Laure Boinet, Mamta, Anne-Sophie Rivier-Cordey, Aurélien Roux, Marko Kaksonen

Actin disassembly triggers CNS myelin compaction and wrapping
Husniye Kantarci, Kathryn Wu, Nicholas Ambiel, Eduardo Chaparro Barriera, Madeline H. Cooper, Alexandra Münch, Yari M. Sigal, Miguel A. Garcia, Manasi Iyer, Danielle M. Jorgens, J. Bradley Zuchero

Super-Resolution Optical Sectioning Microscopy Visualizes Nanopores in the Plasma Membrane of Endothelial Cells in situ
Jasmin C. Schürstedt-Seher, Henning Ortkrass, Annika Kiel, Sylvia M. Steinecker, Wolfgang Hübner, Angela Kralemann-Köhler, Laureen P. Helweg, Marcel Müller, Jakob Wessendorf, Femke Testroet, Friedemann Kiefer, Jan Schulte am Esch, Thomas Huser

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

Shining stars: Transgenesis and efficient metamorphosis in the sea star Patiria miniata
Beverly Naigles, Brian S. McGonagle, S. Zachary Swartz

Extracellular Matrix Stiffness Controls Actin Cytoskeletal Tension
L. Perego, M. Sergides, C. Arbore, G. Bianchi, L. Gardini, M. Capitanio

Intrinsic flexibility of Type VII secretion central pore is required for substrate translocation
Christina Ritter, Katherine S.H. Beckham, Grzegorz Chojnowski, Edukondalu Mullapudi, Frank Stein, Mandy Rettel, Mikhail Savitski, Matthias Wilmanns

Developmental growth rates adapt to enable self-correction of organ morphology after injury
S Gunnan, M Kotz, L Ribas, VA Kini, S Jay, S Kaufmann, E Angermann, N Berbee, C Perugini, BM Friedrich, R Mateus

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

Organoids reveal niche-specific mechanotransduction-guided human cortical patterning and cell fate acquisition
Alex J. Kingston, Annabelle A. M. Wurmser, Aditi S. Kulkarni, Kejia Miao, Gökçe G. Agsu, András Lakatos, Srinjan Basu

Mechanosensation, habituation, and behavioural plasticity in tintinnid ciliates
Hannah Laeverenz-Schlogelhofer, Kirsty Y. Wan

A DNA-scaffolded Retron Ring Mediates Antiphage Immunity
Arturo Carabias, Ruiliang Zhao, Ricardo Garcia-Martin, Nuria Ardid-Muñoz, Mario Rodríguez Mestre, Huijuan Li, Johannes Anton Kühn, Josepha Magdalene Klas, Sarah Camara-Wilpert, Dennis Zhang, Nanna Wagner, Selma Margarita Kuypers, Tillmann Pape, Søren Johannes Sørensen, Rafael Pinilla-Redondo, Guillermo Montoya

Cross-species molecular mapping of the photoreceptor sensory cilium and periciliary structures identifies conserved and species-specific architectural features
Kei Takahashi, Mayuna Obayashi, Raghavi Sudharsan, William A. Beltran

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

Alternative splicing of synaptotagmin 7 regulates oligomerization and short-term synaptic plasticity
Nikunj Mehta, Devin T. Larson, Mitch Wozney, Shweta Mishra, Smrithika Subramani, Simi Kaur, Avani Jain, Edwin R. Chapman

Organ identity shapes autophagy dynamics and selectivity in plants
Adrian N Dauphinee, Sanjana Holla, Shamik Mazumdar, Florentine I M Ballhaus, Jonas A Ohlsson, Francis Impens, Teresa Maia, Evy Timmerman, Yasin Dagdas, Christian Löfke, Kerstin Dalman, Karin Schumacher, Peter V Bozhkov, Elena A Minina

Super-resolution imaging with deep learning-based segmentation for detailed characterization of mitochondrial arrangement in Pompe disease skeletal muscle
Ibrahim Hassani, Johan Deniaud, Chantal Thorin, Tony Fiore, Laurence Dubreil, Karl Rouger, Marie-Anne Colle

Placental derived Extracellular Matrix Supports multi-lineage cell attachment and nuclear remodeling revealed by quantitative imaging
Catalina Amurrio Zamora, Alison Ingraldi, Nilesh Dixit, Aaron J Tabor, Fahad Mostafa

Nanoscale 3D profiling of the T cell membrane reveals CD2 enrichment at microvilli tips, positioning adhesion near TCR zones in the immunological synapse
Suzi Kim, Elianna Lai, Hamidreza Akhbariyoon, Aleksandra Klimas, Emma DiBernardo, Yongxin Zhao, En Cai

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

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

N-cadherin orientational order decreases with mechanical load at cardiomyocyte adherens junctions
Yen T. B. Tran, William F. Dean, Yerin Han, Korina I. Karpov, Collin M. Ainslie, Alexa L. Mattheyses, Adam V. Kwiatkowski

Cdc42 coordinates apical membrane formation and secretory granule maturation through v-SNARE maintenance in salivary acinar cells
Akiko Shitara, Haruna Nagase, Christopher K. E. Bleck, Yuta Ohno, Hideo Kataoka, Keitaro Satoh, Masanori Kashimata

SWI3b restricts AGO5 expression to promote the initiation of megagametogenesis in Arabidopsis
Wen Gong, Liping Liu, Hanyang Cai, Thomas Dresselhaus

Ultrastructure of stemness and differentiated state in Hydra epithelial cells
Anna Seybold, Willi Salvenmoser, Kristian Pfaller, Stefan Redl, Michael W. Hess, Bert Hobmayer

Emergence of tunneling nanotube-like intervesicular connections
Sungwoo Han Park, Sang Ho Lee, Chang Ho Kim, Chengying Yin, Ke Xue, Liangfei Tian, Kwanwoo Shin

3D Electron Microscopy Reveals Diverse Chromosome Morphologies Across Dinoflagellate Species
Lucas Philipp, Eran Ittah, Dirk Schumann, Joachim de Fourestier, Natalie Reznikov, Stephanie C. Weber

Unlocking subcellular imaging of a cnidarian photosymbiont Breviolum minutum , through expansion microscopy
Pranali Deore, Cameron J Nowell, Volker Leen, Douglas R Brumley, Madeleine J.H van Oppen, Elizabeth Hinde, Johan Hofkens, Linda Blackall

Correlative light–electron microscopy reveals fundamentally different axonal architectures for fast and modulatory transmission
Kok-Sin Lee, Daniela A Sahlender, Jerome Blanc, Anne Jorstad, Celia Gasselin, Stéphanie Clerc-Rosset, Foivos Markopoulos, Carl CH Petersen, Anthony Holtmaat, Graham William Knott

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

Non-contact direct sensing of material properties of biomolecular condensate using Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy
Helena Miljkovic, Karl Pang-Yeo, Zahra Ayar, Edoardo Fatti, Akhil S. Naidu, Jialin Shi, Marcos Penedo, Karsten Weis, Wayne Yang, Aleksandra Radenovic

Human buccal epithelial microplicae maintain a characteristic wavelength despite variable network topology
Gail McConnell

Coexistence of phasmid sensory neurons and caudal glands offers a new perspective on cell type evolution in nematodes
Hyunsoo Yim, Ken C. Q. Nguyen, Luke T. Geiger, David H. Hall, Nathan E. Schroeder, Oliver Hobert

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

Bacterial nanotubes extend from a tubeosome organelle to establish an intercellular bridge
Manas Kumar Guria, Tengfei Zhong, Amit K. Baidya, Małgorzata Zuzanna Zora, Ritesh Ranjan Pal, Venkadesaperumal Gopu, Saurabh Bhattacharya, Oren Yakovian, Miriam Ravins, Debnath Ghosal, Grant J. Jensen, Ilan Rosenshine, Mohammed Kaplan, Sigal Ben-Yehuda

Ultrastructural remodelling of tau fibrils during ghost tangle formation in Alzheimer’s disease brain
Daniel A. Stähli, Louis Travers, Notash Shafiei, Lukas van den Heuvel, Eglantine Vialaneix, Philippine L. Schneider, Annemieke J.M. Rozemuller, Wilma D. J. Van de Berg, Henning Stahlberg, Amanda J. Lewis

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

Mitochondria structurally remodel near synapses to fuel the sustained energy demands of plasticity
Monil Shah, Ilika Ghosh, Nitheyaa Shree Ramesh, Luca Pishos, Tristano Pancani, Valentina Villani, Ryohei Yasuda, Chao Sun, Naomi Kamasawa, Vidhya Rangaraju

Heparan Sulfate Controls Nanoscale Assembly of GPC3-Wnt Receptor Complexes
Shaoli Lin, David A. Ball, Mohamadreza Fazel, Tatiana S. Karpova, Mitchell Ho

Macrophages discriminate and sort pathogenic bacteria and apoptotic material during dual-target phagocytosis
Celeste Dea, Paula Arias, Sol L. Moroni, Nicolás N. Rolandelli, Arlinet Kierbel