Microscopy preprints – applications in biology

Posted by FocalPlane, on 17 April 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 human parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, is paralyzed without two components of the apical polar ring
Jonathan Munera Lopez, Luisa F. Arias Padilla, Isadonna F. Tengganu, Yan Hao, Ying Zhang, Laurence Florens, John M. Murray, Ke Hu

Actin-membrane interface stress regulates Arp2/3-branched actin density during lamellipodial protrusion
Mitchell T. Butler, Max A. Hockenberry, Harrison H. Truscott, Wesley R. Legant, James E. Bear

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

Transient contractility attenuation reprograms epithelial cells into a protrusion-driven state that drives tissue fluidization
Sound WP, Shutong Liu, Thanh Phuong Nguyen, Pawan Kumar Mishra, De Pratiman, Aditya Sanjay Gupta, Tsuyoshi Hirashima

Physiological perfusion of human vasculature reveals a YAP/TAZ-Apelin switch linking intraluminal flow to endothelial state transitions and vessel remodeling
Tiger H.Z. Jian, Adam A. Sivitilli, Yaxin E. Guo, Callum J. Stirton, Jessica T. Gosio, Yuko Tsukahara, Johnny M. Tkach, Suying Lu, Amin Yarmand, Maria Mangos, Rod Bremner, Jeffrey L. Wrana, Liliana Attisano, Laurence Pelletier

The Joubert syndrome protein CSPP1 is a conserved regulator of vertebrate multiciliogenesis and motile cilia function
Irem S. Dilbaz-Gunden, Clothilde Boitel, Jovana Deretic, Marine Touret, Mehmet S. Aydin, Esra Yigit, Ozgecan Kayalar, Hasan Bayram, Virginie Thomé, Olivier Rosnet, Nicolas Brouilly, Laurent Kodjabachian, Camille Boutin, Elif Nur Firat-Karalar

Septin-mediated coupling of protein import and division during chloroplast evolution
Samed Delic, Pamela Vetrano, Caroline S. Simon, David Su, Yezi Xiang, Shu-Zon Wu, Eva L. von der Heyde, Natsumi Tajima-Shirasaki, Sheng-An Chen, Carla Brillada, Armin Hallmann, Magdalena Bezanilla, Niccolo Banterle, Gautam Dey, Silvia Ramundo, Masayuki Onishi

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

Intravital imaging uncovers remodelling of humanised bone marrow-like niches
Colin D.H. Ratcliffe, Syed A Mian, Giovanni Giangreco, Alix Le Marois, Khadidja Habel, Erik Sahai, Dominique Bonnet

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

Force transmission balance through adhesions determines multicellular handedness
Tomoki Ishibashi, Ryohei Nishizawa, Goshi Ogita, Naoko Tokushige, Tatsuo Shibata

Human Lymph Node Cellular Senescence Atlas Reveals Age-Dependent Alteration in Germinal Center B Cell Function and Niches
Negin Farzad, Archibald Enninful, Yao Lu, Fabio Parisi, Anthony Fung, Yumi Kwon, Yajuan Li, Margaux Labrosse, Mingyu Yang, Francesco Strino, Liang Chen, Junchen Yang, Mei Zhong, Fu Gao, Bo Tao, Joseph Cunningham, Zhiliang Bai, Haikuo Li, Fang Wang, Michael Stankewich, Dongjoo Kim, Mingze Dong, Lisa M. Bramer, Keyi Li, Meera R. Bhat, Evan Loe, Joseph Craft, Ljiljana Pasa-Tolic, Stephanie Halene, Lingyan Shi, Yuval Kluger, Mina L. Xu, Rong Fan

The γ-Tubulin Ring Complex promotes mitotic spindle integrity and acts as a microtubule minus-end cap during mitosis
Reham Aljumaah, Elizabeth A Turcotte, Sanjana Sundararajan, Vasilisa Aksenova, Alexei Arnaoutov, Mary Dasso

In Situ Landscape of Focal Adhesions and Cytoskeletal Integration Revealed by Cryo-Electron Tomography
Piao Yu, Lingyun Zhao, Ashraf Al-Amoudi, Stefan T. Arold

Dissecting embryonic origins of brain pericytes, the role of angiogenesis, and fibroblasts’ contributions
Cynthia U Adjekukor, Katrinka M Kocha, Peng Huang, Sarah J Childs

In situ visualization of autophagy suggests vesicle fusion can contribute to phagophore expansion
Claire Ortmann de Percin Northumberland, Mariya Licheva, Rahel Dabrowski, Rubén Gómez-Sánchez, Sabrina Berkamp, Philipp Schönnenbeck, Martin Graef, Claudine Kraft, Carsten Sachse

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

The native structure of the Trichonympha centriole cartwheel reveals a zigzag stacking pattern
Carlee M. Rowsell, Shintaroh Kubo, Asuva Arin, Thibault Legal, Yining Yu, Khanh Huy Bui

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

Whole organism 3D mapping reveals universal branching topology and biophysical optimization governs vascular and nervous system development
André Forjaz, Marco Costa, Catarina Oliveira, Paul A. Gensbigler, Lucie Dequiedt, Vasco Queiroga, Saurabh Joshi, William Foster, Matthieu Wyart, Marjorie R. Grafe, Owen J.T. McCarty, Gabriel S. Bever, Jamie O. Lo, Brice Menard, Sean X. Sun, Ashley L. Kiemen, Denis Wirtz

Spindle pole proteins confine chromosomes to ensure their expulsion during female meiosis
Kan Yaguchi, Lifeng Chen, Abdollah Mohammadi-Sangcheshmeh, Judith Tafur, Nicole E. Familiari, Edward J. Grow, Michael K. Rosen, Jeffrey B. Woodruff

Flow-driven lumen remodeling and valve opening in the vas deferens
Nicole Ng Shu Ying, Qin Ying Lim, Gen Yamada, Tsuyoshi Hirashima

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

Ca2+ influx through ER-plasma membrane contacts is required for brown fat thermogenesis and metabolic health
J Zhou, C Dogan, LL Artico, K Rodrigues, S Hakam, T Kim, V Xu, K Lapenta, M Kang, DM Jorgens, SB Widenmaier, G Parlakgul, AP Arruda

Size-Dependent Mechanoadaptation Enables Migration with Oversized Parasitic Cargo
Mauricio J.A. Ruiz-Fernandez, Jianfei Jiang, Alice Battistella, Armina Mortazavi, Sterre van Wierst, Bingzhi Wang, Artur Kuznetcov, Rüya Aslan, Jack Merrin, Daan Vorselen, Jochen Guck, Markus Meissner, Javier Periz, Benedikt Sabass, Jörg Renkawitz

Morphogenetic Patterning During Regional and Cell Type Specification in the Embryonic Basal Ganglia
Jia Sheng Hu, Karol Cichewicz, Jonathan W.C. Lim, Linda J Richards, Luis Puelles, Alex S Nord, John L.R. Rubenstein

Large-scale endoplasmic reticulum membrane solidification spatially organises proteins under thermal or metabolic stress
Paul M. Müller, Melissa R. Mikolaj, Elmehdi Belbaraka, Finn Hartstein, Sophia Altinoluk, Björn Perder, Philipp Trnka, Robert-William Welke, Heike Naumann, Nina Taudien, Severine Kunz, Michele Solimena, Ilya Levental, Kandice R. Levental, Andreas Müller, Helge Ewers, Kedar Narayan, Oliver Rocks

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

Coupling of electron-bifurcation modules powers aromatic ring reduction beyond the biological redox window
Lena Appel, Anuj Kumar, Davide Tamborrini, Tomas C. Pascoa, Kanwal Kayastha, Ulrich Ermler, Tim Kettler, Stefan Bohn, Tristan Reif-Trauttmansdorff, Benjamin D. Engel, Jan M. Schuller, Matthias Boll

Microglia detection and phagocytosis of dying neurons is regulated by CX3CR1
Maryanne N. Barasa, Alicia N. Pietramale, Robert A. Hill

Spheroid culture remodels mitosis and the proteome in tumor cells
Ana Petelinec, Claudia Cavarischia-Rega, Adrian Perhat, Boris Maček, Iva M. Tolić

Molecular architecture of the ciliary base in mammalian multiciliated cells
Caitlyn L. McCafferty, Marine Brunet, Hugo van den Hoek, Garrison Buss, Olivier Mercey, Philippe Van der Stappen, Danilo Ritz, Adrian Müller, Ricardo Righetto, Paul Guichard, Virginie Hamel, Tim Stearns, Benjamin D. Engel

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

Synthetic lumen rounding directs neural progenitor division mode
Marina Marchenko, Guillermo Martínez Ara, Juslina Pulikkal, Keisuke Ishihara, Miki Ebisuya

ER discontinuities are common in C. elegans neurons, revealing a genetically tractable model for ER network maintenance
Kelsey N. Mabry, Eric K.F. Donahue, Aaron D. Orgel, Brennen Keuchel, Max G. Kushner, Kristopher Burkewitz

Neurodegeneration risk variants promote lysosomal TMEM106B fibril accumulation
John Michael Replogle, Jordan D. Marks, Martin G. Fernandez, Hebao Yuan, Dahyun Yu, Elizabeth Winters, Vidhya Maheswari Jawahar, Rishi Deshmukh, Renaldo Sutanto, Isabelle Kowal, Ashley Frankenfield, Rachel Shi, Yari Carlomagno, Karen Jansen-West, Tiffany W. Todd, Andrii Kopach, Iradukunda Sandra Ndayambaje, Yue A. Qi, Ananth Shantaraman, Ignacio Pozo-Cabanell, Udit Sheth, Mei Yue, Duc Duong, Shawn M. Ferguson, David A. Bennett, Markus Damme, Brad F. Boeve, Gregory S. Day, Benjamin Kellman, William C. Skarnes, Ronald C. Petersen, Keith A. Josephs, Neill R. Graff-Radford, Justin A. McDonough, Mercedes Prudencio, Sami J. Barmada, Yongjie Zhang, Ling Hao, Michael DeTure, Bailey Rawlinson, Erica Engelberg-Cook, Monica Castanedes Casey, Nathan Perez, Dennis W. Dickson, Aliza Wingo, Yue Liu, Nicholas T. Seyfried, Thomas S. Wingo, Shyamal Mosalaganti, Leonard Petrucelli, Michael E. Ward

A general role for GGA adaptors in the modulation of AP-1-dependent trafficking
Alexander Stockhammer, Antonia Klemt, Aline Daberkow, Jelena Mijatovic, Laila S. Benz, Christian Freund, Benno Kuropka, Francesca Bottanelli

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

Cryo-EM structures of the CDK11-cyclin L-SAP30BP complex reveal mechanisms of CDK11 regulation
Amy J. S. McGeoch, Victoria I. Cushing, Theodoros I. Roumeliotis, Nora B. Cronin, Stephen J. Hearnshaw, Jyoti S. Choudhary, Claudio Alfieri, Basil J. Greber

Physiomimetic culture bias durotaxis toward soft environments
Marina Moro-López, Roberto Alonso-Matilla, Sergi Olivé, Manuel Gómez-González, Paolo Provenzano, Ramon Farré, Jorge Otero, David Odde, Raimon Sunyer

In situ cryo-ET of mammalian embryos reveals cytoplasmic lattices contain ubiquitin-charged E2-E3 ligase assemblies
Kashish Singh, Katarina Harasimov, Kathy K. Niakan, Andrew P. Carter

Dissecting planar and vertical organiser signals in early chick neural development
Alexandra S. Neaverson, Benjamin J. Steventon

Glutamate receptor composition at Drosophila neuromuscular junctions depends on developmental stage and muscle identity
Anne Sustar, Chengjie Qiu, Yu Xiong, Dion Dickman, John C. Tuthill

Quantitative 3D cytoarchitecture of human brain organoids using light-sheet microscopy
Omkar Suhas Vinchure, Amy Vivien Job, Hugo Alonso-Olivares, Fowzan S Alkuraya, Elke Gabriel, Jay Gopalakrishnan

Hierarchical TBX6-FOXC Regulatory Logic Governs Human Trunk Mesoderm Diversification
John-Poul Ng-Blichfeldt, Rosalind Drummond, David Lando, Samina Kausar, Melania Barile, Anna Philpott

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

Chd8 haploinsufficiency leads to molecular layer heterotopias and age-dependent cortical expansion
Felix A Kyere, Ian Curtin, Ziquan Wei, Maya Yilan Yin, Lei Xing, Tao Wen, Roza M Vlasova, Kejia Li, Nana Matoba, Carolyn M McCormick, Tala Farah, Oleh Krupa, Madison R Glass, Bonnie Taylor-Blake, Eric S McCoy, Tzu-Wen Winnie Wang, Qiuhong He, Mustafa Dere, Brooke R. D’Arcy, Liam T Davis, Veda Dayananda, Carla Escobar-Tomlienovich, Karthik Eswar, Maryam Moghul, Meghana Yeturi, Karen Huang, Micah Baldonado, Mihir Kaikini, Debra L. Silver, David Borland, Hong Yi, Pablo Ariel, Yen-Yu Ian Shih, Mark J Zylka, Guorong Wu, Jason L Stein

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

Structural Basis of Condensin Recruitment for X Chromosome Repression
Antonio Valdes Gutierrez, Gurumoorthy Amudhan, Dario Bernasconi, Sinem Erkan, Markus Hassler, Iris Suter, Brigitta Wilde, Julian Bender, Bettina Warscheid, Peter Meister, Christian H. Haering

Laminin and Fibronectin Cooperate to Guide Endothelial Self-Organization During Intersegmental Vessel Formation
Joaquín Abugattas-Núñez Del Prado, Koen A.E. Keijzer, Erika Tsingos, Roeland M. H. Merks

Arp2/3 complex-dependent actin remodeling is required for efficient RSV uncoating in A549 cells
Enyu Xie, Maren Schubert, Jennifer Fricke, Benedikt Seligmann, Matthias Schaks, Mathias Müsken, Anika Steffen, Theresia E.B. Stradal, Sibylle Haid, Klemens Rottner, Christian Sieben

Drebrin forms a cortical hub that connects actin, microtubules, and clathrin for endocytic transport of β2 integrin
Pasquale Cervero, Sven Hey, Kathrin Weber, Bryan Barcelona, Robert Herzog, Stefan Linder

Multimodal reference brain atlas of adult Danionella cerebrum
Mykola Kadobianskyi, Jörg Henninger, Daniil Markov, Antonia Groneberg, Johannes Veith, Marc Renz, Kutay Deniz Atabay, Peter W. Reddien, Leonard Maler, Benjamin Judkewitz

Ciliary cAMP regulates Shh signal interpretation to drive polarisation of differentiating neurons
Gabriela Toro-Tapia, Holly B. Burbidge, Veronica Biga, John R. Davis, Raman M. Das

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

HRS dephosphorylation at membrane contact sites promotes sorting within multivesicular endosomes
Minoo Razi, Louise H. Wong, Douglas Grimes, Thomas Burgoyne, Pedro Fale, Ewan MacDonald, Emily R. Eden, Michael J. Clague, Sylvie Urbe, Clare E. Futter

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

LRRTM4 controls cell migration via Glypican interactions
Claudia Peregrina, Miguel Berbeira-Santana, Maria Carrasquero, Irene Rodriguez-Navarro, Kamel El Omari, Hao-Yi Li, Goenuel Seyit-Bremer, Ruediger Klein, Valerie Castellani, Elena Seiradake, Daniel del Toro

Fgf3 and Fgf10a regulate neuronal fasciculation through Schwann cell proliferation and infiltration in zebrafish posterior lateral line
Hao Jie Wong, Takaaki Matsui, Yasumasa Bessho, Ryutaro Akiyama

Expansion Microscopy reveals changes in cellular and extracellular structures between healthy and perturbed tendons
Marcus A. Woodworth, Tristan McDonnell, Xi Jiang, Zizhao Li, Yuna Heo, Mary Kate Evans, Robert L. Mauck, Su Chin Heo, Nathaniel Dyment, Melike Lakadamyali

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

Third Harmonic Generation Microscopy Reveals Structure and Mucus Dynamics in Human Airway Epithelium Models
Doyoung Kim, Alexandra Latshaw, Marta Balkota, Moritz Wiggert, Milvia Alata, Song Huang, Samuel Constant, Pierre Maechler, Pieter Vanden Berghe, Luigi Bonacina

Three photon microscopy of mouse brain structure and function at 2 mm depth and beyond
Monzilur Rahman, Chi Liu, Dimitre G Ouzounov, Chris Xu

Direct Reconstruction of DC Cortical Conductivity from Large-Scale Electron Microscopy Data
Gregory M Noetscher, Alton Miles, Bethanny Danskin, Dexuan Tang, Mark Ingersoll, Guillermo Carlo Nuñez Ponasso, Connell Paxton, Reinhold Ludwig, Edward H Burnham, Zhi-De Deng, Hanbing Lu, Konstantin Weise, Thomas R Knősche, Bruce R Rosen, Marom Bikson, Sergey N Makaroff

Combining brain-wide activity imaging with electron microscopy reveals a distributed nociceptive network in the brain
Nadine Randel, Chen Wang, Michael S Clayton, Kun Wang, Song Pang, C. Shan Xu, Andrew Champion, Harald F Hess, Albert Cardona, Philipp J Keller, Marta Zlatic

Fluorescence anisotropy structured illumination microscopy for quantitative super-resolved mapping of cell microenvironment and cytoskeletal dynamics
Shu Gao, Wenyi Wang, Liang Qiao, Han Wang, Mingqiao Liu, Yiwei Hou, Guangwei Xin, Chunyan Shan, Donghyun Kim, Zhixing Chen, Meiqi Li, Peng Xi

Tubulin polyglutamylation modulates Golgi morphodynamics and neurite branching during neuronal morphogenesis
Chih-Hsuan Hsu, Alexander Josiah Kinrade, Sarah Cohen

Integrating Lateral Super-resolution and Axial Progression Reveals Distinct Clathrin Pit Formation Pathways
Cristopher Thompson, Aritra Mondal, Gregory Lafyatis, Comert Kural

Plastin-3 membrane recruitment drives cell-in-cell invasion during entosis
Stavroula Prapa, Emir Bozkurt, Carolina Gandia, Alberto Hernandez-Cano, Mario Soriano, Luke A. Noon, Jose A Gomez-Sanchez, Mar Orzáez Calatayud, Federico Lucantoni

Vegfc–Vegfr3-Dependent Lymphatic Sprouting Requires Apelin Signaling
Franziska Lehne, Enno Bockelmann, Ege Eryılmaz, Julian Malchow, Lina W. Weiss, Christian S. M. Helker

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

Mechanical cues trigger phellem differentiation during barrier transition
Jennifer López-Ortiz, Damien De Bellis, Etienne Bellani, Niko Geldner, Juan Alonso-Serra, Hiroyuki Iida, Ari Pekka Mähönen

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

Beyond Pulsing Dyes: Are Flickers the Language of the Mitochondrial Network?
Carolina Cierco, Francisco Santos, Sandrina Nóbrega-Pereira, Odete A.B. da Cruz e Silva, Diogo Trigo

High-speed 3D single-virus tracking reveals actin-aided viral trafficking of SARS-CoV-2 on the plasma membrane
Yuxin Lin, Xinrui Lu, Jack Exell, Haoting Lin, Courtney Johnson, Kevin D. Welsher

A PROPPIN links V-ATPase assembly to endocytic membrane dynamics in malaria parasites
Yasmin Schmitz, Moumita Sengupta, Carola Schneider, Tanja Ziesmann, Franziska Hellmold, Ute Distler, Rudolph Reimer, Joachim Michael Matz

Motile ciliophagy promotes ciliary recycling under stress
Muyang Ren, Kate Heesom, Charlotte Melia, Girish R. Mali

Non-Equilibrium Spatial Encoding of Nanoscale Mechanical Relaxation in Growing Plant Epithelial Cells
Jacob Kienast, Ian Moore, Sonia Contera

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

Cellular hydraulics ensures robust endothelial-to-haematopoietic transition
Igor Kondrychyn, Yan Chen, Jason da Silva, Rajrishi Kumar, Guihua Chen, Koichi Kawakami, Eoin McEvoy, Li-Kun Phng

Retrograde mitochondrial transport is required for mitochondrial biogenesis in zebrafish neurons
Angelica Lang, Chris Stein, Roger Schultz, Katie Drerup