Glass Lab Featured in NY Times

Research and video done in the Glass Lab is featured in the New York Times online series "Science Take" by James Gorman. The video message highlights an amazing, interconnected transport system used by Neurospora crassa to spread nuclei among its filaments as it grows.

Fungi can have many nuclei in one cell. As that cell grows, sending out filaments, it needs to keep the nuclei moving freely. 

The videos produced by the Glass Lab, under the microscope, clearly show a highly efficient traffic system. The Glass Lab then tested whether the traffic system was the result of accidental growth by silencing the gene they thought played a role. As a result, the nuclei started to clump, proving that the rules for growth that make filament traffic run smoothly are embedded in DNA.

LINKS:

Science Take - the Fungus Highway

Nuclear Dynamics in a Fungal Chimera (PubMed)

Proceeds of the National Academy of Science - Nuclear Dynamics in a Fungal Chimera