Jennifer T. Wang

TL;DR: A new microscope using ultrathin light sheets derived from two-dimensional optical lattices is developed, demonstrating the performance advantages of lattice light-sheet microscopy compared with previous techniques and highlighted phenomena that, when seen at increased spatiotemporal detail, may hint at previously unknown biological mechanisms.

TL;DR: Evidence is presented that a group of intrinsically disordered, serine-rich proteins regulate the dynamics of P granules in C. elegans embryos, and it is concluded that P granule assembly in embryos is regulated by phosphorylation.

TL;DR: Genetic and biochemical evidence is provided that the two methylase activities share an S-adenosyl-l-methionine-binding site and show that, in contrast to other cap methylation reactions, methylation of the G-N-7 position is not required for 2'-O methylation.

TL;DR: A Caenorhabditis elegans mutant is identified in which P granules become unstable during mitosis and P granule proteins and RNAs are distributed equally to somatic and germline blastomeres, suggesting that asymmetric partitioning of maternal Pgranules is not essential to specify germ cell fate and may serve to protect the nascent germline from stress.

TL;DR: Together, these processes ensure that the daughters of P(4), the primordial germ cells Z2 and Z3, gastrulate inside the embryo, associate with the somatic gonad, initiate the germline transcriptional program, and proliferate during larval development to generate ∼2,000 germ cells by adulthood.