The work is just beginning! Abhinav's new lab (starting this year!) will study their function and how they communicate with other cell types. We will keep studying their development. Read Abhinav's thread for more details or better yet, read it! Feedback welcome. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We began testing their function, focusing on pH regulation. In ZF, they're not req'd for proper gut pH homeostasis, but their intracellular pH varies spatially. Eliminating spatial variation non-autonomously affects goblet cell mucus modifying enzymes, suggesting best4+ cells coordinate other cells.

While conserved, best4+ cells are absent in mice, so zebrafish will be a key in vivo model. We made fish that label best4+ cells to live image them (they extend dynamic projections to touch other cells!) and the first in vivo models that remove best4+ cells.

We tested best4+ cell development from birth to differentiation. We IDed the conserved best4+ cell gene expression program, lineage traced them to ID their progenitors, tested the signals that specify them, IDed the TF that confers their identity, and IDed a TF required for their spatial diversity.

Just because I am seeing new reposts of this: this outage was resolved last week, about 48 hours after we found out about it. Thankfully, there has not been a second one 😎

Thank you Kevin for creating something truly incredible. ZebrafishRock has been such an important contribution to our community. I’m glad that the Slack will live on - see you there, and hopefully at a meeting some time soon. Be well!

Congrats, Bailey!

Sure, but it’s a few extra steps. (1) Use a small screwdriver to unscrew the front panel of your Switch. (2) Use a hot glue gun to glue that front panel to the screen of your Mac laptop. (3) Start DaniocellDesktop and shrink the window to show through the front panel. (4) Voila! How easy is that?

Big props to Alicia Evans, Matt Breymaier, and the NICHD BSPC team for key contributions. It feels strange to announce new things these days, but hopefully this tool will bring some of you a little joy and some great new hypotheses. (4/4)

After installing, it'll download a copy of the Daniocell data for you and runs locally on your computer, meaning your interactions are private and can persist long-term. Check out the tutorials and give it a try: daniocell.nichd.nih.gov/desktop/ (3/4)

DaniocellDesktop lets you define custom cell populations, perform differentially expressed gene analysis, and generate publication-ready plots to show gene expression patterns, co-expression, and temporal changes for any genes or cell populations you wish. (2/4)

We also did some such comparisons between ZF and human in our 2023 dev cell paper and some code you could use as a starting point is in the GitHub repo.

Hey Ivan! The data is available from the Daniocell front page, but LMK if you have questions

Kevin, I think what you do is super important, and I’m thankful for everything that Zebrafish Rock! has done!!! It helps me keep up with the community and helps make people aware of cool resources they should know about. Sorry there are some unappreciative jerks, but many of us love ZR deeply.