July 2025
On the surface of Drosophila olfactory sensilla, many small holes (nanopores) are present in the cuticle, allowing odorant molecules to pass through. In mutants of the gore-tex/Osi23 gene, the number of nanopores is greatly reduced, and olfactory ability is also significantly weakened (Ando et al. (2019) Current Biology 29: 1512-1520, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.043). This drawing shows the famous Sengoku warlord Takeda Shingen wearing a helmet with horns resembling olfactory sensilla to enhance his "sense of smell" in battle. However, he is panicking after noticing that the left horn has very few nanopore-like holes, possibly due to a malfunction of the Gore-tex/Osi23 protein. We thank Dr. Shigeo Hayashi and Dr. Toshiya Ando, the authors of the original paper, for their advice in creating this illustration.
May 2025
How about a beautifully crafted Japanese umbrella featuring a circular phylogenetic tree, expertly handmade by skilled artisans, for your outings on rainy days? The phylogenetic tree was inspired by Figure 3 (phylogeny of Daidara, a gigantic transposon from Allacma fusca, and other Gypsy LTR retrotransposons) in Kojima (2023) Genes Cells 28: 746-752, DOI: 10.1111/gtc.13062.
