Publications

Cellular Cannibalism

Mishra, A. K., Rodriguez, M., et al. Hyperactive Rac stimulates cannibalism of living target cells and enhances CAR-M-mediated cancer cell killing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 120,52 (2023).

Torres, A., Nano, M., Campanale, J., et al. Activated Src kinase promotes cell cannibalism in Drosophila. The Journal of cell biology vol. 222,11 (2023).

Cell Migration

Penfield, L., Montell, D. Nuclear lamin facilitates collective border cell invasion into confined spaces in vivo. J Cell Biol 6; 222 (11): e202212101. (2023).

Gabbert, A., Campanale, J., Mondo, J., et al. Septins regulate border cell surface geometry, shape, and motility downstream of Rho in Drosophila. Developmental Cell, 58, 1399–1413.e5. (2023).

Campanale, J, Montell, D. Who's really in charge: Diverse follower cell behaviors in collective cell migration. Current opinion in cell biology, 81, 102160. (2023).

Campanale ,J, Mondo, J, Montell, D. A Scribble/Cdep/Rac pathway controls follower-cell crawling and cluster cohesion during collective border-cell migration. Developmental Cell. 57, 2483-2496.e4. (2022).

Montell D. J. Macrophages, masters of invasion. Developmental Cell, 57, 1314–1315 (2022).

Miao G, Guo L, Montell D. Border cell polarity and collective migration require the spliceosome component Cactin. J Cell Biol 4; 221 (7): e202202146 (2022).

Miao, G., & Montell, D. A thermogenetics protocol for detecting gap junction channels in Drosophila egg chambers. STAR protocols, 2, 100269 (2021).

Dai, W. et al. Tissue topography steers migrating Drosophila border cells. Science 370, 987–990 (2020).

Miao, G., Godt, D. & Montell, D. J. Integration of Migratory Cells into a New Site In Vivo Requires Channel-Independent Functions of Innexins on Microtubules. Developmental Cell 54, 501–515.e9 (2020).

Cai, D. et al. Mechanical feedback through E-cadherin promotes direction sensing during collective cell migration. Cell 157, 1146–1159 (2014).

Wang, X., He, L., Wu, Y. I., Hahn, K. M. & Montell, D. J. Light-mediated activation reveals a key role for Rac in collective guidance of cell movement in vivo. Nat. Cell Biol. 12, 591–597 (2010).

Prasad, M. & Montell, D. J. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of border cell migration analyzed using time-lapse live-cell imaging. Developmental Cell 12, 997–1005 (2007).

Geisbrecht, E. R. & Montell, D. J. A role for Drosophila IAP1-mediated caspase inhibition in Rac-dependent cell migration. Cell 118, 111–125 (2004).

Geisbrecht, E. R. & Montell, D. J. Myosin VI is required for E-cadherin-mediated border cell migration. Nat. Cell Biol. 4, 616–620 (2002).

Silver, D. L. & Montell, D. J. Paracrine signaling through the JAK/STAT pathway activates invasive behavior of ovarian epithelial cells in Drosophila. Cell 107, 831–841 (2001).

Bai, J., Uehara, Y. & Montell, D. J. Regulation of invasive cell behavior by taiman, a Drosophila protein related to AIB1, a steroid receptor coactivator amplified in breast cancer. Cell 103, 1047–1058 (2000).

Murphy, A. M. & Montell, D. J. Cell type-specific roles for Cdc42, Rac, and RhoL in Drosophila oogenesis. J. Cell Biol. 133, 617–630 (1996).

Montell, D. J., Rorth, P. & Spradling, A. C. Slow border cells, a locus required for a developmentally regulated cell migration during oogenesis, encodes Drosophila C/EBP. Cell 71, 51–62 (1992).

Anastasis

Sun, G., Ding, X. A., Argaw, Y., Guo, X. & Montell, D. J. Akt1 and dCIZ1 promote cell survival from apoptotic caspase activation during regeneration and oncogenic overgrowth. Nat. Commun. 11, 5726 (2020).

Sun, G. et al. A molecular signature for anastasis, recovery from the brink of apoptotic cell death. J. Cell Biol. 216, 3355–3368 (2017).

Ding, A. X. et al. CasExpress reveals widespread and diverse patterns of cell survival of caspase-3 activation during development in vivo. Elife 5, (2016).

Tang, H. L. et al. Cell survival, DNA damage, and oncogenic transformation after a transient and reversible apoptotic response. Mol. Biol. Cell 23, 2240–2252 (2012).

Stem Cells, Cell Fate, Cancer

Guo X, Mutch M, Torres AY, et al. The Zn²⁺ transporter ZIP7 enhances endoplasmic-reticulum-associated protein degradation and prevents neurodegeneration in Drosophila. Dev Cell. (2024). 

Easwaran, S., & Montell, D. J. The molecular mechanisms of diapause and diapause-like reversible arrest. Biochemical Society transactions, BST20221431. (2023).

Guo, X., Mutch, M., Torres, A., et al. Rescue of proteotoxic stress and neurodegeneration by the Zn ²⁺ transporter ZIP7. bioRxiv (2023).

Kim, A. A., Nguyen, A., Marchetti, M., et al. Independently paced Ca2+ oscillations in progenitor and differentiated cells in an ex vivo epithelial organ. Journal of cell science, 135, jcs260249. (2022)

Easwaran, S., Van Ligten, M., Kui, M. & Montell, D. J. Enhanced germline stem cell longevity in Drosophila diapause. Nat. Commun. 13, 711 (2022).

Lowe, D. D., & Montell, D. J. Unconventional translation initiation factor EIF2A is required for Drosophila spermatogenesis. Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists, 251, 377–389 (2022).

Guo, Q. et al. Light activated cell migration in synthetic extracellular matrices. Biomaterials 33, 8040–8046 (2012).

He, L., Wang, X., Tang, H. L. & Montell, D. J. Tissue elongation requires oscillating contractions of a basal actomyosin network. Nat. Cell Biol. 12, 1133–1142 (2010).

Yoshida, H. et al. Lessons from border cell migration in the Drosophila ovary: A role for myosin VI in dissemination of human ovarian cancer. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 8144–8149 (2004).

Silver, D. L., Naora, H., Liu, J., Cheng, W. & Montell, D. J. Activated signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3: localization in focal adhesions and function in ovarian cancer cell motility. Cancer Res. 64, 3550–3558 (2004).

Bai, J. & Montell, D. Eyes absent, a key repressor of polar cell fate during Drosophila oogenesis. Development 129, 5377–5388 (2002).

Selected Review Articles

Montell, D. J. EMT, one of many morphological transitions in cellular phase space. Methods Mol. Biol. 2179, 13–18 (2021).

Gudipaty, S. A., Conner, C. M., Rosenblatt, J. & Montell, D. J. Unconventional ways to live and die: cell death and survival in development, homeostasis, and disease. Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology 34, 311–332 (2018).

Stuellton, C., Parent, C. A. & Montell, D. J. Cell Motility in Cancer Metastasis: Mechanistic Insights from Simple Model Organisms. NRC (2017).

Sun, G. & Montell, D. J. Q&A: Cellular near death experiences-what is anastasis? BMC Biol. 15, 92 (2017).

Montell, D. J., Yoon, W. H. & Starz-Gaiano, M. Group choreography: mechanisms orchestrating the collective movement of border cells. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 13, 631–645 (2012).

Montell, D. J. Morphogenetic cell movements: diversity from modular mechanical properties. Science 322, 1502–1505 (2008).