Issues
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Cover image
Cover Image
Cover: Frontal view of a wild-type Drosophila melanogaster head (confocal microscopy capturing autofluorescence) courtesy of Vilaiwan M. Fernandes, who is currently conducting postdoctoral research in Claude Desplan's lab, New York University (https://www.nyu.edu/projects/desplan/).
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SUBJECT COLLECTION: SPOTLIGHT ON DROSOPHILA: TRANSLATIONAL IMPACT
EDITORIAL
Fruit flies on the front line: the translational impact of Drosophila
Drosophila Collection: This Editorial introduces a new Special Collection, ‘Spotlight on Drosophila: Translational Impact’, providing a summary of its contents so far and highlighting the impact of Drosophila as a model for human diseases.
OBITUARY
AT A GLANCE
Drosophila tools and assays for the study of human diseases
Editors' choice - Drosophila Collection: In this review and accompanying poster, we highlight the physiological and molecular parallels between fly and human organs that validate the use of Drosophila to study the molecular pathogenesis underlying human diseases.
SPECIAL ARTICLE
FlyBase portals to human disease research using Drosophila models
Drosophila Collection: Drosophila melanogaster is well established as a model for studying human disease. Here, we highlight recent efforts to enhance the availability and accessibility of disease model data in FlyBase, the model organism database for Drosophila.
REVIEWS
Modeling congenital disease and inborn errors of development in Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila Collection: This Review highlights several Drosophila models of human inborn errors of development, with particular emphasis on the strategies geneticists have developed to break through the current genotype-to-phenotype bottleneck.
The interplay between intestinal bacteria and host metabolism in health and disease: lessons from Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila Collection: Drosophila melanogaster is an ideal host in which to dissect the impact of intestinal microbes on host metabolism.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Glial expression of Swiss cheese (SWS), the Drosophila orthologue of neuropathy target esterase (NTE), is required for neuronal ensheathment and function
Drosophila Collection: Loss of sws in glia results in locomotion deficits, suggesting that glial changes contribute to the paralysis and spastic paraplegia in humans carrying mutations in its orthologue, NTE.
The calcineurin inhibitor Sarah (Nebula) exacerbates Aβ42 phenotypes in a Drosophila model of Alzheimer's disease
Drosophila Collection: Chronically increased levels of Sarah (Nebula), a calcineurin inhibitor, cause mitochondria dysfunction and subsequently increased Aβ42-induced cytotoxicity in Drosophila.
Tau excess impairs mitosis and kinesin-5 function, leading to aneuploidy and cell death
Drosophila Collection: We show that Tau, a microtubule-binding protein involved in many neurodegenerative diseases, impairs mitosis when in excess. We show that this occurs via the inhibition of the kinesin-5 mitotic motor.
Assessing a peptidylic inhibitor-based therapeutic approach that simultaneously suppresses polyglutamine RNA- and protein-mediated toxicities in patient cells and Drosophila
Drosophila Collection: We identified a novel peptidylic inhibitor against expanded CAG RNA toxicity. Our study highlights the importance of simultaneously targeting both toxic RNA and protein species in treating polyQ degeneration.
Cardiomyocyte-specific conditional knockout of the histone chaperone HIRA in mice results in hypertrophy, sarcolemmal damage and focal replacement fibrosis
Summary: Deletion of HIRA, a gene encoding a histone chaperone that lies within the critical region of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, alters cardiac gene expression and leads to cardiomyopathy.
Mouse myofibers lacking the SMYD1 methyltransferase are susceptible to atrophy, internalization of nuclei and myofibrillar disarray
Summary: Elimination of the lysine methyltransferase SMYD1 from mouse skeletal muscle caused myopathy with excessive internal nuclei, atrophy, myofibrillar disorganization and broad upregulation of muscle gene expression.
Call for papers – In Vitro Models of Human Disease to Inform Mechanism and Drug Discovery

We invite you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: In Vitro Models of Human Disease to Inform Mechanism and Drug Discovery, coordinated by DMM Editor Vivian Li (The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK), alongside Guest Editors Austin Smith (University of Exeter, UK) and Joseph Wu (Stanford University School of Medicine, USA).The deadline for submitting articles is 6 October 2025.
The Company of Biologists Workshops

For the last 15 years, our publisher, The Company of Biologists, has provided an apt environment to inspire biology and support biologists through our Workshops series. Read about the evolution of the Workshop series and revisit JEB's experience with hosting the first Global South Workshop.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say

We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.
Fast & Fair peer review

Our sister journal Biology Open has recently launched the next phase of their Fast & Fair peer review initiative: offering high-quality peer review within 7 working days. To learn more about BiO’s progress and future plans, read the Editorial by Daniel Gorelick, or visit the Fast & Fair peer review page.
A new perspective on disease research
DMM publishes perspectives - peer-reviewed articles that provide expert analysis of a topic important to the disease research community. Read our collection from authors presenting new or potentially controversial ideas or hypotheses, to help address future challenges and forge new directions.