A smooth septate junction (ladder-like structure) between two epithelial cells in the midgut of Drosophila melanogaster.
A new paper from the lab in Scientific Reports shows how chilling disrupts paracellular barriers in the gut of Drosophila melanogaster. Heath, Gil, Sima, Scott, and Andrew teamed up to examine whether chilling simply slows transcellular ion and water transport, or if it also causes the septate junctions between epithelial cells to be disrupted. Not only does chilling disrupt gut barriers, but the ability to maintain gut barrier properties at low temperature is plastic; cold acclimation mitigates barrier disruption!