Scholars@Duke
Daniel Levic

Daniel Levic

Assistant Research Professor of Cell Biology
Cell Biology

Selected Publications

The mouse neonatal small intestine is regionally specialized for protein absorption and transepithelial transport.

Journal Article Development · December 1, 2025 In neonates, gastric protein digestion is limited, requiring specialized mechanisms for intestinal protein absorption. While neonatal enterocytes are thought to mediate endocytosis, degradation and transcytosis of dietary proteins, whether these activities ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pro-ferroptotic lipids as key control points for caveola formation and disassembly.

Journal Article Cell Rep · June 24, 2025 Caveolae are specialized plasma membrane domains with a unique lipid composition. Lipid peroxidation has recently been implicated in triggering caveola disassembly, releasing cavin proteins to regulate oxidative-stress-associated cellular processes, partic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Rediscovering the rete ovarii, a secreting auxiliary structure to the ovary

Journal Article eLife · March 19, 2025 The rete ovarii (RO) is an appendage of the ovary that has been given little attention. Although the RO appears in drawings of the ovary in early versions of Gr ... Full text Cite

Notochord segmentation in zebrafish controlled by iterative mechanical signaling.

Journal Article Dev Cell · July 22, 2024 In bony fishes, patterning of the vertebral column, or spine, is guided by a metameric blueprint established in the notochord sheath. Notochord segmentation begins days after somitogenesis concludes and can occur in its absence. However, somite patterning ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

TNF Promoter Hypomethylation Is Associated With Mucosal Inflammation in IBD and Anti-TNF Response.

Journal Article Gastro Hep Adv · 2024 BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are chronic inflammatory conditions influenced heavily by environmental factors. DNA methylation is a form of epigenetic regulation linking environmental stimuli to gene expression changes and inflamm ... Full text Link to item Cite

Polarized transport of membrane and secreted proteins during lumen morphogenesis.

Journal Article Semin Cell Dev Biol · January 15, 2023 A ubiquitous feature of animal development is the formation of fluid-filled cavities or lumina, which transport gases and fluids across tissues and organs. Among different species, lumina vary drastically in size, scale, and complexity. However, all lumen ... Full text Link to item Cite

Zebrafish Erc1b mediates motor innervation and organization of craniofacial muscles in control of jaw movement.

Journal Article Dev Dyn · January 2023 BACKGROUND: Movement of the lower jaw, a common behavior observed among vertebrates, is required for eating and processing food. This movement is controlled by signals sent from the trigeminal motor nerve through neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) to the masti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Self-organization of apical membrane protein sorting in epithelial cells.

Journal Article FEBS J · February 2022 Polarized epithelial cells are characterized by the asymmetric distribution of proteins between apical and basolateral domains of the plasma membrane. This asymmetry is highly conserved and is fundamental to epithelial cell physiology, development, and hom ... Full text Link to item Cite

Knock-in tagging in zebrafish facilitated by insertion into non-coding regions.

Journal Article Development · October 1, 2021 Zebrafish provide an excellent model for in vivo cell biology studies because of their amenability to live imaging. Protein visualization in zebrafish has traditionally relied on overexpression of fluorescently tagged proteins from heterologous promoters, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Distinct roles for luminal acidification in apical protein sorting and trafficking in zebrafish.

Journal Article J Cell Biol · April 6, 2020 Epithelial cell physiology critically depends on the asymmetric distribution of channels and transporters. However, the mechanisms targeting membrane proteins to the apical surface are still poorly understood. Here, we performed a visual forward genetic sc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Lysosome-Rich Enterocytes Mediate Protein Absorption in the Vertebrate Gut.

Journal Article Dev Cell · October 7, 2019 The guts of neonatal mammals and stomachless fish have a limited capacity for luminal protein digestion, which allows oral acquisition of antibodies and antigens. However, how dietary protein is absorbed during critical developmental stages when the gut is ... Full text Link to item Cite

GRIK5 Genetically Regulated Expression Associated with Eye and Vascular Phenomes: Discovery through Iteration among Biobanks, Electronic Health Records, and Zebrafish.

Journal Article Am J Hum Genet · March 7, 2019 Although the use of model systems for studying the mechanism of mutations that have a large effect is common, we highlight here the ways that zebrafish-model-system studies of a gene, GRIK5, that contributes to the polygenic liability to develop eye diseas ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sheath Cell Invasion and Trans-differentiation Repair Mechanical Damage Caused by Loss of Caveolae in the Zebrafish Notochord.

Journal Article Curr Biol · July 10, 2017 The notochord, a conserved axial structure required for embryonic axis elongation and spine development, consists of giant vacuolated cells surrounded by an epithelial sheath [1-3]. During morphogenesis, vacuolated cells maintain their structural integrity ... Full text Link to item Cite

A conserved role of αA-crystallin in the development of the zebrafish embryonic lens.

Journal Article Exp Eye Res · September 2015 αA- and αB-crystallins are small heat shock proteins that bind thermodynamically destabilized proteins thereby inhibiting their aggregation. Highly expressed in the mammalian lens, the α-crystallins have been postulated to play a critical role in the maint ... Full text Link to item Cite

Animal model of Sar1b deficiency presents lipid absorption deficits similar to Anderson disease.

Journal Article J Mol Med (Berl) · February 2015 Anderson disease (ANDD) or chylomicron retention disease (CMRD) is a rare, hereditary lipid malabsorption syndrome associated with mutations in the SAR1B gene that is characterized by failure to thrive and hypocholesterolemia. Although the SAR1B structure ... Full text Link to item Cite

Trafficking mechanisms of extracellular matrix macromolecules: insights from vertebrate development and human diseases.

Journal Article Int J Biochem Cell Biol · February 2014 Cellular life depends on protein transport and membrane traffic. In multicellular organisms, membrane traffic is required for extracellular matrix deposition, cell adhesion, growth factor release, and receptor signaling, which are collectively required to ... Full text Link to item Cite

The NADH oxidase ENOX1, a critical mediator of endothelial cell radiosensitization, is crucial for vascular development.

Journal Article Cancer Res · January 1, 2014 ENOX1 is a highly conserved NADH oxidase that helps to regulate intracellular nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide levels in many cell types, including endothelial cells. Pharmacologic and RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated suppression of ENOX1 impairs surrogat ... Full text Link to item Cite

The feelgood mutation in zebrafish dysregulates COPII-dependent secretion of select extracellular matrix proteins in skeletal morphogenesis.

Journal Article Dis Model Mech · November 2011 Craniofacial and skeletal dysmorphologies account for the majority of birth defects. A number of the disease phenotypes have been attributed to abnormal synthesis, maintenance and composition of extracellular matrix (ECM), yet the molecular and cellular me ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mutations in fam20b and xylt1 reveal that cartilage matrix controls timing of endochondral ossification by inhibiting chondrocyte maturation.

Journal Article PLoS Genet · August 2011 Differentiating cells interact with their extracellular environment over time. Chondrocytes embed themselves in a proteoglycan (PG)-rich matrix, then undergo a developmental transition, termed "maturation," when they express ihh to induce bone in the overl ... Full text Link to item Cite