Well Wrapped

The perfect hug is comforting, it sends just the right message. Too vigorous and it knocks your air out; too tentative and it leaves you cold. Such is the balance struck by glial cells – cells that support neurons in the nervous system. A new study in fruit fly larvae shows that glial cells first grow, and only then wrap a protective sheath around neurons when ready and prompted by a set of signals called Notch (activity shown green in the larva nervous system tissue pictured). When Notch signalling was reduced, glial cells grew but failed to wrap properly. When it was overactivated, they wrapped excessively. This shows precise balance and timing is essential. This fundamental control mechanism has parallels in humans, where understanding how glial cells wrap nerves could help guide new treatments for nerve damage or diseases where this process goes wrong.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Marie Baldenius and colleagues
• Institut für Neuro- und Verhaltensbiologie, Münster, Germany
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, February 2026