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There exists a worldwide shortage of donor livers for transplant. This may not pose a problem in the future, as Takebe et al. have recently grown functional “liver buds” from stem cells in a dish.
Fine scale genomic regulation is critical for maintaining genomic integrity and is often disrupted in neurodevelopmental disorders. An intriguing new study reveals the intricate biochemical complexity of de novo post-translational modifications of MeCP2, including activity-dependent protein-protein interactions that 'bridge' the nuclear receptor co-repressor (NCoR) complex to chromatin and lead to alterations in gene expression that characterize Rett syndrome.
It has been a long-standing enigma which scramblase causes phosphatidylserine residues to be exposed on the surface of apoptotic cells, thereby facilitating the phagocytic recognition, engulfment and destruction of apoptotic corpses. In a recent paper in Science, Nagata and coworkers reveal that the scramblases Xkr8 and its C. elegans ortholog, CED-8, are activated by caspase cleavage in apoptotic cells.
Acetylcholine is a cellular mediator selected early in evolution as a key neurotransmitter, but its other biological roles including immune-modulation remain to be elucidated. In a recent paper published in Cell Research, Sun et al. report that acetylcholine modulates cytokine production in macrophages via microRNA-124.
FOR20, a conserved centrosomal protein, is essential for Plk1 to localize to the centrosome during the S phase and regulate DNA replication. The absence of either Plk1 or FOR20 can stall the cell cycle by a previously unknown intra-S phase centrosomal checkpoint.
In the September issue of Cell Research, Wan et al. analyze the Chinese Alligator genome and identify multiple instances of positively-selected changes in protein-coding genes and expansions of multi-gene families that appear to explain suites of phenotypes central to the unique habits and physiology of crocodilian reptiles. They demonstrate the effectiveness of comparative systems genomics in integrating information from comparative genomics, molecular evolution, and systems biology to understand the evolutionary dynamics of complex systems.
