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Signalling by the energy sensor kinase AMPK is generally tumour suppressive, but Chhipa et al. show that AMPK is upregulated in glioblastoma, where it phosphorylates CREB1 to enhance HIF1α and GABPA transcription and to support tumour bioenergetics.
Using scCOOL-seq, Li et al. simultaneously characterize the DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility of the same cell during human preimplantation development.
Sacristan et al. show that the dynein adaptor Spindly facilitates oligomerisation of the RZZ complex to expand the kinetochore, after which Spindly-associated dynein compacts the kinetochore to allow for faithful chromosome segregation.
Multiple clones of cancer cells co-exist within a tumour, and yet it is not clear when these subclones arise and how they contribute to tumour progression. A multicolour clonal tracing study now shows that benign skin tumours are mostly monoclonal while the more advanced lesions are composed of multiple intermixed subclones.
Phase separation can build assemblies and regulate biological function. Two articles link specific forms of protein and RNA degradation to phase separation. The polyubiquitin shuttle factor UBQLN2 localizes to stress granules where it may extract ubiquitinated proteins, and the miRISC complex functions through phase separation.
Gao et al. provide a comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic resource of four organs from the human fetal gastrointestinal tract and adult large intestine.
Duan et al. find that the membrane skeleton protein spectrin is required for myoblast fusion in Drosophila, accumulating in a mechanosensitive manner in the receiving partner during cell–cell fusion to modulate adhesion and protrusion events.
Reeves et al. use a multistage skin carcinogenesis mouse model and multicoloured lineage tracing to analyse the different patterns of clonal evolution and behaviour seen in progressing and non-progressing papillomas.
Knapp et al. analyse the heterogeneous molecular profiles and functions of CD49f human cord blood haematopoietic stem cells and report that a subset with CD33 expression has improved regenerative activity.
Monitoring growing epithelial cells through the cell cycle, Uroz et al. find that cell–cell tension and cell–matrix traction forces differ across the cell cycle and affect cell cycle duration, the G1–S transition and mitotic rounding.
Organoid technologies offer unique insights into the biological processes of the tissues they mimic and are being developed at a rapid pace. Here, we introduce a Collection of content from across the Nature Journals, outlining recent progress and challenges in the organoid field.
Current advances in biotechnology open up unprecedented possibilities to transform human tissues into complex, valuable tissue products, such as organoids. Here, we propose consent for governance as a leading paradigm for the derivation, storage and use of complex human tissue products to ensure adjustment to changing ethical requirements.
The establishment of the two distinct lineages that form the branched epithelial ductal tree of the mammary gland is a complex and essential developmental process. Two independent studies now describe the switch from multipotency to unipotency as an embryonic process and outline mechanisms of early lineage restriction.
Lilja et al. report that multipotent mouse embryonic mammary cells become lineage restricted as early as embryonic day 12.5 during development in a potency switch regulated by Notch1 signalling.