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Paraspeckles are nuclear bodies built on the long noncoding RNA, NEAT1, that regulate cellular homeostasis, but how they sense and help under stress is unclear. A study now shows mitochondrial stress modulates paraspeckles by altering NEAT1 expression with a feedback loop that influences mitochondrial homeostasis.
Basnet et al. discover that in vitro SSNA1 forms fibrils that attach along protofilaments and guide these to grow away from microtubules, forming templates for branched microtubules. SSNA1 mutations that perturb this process lead to defective axon branching in primary neurons.
Wang et al. show that mitochondrial stress alters paraspeckle number and morphology through regulating the transcription and processing of lncRNA NEAT1, retaining mRNAs of mitochondrial proteins in paraspeckles.
Fort et al. identify CYRI as a conserved negative modulator of Scar–WAVE-induced lamellipodia by interacting directly with active Rac1, thereby conferring pseudopod plasticity and dynamics during motility.
Mehta et al. create single-fluorophore kinase activity sensors for PKA, PKC and ERK in different colours, and demonstrate that they enable multiplex imaging of a combination of signalling activities in cell lines and primary rat neurons.
Ferroptosis is a regulated non-apoptotic form of cell death and its functional role in tumorigenesis remains elusive. A study now shows that the tumour suppressor BAP1 enhances ferroptosis by modulating expression of the cystine transporter SLC7A11, leading to improved control of tumour growth.
In this Review, Doherty and Baehrecke discuss the multiple roles of autophagy during cell survival and cell death. They cover the interplay between autophagy, apoptosis and necrosis, as well as engulfment and inflammation.
Zhu et al. show that the long noncoding RNA lncGata6 enhances Wnt signalling in intestinal stem cells by recruiting the NURF remodelling complex onto the Ehf promoter and initiating its transcription, which triggers expression of Lgr4/5.
Using super-resolution microscopy, tracking of single particle trajectories of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) luminal proteins traversing tubular ER, and measuring ER dynamics, Holcman et al. show that ER content is propelled by active luminal flow.
Studying early Drosophila wing epithelium development, Singh et al. find that individual cells are mechanically autonomous, and that their elongation along the proximal–distal axis is driven by polarized microtubule-mediated pushing forces.
Barnes et al. report a dynamic and reciprocal crosstalk between tissue tension and glycocalyx bulkiness that promotes a mesenchymal, stem-like phenotype in GBM.
Lenos et al. report that the spatiotemporal regulation of stem cell functionality is not intrinsically determined but environmentally defined during tumour growth and drug response in colon cancer.
Maintaining plasma membrane tension is important for eukaryotic cells. How altered membrane tension is sensed and relayed to downstream factors, such as the target of rapamyin complex 2 (TORC2), is poorly understood. Reorganization of a signalling lipid into discrete membrane domains is now shown to inactivate TORC2 in yeast.
Melissa Little is an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and Cell Biology Theme Director at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia. She also leads Stem Cells Australia, University of Melbourne. She studies kidney morphogenesis and regeneration using pluripotent stem cells.
Melina Schuh did her PhD at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory with Jan Ellenberg. She became group leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, in 2009, and was appointed Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, in 2016.
Shubha Tole obtained her BSc in Life Sciences and Biochemistry from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India, in 1987. After a PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1994, she did her postdoc at the University of Chicago. In 1999, she joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, in Mumbai, as a faculty member.