Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
Volume 10, No 12 December 2009
Featured Article
Tissue remodelling through branching morphogenesis
Markus Affolter, Rolf Zeller & Emmanuel Caussinus
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Current Issue
Review
Exploring protein fitness landscapes by directed evolution
Philip A. Romero & Frances H. Arnold
Directed evolution optimizes protein function through successive generations of random mutation, artificial selection and screening. This design algorithm provides a reliable approach to engineering proteins with new and useful properties, and helps us to understand how natural evolution occurs.
Current Issue
Review
Fine-tuning of GPCR activity by receptor-interacting proteins
Stefanie L. Ritter & Randy A. Hall
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) mediate physiological responses to various hormones, neurotransmitters, sensory stimuli and other ligands. The signalling and trafficking properties of GPCRs are often fine-tuned by receptor-interacting proteins that are differentially expressed in distinct cell types.
Current Issue
Research Highlights
DNA replication:
Cohesin on the fork
Kim Baumann
The advancement of DNA replication forks depends on cohesin acetylation, which might affect the conformation of the cohesin ring.
Membrane trafficking:
IFT proteins play a new game
Francesca Cesari
An unexpected new role of intraflagellar transport in intracellular membrane trafficking at the immune synapse.
Current Issue
Perspective
Article series: Cytoskeletal motors
The mechanisms of kinesin motor motility: lessons from the monomeric motor KIF1A
Nobutaka Hirokawa, Ryo Nitta & Yasushi Okada
Most kinesins move processively along microtubules using energy derived from ATP hydrolysis. Almost all of the intermediate structures of this ATPase reaction cycle have been solved for the monomeric kinesin 3 family motor KIF1A. These structures suggest that kinesins might move by a common mechanism.
Poster
30 years of p53 research
This Poster by Bert Vogelstein and Carol Prives highlights some of the key discoveries that have led to our current understanding of p53 as a tumour suppressor that regulates many important biological activities. It was produced by Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology and Nature Reviews Cancer, and is freely available thanks to support from Roche Molecular Systems and Genentech.
Supplement
Nature Milestones
Nature Milestones in Light Microscopy presents a historical overview of the key developments in the field of light microscopy that changed the way biologists work. This supplement was produced with support from EXFO, Invitrogen™ | Molecular Probes® and Carl Zeiss.
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Recommended Links
Links recommended by the Editors.
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Conferences
A calendar of forthcoming meetings and workshops from across the field of molecular and cell biology.
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Nature Milestones series
Collections of key discoveries that have shaped different scientific fields.
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molecular cell biology@nature.com
More articles on molecular cell biology from the Nature Publishing Group.
Noticeboard
Poster on Small RNA production
This Poster by V. Narry Kim and Mikiko C. Siomi depicts our current understanding of the processing pathways of eukaryotic small RNAs and their possible mechanisms of action, and accompanies their Review. The Poster is freely available thanks to support from Abcam.
Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology would like to congratulate Elizabeth Blackburn, Jack Szostak and Carol Greider, who were awarded this year's Nobel prize in Medicine for their work on telomeres and for discovering the enzyme that maintains them, telomerase. For more information on this subject we refer the readers to the Review by Gilson and Géli entitled How telomeres are replicated and reviews from our 2007 Focus on Ageing.
Cytoskeletal motors series
Eukaryotic cells use motor proteins that move along cytoskeletal polymers to transport various intracellular cargos, including membranous organelles, protein complexes and mRNAs. In this new article series we will highlight the progress made in understanding the function and regulation of different types of cytoskeletal motors.
Focus on: Endocytosis
Endocytic membrane trafficking involves the cellular internalization and sorting of extracellular molecules, plasma membrane proteins and lipids. Endocytosis is required for a vast number of functions, including nutrient uptake, cell adhesion and migration, receptor signalling, pathogen entry and cell polarity. This special Focus on endocytosis reflects the diversity and complexity of endocytic trafficking processes and their associated machineries.
Post-transcriptional control series
The regulation of gene expression beyond the level of transcription is much more intricate than previously thought, and involves diverse mechanisms that regulate the processing, stability and localization of RNA species. In this new article series, we assess the basic mechanisms of post-transcriptional control and the interplay between them.
Chromatin dynamics series
The articles in this new series focus on recent breakthroughs in our understanding of the mechanisms that govern the dynamic structural and spatial organization of chromatin in order to gain important insights into gene regulation, DNA repair, development and epigenetic inheritance.
Focus on Mechanotransduction
Cellular responses to mechanical forces drive morphogenesis and contribute to pathogenesis of diverse diseases. This special Focus reflects our current understanding of mechanotransduction — from how cells sense mechanical forces in different tissues to how these mechanical forces are transduced into biochemical signals — in development and disease.
Milestones in Cytoskeleton
Nature Milestones in Cytoskeleton focuses on the pivotal breakthroughs in cytoskeleton research over the past 60 years — from the discovery of actomyosin to the identification of molecular motors, and from fluorescence analogue cytochemistry and differential interference contrast microscopy to single-molecule in vitro assays.
Stem cells series
In a Series of specially commissioned articles, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology reports on the current hot and exciting topics in stem-cell research, discusses new technologies and resources to study stem cells and explores controversial issues, such as stem-cell ethics and funding.
Focus on Cell Polarity
Cell polarization is crucial for the development of unicellular and multicellular organisms and is achieved through the coordinated actions of signalling pathways, membrane trafficking mechanisms and cytoskeletal dynamics. This special Focus aims to capture the status quo of cell polarity research in a range of different systems by dissecting the underlying principles.
Poster on Pluripotent cell isolation for regenerative medicine
Pluripotent cells offer great promise for regenerative medicine. In this Poster, Christopher Lengner and Rudolf Jaenisch compare and contrast the properties of pluripotent embryonic stem cells with those of laboratory-generated pluripotent cells. The Poster is freely available thanks to support from STEMCELL Technologies Inc.
RNAi gateway
From humble beginnings as an obscure phenomenon in plants, RNA interference (RNAi) has evolved into an area of significant impact in numerous fields. The newly launched RNAi Gateway provides a convenient portal into publications relevant to every aspect of RNAi from journals throughout the Nature Publishing Group.
Focus on Lipids
This Focus provides a snapshot of lipid biology. The accompanying Poster, which was produced with support from Merck Serono International S.A. provides an overview of the protein–lipid signalling network and how this network can be exploited to attenuate proliferative, inflammatory and metabolic diseases.
Poster on Readout of chromatin marks
This Poster illustrates well-known histone marks and representative examples of histone-binding effector modules, and outlines emerging themes in the molecular recognition of modified histones. It also describes possible modes of multivalent chromatin mark recognition, which are also discussed in the accompanying article by C. David Allis, Dinshaw J. Patel & colleagues.
Web Focus Collection
Please visit our archive of selected articles from the Nature Publishing Group on key current topics. Web Focuses are updated monthly with relevant Review and Perspective articles from Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology.
2008 Journal Citation Report (Thomson Reuters, 2009)
