Journal Clubs

Viegas and Figueiredo tell us how, among several molecular and biochemical discoveries, RNA trans-splicing was discovered in trypanosomes.

Heterochromatin DNA is heavily methylated yet also inaccessible. Olivier Mathieu describes the work that revealed how DNA methyltransferases access heterochromatin.

Transposons and their host genomes are entangled in an evolutionary arms race, recounts Tuğçe Aktaş.

Ting and Lee describe how the trypanosome base J ‘inspired’ the discovery of the mechanism of active DNA demethylation.

Keren Lasker discusses early work of Lucy Shapiro, which provided first evidence that bacterial cells spatially regulate their cellular processes, akin to their eukaryotic counterparts.

Valeria Levi recounts how a clever way to visualize the function of H⁺-ATP synthase pioneered single-molecule technologies.

‘Alpha helix’ was not Linus Pauling’s first choice of a name for the protein structural motif. Egli and Zhang recount what the original name was, why it was changed and what is between the alpha helix and the DNA double helix.

Mike Henne discusses the pioneering work of Jean Vance, which revealed that mitochonodria-associated membranes (MAMs) are sites for inter-organelle phospholipid exchange and step-wise synthesis reactions.

Prior to introduction of the first DNA–protein structure, Ned Seeman et al. correctly conceived how proteins recognize specific sequences in double-helix nucleic acids.

Appreciation of intrinsically disordered regions of proteins is not a novel phenomenon: Frixione and Ruiz-Zamarripa recollect that they were discussed already in the mid-twentieth century.

Prachee Avasthi highlights how a 1969 study by Rosenbaum and colleagues on Chlamydomonas provided a framework for the understanding of the structure and function of cilia.

Meng Wang discusses the importance of early studies that led to the discovery of genes that regulate longevity.

Izabela Sumara highlights the work by Beck and colleagues that identified a pathway for the biogenesis of nuclear pore complexes, which involves annulate lamellae and biomolecular condensates containing nucleoporins.

Elif Nur Firat-Karalar brings to our attention the early works by Sergei Sorokin that paved the way for research into the biogenesis and function of primary cilia.

Jenna Jewell discusses two papers that spearheaded the work towards understanding amino acid sensing by mTORC1.

Krista Varady discusses two seminal papers on intermittent fasting that inspired her to enter this research area.

Samira Musah highlights work by Puelles et al. investigating multi-organ affinity of SARS-CoV-2 and its high infectivity of the kidneys.

Roukos and Longo recount the findings of two 1982 papers, which proved that chromosomes and spaghetti are not alike.

Sunil Laxman highlights the 1987 discovery of cyclic-di-GMP, which prompted scientists to rethink the concept of ‘unicellular’ and the impact of cell signalling.

Nicolas Papon highlights the work by Kakimoto and colleagues that led to the identification of the cytokinin receptor in plants — 20 years ago.