Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
Volume 10, No 11 November 2009
Featured Article
Article series: Cytoskeletal motors
Traffic control: regulation of kinesin motors
Kristen J. Verhey & Jennetta W. Hammond
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Review
Integrins: masters and slaves of endocytic transport
Patrick T. Caswell, Suryakiran Vadrevu & Jim C. Norman
How integrins are trafficked by endocytosis markedly affects their distribution and function. Recent studies examining the molecular mechanisms of integrin trafficking show that it affects the recycling of key signalling receptors to influence cellular processes such as cytokinesis, cell migration and tumour angiogenesis.
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Review
Tissue remodelling through branching morphogenesis
Markus Affolter, Rolf Zeller & Emmanuel Caussinus
Branched structures are present at all levels of organization in living organisms. Recent studies suggest that cell competition and cell rearrangements might be conserved key features in branch formation that are controlled by local cell signalling events.
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Research Highlights
Circadian rhythms:
Calibrating the clock
Rachel David
Calibration of the circadian clock by the diurnal expression of AMPK, which integrates metabolic and circadian signals by affecting the stability of CRY1.
Microscopy:
And then there was light
Katharine H. Wrighton
The imaging of non-fluorescent molecules is enabled by the technique of stimulated emission microscopy.
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Perspective
A biomedical adventurers' guide to navigating between careers in academia and industry
Giulio Superti-Furga
Traditional boundaries between the public and private research sectors have become blurred. This creates the opportunity for the adventurous scientist to embrace a career that moves between academia and industry, while boldly and consciously sampling selected skill sets along the way.
Nobel prizes 2009
Medicine and Chemistry
Congratulations to Elizabeth Blackburn, Jack Szostak and Carol Greider, who won this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work on telomeres and for discovering telomerase. The Review by Gilson and Géli and articles from our 2007 Focus on Ageing provide extensive information on this subject. Congratulations also to Tom Steitz, Venki Ramakrishnan and Ada Yonath for the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. To learn more about Tom Steitz's work, see his Review.
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.
More Molecular Cell Biology
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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
Epigenetic Dynamics in the Immune System
The Fondation IPSEN, Nature Immunology and Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology are pleased to announce an Emergence & Convergence mini-symposium to be held in San Antonio, Texas, on 19 February 2010. Click here for further information.
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.
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.
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.
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)
