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Mechanical strain, transmitted by the remodelling of the actomyosin cytoskeleton and concomitant depletion of the nuclear actin pool, is shown to induce silencing of differentiation genes in epidermal stem cells, linking mechanical cues to the genetic regulation of cell fate.
Laurent Blanchoin reminds us of a seminal paper by Tom Pollard reporting the meticulous measurement of rate constants of actin assembly, and highlights its contribution to quantitative understanding of actin filament dynamics as well as its impact on his own research interests.
Selective autophagy pathways engage selective autophagy receptors (SARs) that identify and bind to cellular cargoes (proteins or organelles) destined for degradation. Recent yeast studies have provided insights into the regulation and mechanisms underlying SAR function. As these mechanisms are conserved from yeast to mammals, it is now possible to formulate general principles of how selectivity during autophagy is achieved.
Encounters and conflicts between the transcription and replication machineries are common and represent a major intrinsic source of genome instability. Recent data shed new light on the biological relevance of transcription–replication conflicts and the factors and mechanisms involved in either preventing or resolving them.
Tight junctions are barriers between epithelial and endothelial cells that regulate the diffusion of molecules across tissues; they also contribute to cell polarity and serve as signalling platforms. Recent findings have broadened our understanding of tight junction organization, assembly and function.
Analysis of the available human small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) proteomics data provided evidence for the sumoylation of thousands of proteins and residues, and clustered the sumoylated proteins into functional networks. Sumoylation is a frequent modification, occurring mostly on nuclear proteins, with functions including transcription, mRNA processing and the DNA-damage response.
CRISPR–Cas9-based genome editing tools have been developed recently to study non-coding transcriptional regulatory elements, enabling the characterization of enhancers in their endogenous context. The applications, current limitations and future development of such CRISPR–Cas9 tools are discussed, with emphasis on identifying and characterizing enhancer elements in a high-throughput manner.
