Table of contents
From the editors
p509 | doi:10.1038/nrm2213
Research Highlights
Protein degradation: A proteasome for every occasion
p511 | doi:10.1038/nrm2205
Web Watch
An encyclopaedia of interactions
p512 | doi:10.1038/nrm2210
Stem cells: Introducing the next generation
p512 | doi:10.1038/nrm2211
Gene silencing: Shhh! RNAi-dependent and -independent pathways at work
p513 | doi:10.1038/nrm2207
Tumour suppression: The power of arrest
p514 | doi:10.1038/nrm2200
Endocytosis: Bending around the BAR
p514 | doi:10.1038/nrm2206
Cancer: Finding the right target
p515 | doi:10.1038/nrm2209
Cloning: Taking technical and ethical hurdles
p516 | doi:10.1038/nrm2212
Autophagy: Surviving the tumour suppressor
p516 | doi:10.1038/nrm2214
DNA repair: The big and the small picture
p517 | doi:10.1038/nrm2201
Reviews
Signal integration in the endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response
David Ron & Peter Walter
p519 | doi:10.1038/nrm2199
Owing to the toxic potential of unfolded proteins, their accumulation in the endoplasmic reticulum activates a cellular stress response. This unfolded protein response remodels the secretory pathway to accommodate the load of unfolded proteins or, if the burden is insurmountable, promotes cell death to protect the organism.
Mechanisms of specificity in protein phosphorylation
Jeffrey A. Ubersax & James E. Ferrell Jr
p530 | doi:10.1038/nrm2203
Protein kinases must recognize their correct substrates in a massive background of other potentially phosphorylatable sites. A multitude of mechanisms have evolved to regulate specificity. Individually they are imperfect, but together they coordinate protein phosphorylation with exquisite precision.
Drosophila melanogaster embryonic haemocytes: masters of multitasking
Will Wood & Antonio Jacinto
p542 | doi:10.1038/nrm2202
Drosophila melanogaster haemocytes operate as the first line of defence against invading microorganisms during larval and adult life. However, in the developing embryo, haemocytes undergo complex migrations and carry out several non-immune functions that are crucial for successful development.
Article series: Mechanisms of disease
Insights into prion strains and neurotoxicity
Adriano Aguzzi, Mathias Heikenwalder & Magdalini Polymenidou
p552 | doi:10.1038/nrm2204
Although it is now accepted that the infectious agent that causes transmissible spongiform encephalopathies is PrPSc, recent insights into the existence of prion strains pose a fascinating challenge to prion research. What is the nature of prion strains? And how can they be discriminated?
Intermediate filaments: from cell architecture to nanomechanics
Harald Herrmann, Harald Bär, Laurent Kreplak, Sergei V. Strelkov & Ueli Aebi
p562 | doi:10.1038/nrm2197
Intermediate filaments (IFs) are thought to function as absorbers of mechanical stress and form cytoskeletal networks that serve to support cell shape. The analysis of disease-causing mutations in IF proteins has revealed that IFs also have important roles in cell-type-specific physiological functions.
The multifunctional nucleolus
François-Michel Boisvert, Silvana van Koningsbruggen, Joaquín Navascués & Angus I. Lamond
p574 | doi:10.1038/nrm2184
Nucleoli are the sites of ribosome-subunit biogenesis, but recent large-scale proteomics analyses and other studies have revealed further cellular functions, including cell-cycle control, stress responses and coordination of the processing and maturation of other classes of ribonucleoprotein in addition to the ribosomal class.
Perspective
Timeline
Lessons from 50 years of SOS DNA-damage-induced mutagenesis
Katharina Schlacher & Myron F. Goodman
p587 | doi:10.1038/nrm2198
SOS mutagenesis is the 'mutation-prone' cellular replication mechanism that is responsible for UV-induced mutations. More than 50 years of SOS mutagenesis research has exposed the underlying mechanisms of DNA-damage-induced mutagenesis that combine the overlapping functions of replication, repair and recombination.
