Organelles articles within Nature Communications

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• Article | 12 July 2011

  TorsinA participates in endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation

  The torsinA protein localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum and, when mutated, causes early onset torsion dystonia. The authors reveal a new role for torsinA in proteosome-mediated degradation of misfolded proteins, and relate this to endoplasmic reticulum stress, in aCaenorhabditis elegansmodel and patient fibroblasts.

  • Flávia C. Nery
  • , Ioanna A. Armata
  •  & Xandra O. Breakefield

• Article
  24 May 2011 | Open Access

  The rice mitochondrial iron transporter is essential for plant growth

  Increasing the nutritional content of plant crops and the identification of iron transporters in rice would facilitate the improvement of rice varieties. In this study, the authors identify a mitochondrial iron transporter in rice — MIT — and suggest that this gene is important for rice growth and development.

  • Khurram Bashir
  • , Yasuhiro Ishimaru
  •  & Naoko K. Nishizawa

• Article | 12 April 2011

  LTD is a protein required for sorting light-harvesting chlorophyll-binding proteins to the chloroplast SRP pathway

  Chloroplast proteins are synthesized in the cytosol and imported into the chloroplast before being delivered to the thylakoids. The authors report that an ankyrin-repeat protein, LTD, is essential for the routing of chlorophyll-binding proteins to the signal recognition particle pathway.

  • Min Ouyang
  • , Xiaoyi Li
  •  & Lixin Zhang

• Article | 21 December 2010

  The phospholipase D1 pathway modulates macroautophagy

  Macroautophagy involves remodelling of intracellular membranes, but the role of lipids and lipid enzymes in this process is poorly understood. Here, the authors demonstrate that phospholipase D1, an enzyme that catalyses the production of phosphatidic acid, has a modulatory role in the autophagy process in mammalian cells.

  • Claudia Dall'Armi
  • , Andrés Hurtado-Lorenzo
  •  & Gilbert Di Paolo

• Article | 19 October 2010

  G-protein β2 subunit interacts with mitofusin 1 to regulate mitochondrial fusion

  Little is known about the regulation of mitofusin proteins that are involved in the fusion of mitochondrial membranes. In this study, the authors report that a heterotrimeric G protein, Gβ-subunit 2, can interact with mitofusin 1, and is involved in the regulation of mitochondrial fusion.

  • Juan Zhang
  • , Weihua Liu
  •  & Quan Chen

• Article | 13 July 2010

  PI(3,5)P₂ controls membrane trafficking by direct activation of mucolipin Ca²⁺ release channels in the endolysosome

  Phosphoinositides activate intracellular ion channels to release Ca²⁺ from membrane-bound stores. This study demonstrates that Ca²⁺-permeable mucolipin TRP channels, TRPMLs, are activated by the phospholipid PI(3,5)P₂in murine endolysosomes and yeast vacuoles.

  • Xian-ping Dong
  • , Dongbiao Shen
  •  & Haoxing Xu

• Article | 12 April 2010

  Mitochondrial respiration protects against oxygen-associated DNA damage

  Oxygen is necessary for mitochondrial respiration; however it can also result in the formation of toxic reactive species that can cause DNA damage. Using cells defective in respiration these authors demonstrate that mitochondria protect a cell from these harmful effects of oxygen.

  • Ho Joong Sung
  • , Wenzhe Ma
  •  & Paul M. Hwang