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Intermittent fasting (IF) has been shown to promote metabolic health in several organisms. Two recent papers show that IF induces white adipose tissue beiging and increases thermogenesis, which improves metabolic health in mice.
Inflammasome sensors recognize pathogens and danger signals and assemble an immune signaling complex, which induces the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18, and pyroptosis. A new study published in Nature now describes a new inflammasome sensor NLRP9b in intestinal epithelial cells, which in concert with the RNA sensor DHX9, recognize short dsRNA from Rotavirus.
In a recent paper published in Cell Research, a cryo-EM structure reveals the interface between DNA-PKcs and the Ku70/80:DNA complex, together forming the DNA-dependent protein kinase holoenzyme in non-homologous DNA end joining. Insight from this structure suggests how an allosteric rearrangement of DNA-PKcs driven by Ku70/80:DNA binding regulates kinase activity in this largest member of a family of structurally homologous phosphoinositide 3-kinase-related protein kinases that includes mTOR, ATR, and ATM.
A recent study led by Professor Rob Martienssen in Cell showed that 3′-tRNA-derived small RNAs can suppress long terminal repeat retrotransposon activity in mammalian cells by mechanisms independent of DNA-associated epigenetic marks, suggesting how the genome may defend itself from retrotransposon invasion during epigenetic reprogramming.
