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Recently, a Legionella pneumophila effector protein was shown to have an unprecedented ATP-independent ubiquitin ligase activity that couples phosphoribosylated ubiquitin (PR-Ub) to serine residues of host proteins. A new study published in Cell Research by Qiu et al. reveals that another Legionella effector protein, SidJ, catalyzes deubiquitination of PR-Ub by cleavage of the substrate-linked phosphodiester bond.
The consumption of exogenous free fatty acids by tissue-resident memory T (Trm) cells is critical for their long-term survival and antiviral function, and appears to be a conserved feature of Trm cells in both mouse and man, a recent paper published in Nature demonstrates.
Exosome-mediated intercellular communication has become an emerging field of human health and diseases. A recent study published by Cell Research reports that in zebrafish neurons can remotely regulate blood-brain barrier integrity by delivering miR-132 through secretion of exosomes.
Single Lgr5+ intestinal stem cells (ISCs) can be expanded in vitro into epithelial organoids or “mini-guts”, self-organizing cellular structures that recreate the intestinal differentiation program; Paneth cells, which constitute the intestinal stem cell niche, secrete stem cell growth signals, and are thus essential for this process. In a recent paper published in Nature, Rodríguez-Colman et al. describe how Paneth cells may be supporting the metabolic state of ISCs.