This work identifies mitochondrial fission as key for promoting stress susceptibility in male mice, providing a mechanistic link between metabolism and emotional disorders. The image depicts an immunostaining of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (red) within neurons (green) in the medial prefrontal cortex of stress-susceptible mice.

See Dong et al.

The lysine acetyltransferase MOF promotes acetylation of nuclear and non-nuclear proteins, such as COX17, which facilitates assembly of cytochrome c oxidase in mitochondria. The image depicts mouse embryonic fibroblasts, with the mitochondrial network (TOM20) in green, its overlap with COX17 in yellow and the nucleus stained in blue.

See Guhathakurta et al.

In yeast, vacuolar pH dynamics regulate subcellular compartmentalization of amino acid availability, which in turn coordinates TORC1 and Pho85 activation, and couples metabolic requirements with cell cycle progression. The cover depicts a population of yeast, some of them undergoing cell division.

See Okreglak et al.

The authors describe a circuit from the brain to the stomach that communicates gastric dysfunction associated with stress. The image represents the crosstalk that occurs between the brain and the gut for communicating stress-induced gastric dysfunction.

See Dong, Zhu, Tang et al.

A human genetic variant in the FTO locus increases the thermogenic capacity of brown adipocytes and protects against diet-induced obesity in mice. This image depicts human fetal brown adipose tissue, indicating the colocalization (yellow) of FTO (green) and UCP1 (red).

See Zhang et al.

Cyanobacteria are subjected to fast light–dark cycles in large bodies of water as they circulate from illuminated to dark areas in short periods of time. In this issue of Nature Metabolism, Lu, Chang, et al. provide insight into the mechanisms through which cyanobacteria adapt their metabolic networks to switch from carbon fixation to carbon oxidation in these rapid oscillations. The image depicts lighter and darker areas in a large body of water.

See Lu, Chang et al.

Palani et al. and Yang Loureiro et al. show that human adipocyte progenitors can differentiate into two primary cell types: an adipogenic cell type and a multipotent, structural cell type named structural Wnt-regulated adipose tissue resident (SWAT) cells. Shown here is an artistic representation of SWAT cells (teal) supporting development of adipocytes (yellow).

See Palani et al. & Yang Loureiro et al.

A non-coding variant linked to metabolic obesity with normal weight disrupts the cortical actin cytoskeleton in subcutaneous adipocytes, which results in decreased adiposity and increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The image depicts differentiated subcutaneous adipocytes with accumulation of lipid droplets (green) and cortical F-actin (yellow).

See Glunk et al.

Adipocytes are shown to exchange the fatty acid side chains of their major neutral lipids in a process called triglyceride cycling. This complex pathway was studied using synthetic fatty acid tracers and mass spectrometry. Shown here is a single 3T3-L1 adipocyte featuring numerous spherical lipid droplets, stained for neutral fatty acids.

See Wunderling et al.

Mi et al. uncover a taste receptor called Alka in fruit flies, which is responsible for sensing alkaline pH. Shown here is an artistic representation of a feeding experiment, which depicts the silhouette of a fruit fly walking over a colour gradient (ranging from alkaline (blue) to neutral (yellow) and acidic (red)) of various food particles in a petri dish.

See Mi et al.

Prolonged exposure to acidic metabolic waste products in the tumor microenvironment reprogrammes T-cell intracellular metabolism to preserve T-cell stemness and increase anti-tumour efficacy.

See Cheng et al.

Xiao, Kennelly et al. demonstrate that fasting and reverse cholesterol transport generate accessible plasma membrane cholesterol and engage the Aster pathway in the liver. The cover depicts recruitment of Aster-C to the hepatocyte plasma membrane by elevated cholesterol content. Aster-C (green), E-Cadherin (plasma membrane, red) and DAPI (nucleus, blue).

See Xiao et al.