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Gross et al. show that Atg13 and Atg17 are dispensable for pexophagy during phosphate starvation in yeast. Instead, the metabolite sensor Pho81 binds the Atg1 kinase complex via Atg11 to promote Atg11 phosphorylation by Atg1 and pexophagy.
Eiji Hara is a professor at the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Japan. Eiji recalls the discovery of the basis for the irreversibility of cellular senescence, published in Nature Cell Biology in 2006.
Pietro De Camilli is a professor of neuroscience and of cell biology at Yale University, CT, as well as an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Pietro discusses how his group’s 1999 Nature Cell Biology study linking amphiphysin with dynamin in clathrin-mediated endocytosis came to be.
Huck-Hui Ng is a senior group leader at the Genome Institute of Singapore of A*STAR. In this article, Ng revisits the 2009 Nature Cell Biology study in which he and his team described the role of Esrrb in somatic cell reprogramming.
Lipids have a pivotal role in the growth of oocytes and fertilized eggs. Ultra-sensitive lipidome analysis provides a complete overview of the lipid profile during early embryonic development and brings insights into how dynamic lipid remodelling determines the fate of mammalian embryos.
Villeneuve et al. report coordination of contractile forces during mammalian hair follicle development, with actomyosin contractility and mechanical forces from the epidermis and underlying tissue regulating placode invagination and Sox9 expression.
Using low-input lipidomics in mouse and human embryos, Zhang, Shui, Li and colleagues find that lipid unsaturation increases with development towards the blastocyst stage. They further show that lipid desaturases contribute to successful embryo implantation.
Son et al. show that AMPK- and PP2A-dependent p300 nucleocytoplasmic shuttling regulates mTORC1 activity in response to nutrient status. Models of Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome display increased cytoplasmic p300 and mTORC1 hyperactivation.
Sarah Teichmann, head of cellular genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, reflects on the dawn of the single-cell genomics era and a pivotal decision that changed the course of her career.
Maria Antonietta (Antonella) De Matteis is a professor of biology at the University of Naples Federico II and leads the cell biology programme at the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine in Pozzuoli, Italy. Antonella recalls the beginning of her research program on phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate (PI4P) at the Golgi, published in our pages in 1999 and 2004.
Danfeng Cai, an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, discusses her career path, including her work on the biomolecular condensation of YAP, and her excitement in her ongoing work on transcriptional condensates.
Huang, Qin, Shang et al. profile double-strand breaks (DSBs) generated by C-to-G base editors (CGBEs) and find that HMCES protects abasic sites and reduces CGBE-triggered DSBs.
Lin Li, Lei Li et al. perform single-cell multi-omics to study the transcriptome, the DNA methylome and chromatin accessibility in human arrested embryos and find that cytoskeletal defects cause embryonic arrest characterized by zygotic genome activation.
We celebrate the 25th anniversary of Nature Cell Biology with a series of commissioned content and an online collection of research articles across the journal’s broad scope. We look back at biological discoveries and discuss the roles of cell biologists in sustainability, our ongoing commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, and goals for mentoring the next generation of cell scientists.
Women and gender minorities make defining contributions to science. Despite increased representation of women across the scientific career ladder, institutions routinely fail to support their career advancement or value their input. For an equitable and intersectional future faculty, definitions of excellence must evolve to better value women’s contributions.
With biomedical sciences quickly outgrowing many other application areas in terms of data generation, there is a unique opportunity for life sciences to become one of the greatest beneficiaries of research in machine learning and AI, and also inspire foundational developments in it.
Advances in technology dramatically accelerate biology research, with computation being a standout example. Typically, adapting a new technology follows stages from method creation, via proof-of-concept application to biology, to the development of usable tools. Creating user-friendly software to bridge computer science and biology is a crucial step, yielding high returns on investment and driving biological discoveries. However, we need dedicated resources and a shift in the academic reward system to harness the full potential of computer science in biology.
Climate change affects us all, and tackling it requires a concerted effort, but it isn’t always evident how cell biologists’ work can impact climate change. Here, I share my experience addressing climate change as a molecular cell biologist and educator.
Cell–cell adhesions are inevitably exposed to mechanical forces. A landmark paper by Yonemura et al. identified how tension alters molecular function of the cadherin adhesion apparatus. Its legacy lies in the many on-going efforts to understand how mechanical force is used in cell–cell communication.
