Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Murphy and colleagues generate an inhibitor of the lipid kinase VPS34, which they use to uncover autophagy substrates. One of their targets, NCOA4, regulates iron homeostasis by binding ferritin heavy chain-1 and targeting ferritin to autolysosomes.
Lysosomal membrane permeabilization releases cathepsins to promote cell death and mammary gland involution. Sargeant et al. report that Stat3-driven phagocytic uptake of fatty acids in milk triglycerides permeabilizes lysosomes to induce cell death.
Parrinello and colleagues show that direct interactions with endothelial cells in the subventricular zone maintain the quiescence and identity of neural stem cells, through a process involving both Notch- and Ephrin-mediated signalling pathways.
Weinberg and colleagues report that monocytes and macrophages interact with stem-like human mammary epithelial cells to create a breast cancer stem cell niche.
Kalluri and colleagues find that mitochondrial biogenesis and respiration induced by transcriptional coactivator PGC-1α in cancer cells promote cancer metastasis and that PGC-1α expression is associated with invasive breast cancer.
Shen and colleagues report the in vitro generation of organoids from mouse luminal epithelial progenitor cells and normal or transformed prostate tissue, and extend this approach to the formation of normal and tumour organoids of human origin
Kang and colleagues demonstrate that the ΔNp63 isoform of p63 upregulates the expression of the Fzd7 Wnt receptor to promote normal and cancer stem cell activity in the mammary gland.
O’Neill and colleagues find that the Hippo kinase LATS1 is part of an ATR-dependent response to stalled replication forks and protects RAD51 nucleofilaments on single strand DNA.
Seano, Primo and colleagues report that blood vessel branching during tumour angiogenesis is mediated by the formation of podosome rosettes that depends on VEGF-A and integrin α6β1.
Mendelsohn and colleagues use lineage tracing in a mouse model of bladder cancer to show that different progenitor cell populations give rise to distinct types of urothelial and squamous cell carcinomas.
The augmin complex is needed for centrosome-independent microtubule nucleation. Reconstitution and characterization of the human augmin complex by Kapoor and colleagues reveal its architecture and microtubule-binding properties.
Myoepithelial cells considered terminally differentiated are now shown by Stingl and colleagues to have stem cell properties in vitro, to repopulate a mammary gland on transplantation and to behave as stem cells by lineage tracing.
Sibilia and colleagues report that IL-1-dependent EGFR induction in liver macrophages is needed to stimulate IL-6 production, which in turn promotes hepatocyte proliferation and hepatocellular carcinoma formation.
Zhong and colleagues report that zebrafish leakytail (Lkt) promotes ciliogenesis by exporting prostaglandin E2 to upregulate cAMP synthesis. A human orthologue of Lkt, ABCC4, is also important for ciliogenesis in human retinal pigment epithelial cells.
The heart arises from distinct progenitors. Blanpain and colleagues use clonal analysis to demonstrate that early prospective cardiac progenitors, marked by Mesp1 appearing at gastrulation, are already restricted to a particular lineage and heart region.
Khokha and colleagues report that loss of the Timp family of metalloproteinases from stromal fibroblasts promotes a cancer-associated fibroblast phenotype and production of exosomes that stimulate cancer cell motility.
Joyce and colleagues analyse tumour–stroma interactions in distinct metastatic microenvironments, and show that cathepsin S promotes brain metastasis by cleaving the JAM-B junctional protein, allowing cancer cells to traverse the blood–brain barrier.
Ma and colleagues show that when the EMT-associated transcription factor ZEB1 is stabilized by the ATM kinase, it interacts with the ubiquitin protease USP7 to counteract CHK1 degradation and promote DNA repair in breast cancer cells.
DNA damage induces silencing of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) transcription. Stucki and colleagues reveal that rRNA silencing is an ATM-dependent pan-nuclear response to irradiation, in which the nucleolar protein Treacle targets DNA-damage protein NBS1 to nucleoli.
During embryogenesis, the single layer of mouse epidermal progenitors becomes a stratified and differentiated epithelium. Fuchs and colleagues show that the polarity proteins Par3–mInsc and Gαi3 act cooperatively to polarize LGN and promote perpendicular divisions to induce stratification.