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The European Research Council aims to support frontier research by individual research groups. As the organization enters its fourth year, we hope that it will be better able to implement these scientific goals.
Cytokinesis — the final step of mitosis in which the two daughter cells separate — requires accumulation of specific proteins and lipids at the connecting bridge to ensure cleavage by abscission. Phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate (PtdIns(3)P), an endosomal phosphoinositide, and FYVE-CENT, a PtdIns3P-binding protein, are found in the bridge, where they contribute to the mechanism of abscission.
The deubiquitylating enzyme Dub3 is found to have oncogenic potential by stabilizing the Cdc25A protein phosphatase, a crucial regulator of cell-cycle progression.
Cilia drive fluid flow in development and physiology, but this requires that all cilia in a tissue orient the same way. Earlier studies indicated that both planar cell polarity (PCP) signalling and cilia-generated fluid flows could influence ciliary orientation. We now learn how asymmetric localization of PCP proteins influences the position and orientation of cilia to control the direction of flow.
The core kinetochore protein CENP-H is shown to be required for the organization of the metaphase plate. CENP-H regulates microtubule plus-end dynamics, and chromosome oscillations, which are shown to be essential for chromosome congression.
How membrane deformation and actin remodelling are coordinated to generate functional transport vesicles remains poorly understood. ARF1 coordinates clathrin coat recruitment and actin polymerization by binding the clathrin heavy chain binding protein, CYFIP, and facilitates Rac1-dependent actin polymerization to generate transport carriers at the trans-Golgi network.
Motile cilia direct efficient, oriented flow, which is ensured by alignment of their beating. In mammalian brain ventricles, coupling between hydrodynamic forces and the planar cell polarity protein Vangl2 allows cilia that have docked in random orientation to reorient in a uniform direction.
BPLF1 is a viral NEDD8-specific protease that binds to cullin-based ubiquitin ligases and regulates the turnover of their substrates. By inducing the accumulation of the licensing factor CDT1, BPLF1 ensures efficient replication of the viral genome and has a key role in the virus life cycle.
A new link is reported between regulators of endosomal trafficking and cytokinesis. Production of the phosphoinositide lipid PI3P at the midbody triggers the KIF13A-mediated recruitment of the centrosomal proteins FYVE-CENT and TTC19 to the division site. TTC19 may in turn regulate abscission by control of the ESCRTIII complex.
The 17–92 miRNA cluster promotes tumourigenesis although the identity of the specific miRNA responsible for this effect has been unclear. MiR-19 is sufficient to promote Notch induced T-cell associated leukaemia in vivo and a shRNA screen for genes that phenocopy miR-19 effects identifies PI3-K regulators as miR-19 target genes.
Oncogene expression can induce permanent cell-cycle arrest by activating the p53 pathway. BRD7 positively regulates p53 transcriptional activity in this context by interacting with p300 and stimulating acetylation of both p53 and histones.
Twenty-two microRNAs are found to be amplified or deleted in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). miR-151 is encoded by an intron in the focal adhesion kinase FAK-1 gene, with which it is co-transcribed, and increases HCC cell migration in vitro and invasion in vivo by directly targeting RhoGDIA. miR-151 amplification correlates with HCC metastasis.
The levels of the cell cycle phosphatase Cdc25A are controlled by proteolysis. A de-ubiquitylation enzyme, Dub3, stabilizes Cdc25A, is required for Cdc25A-mediated activation of Cdk1, and may contribute to oncogenic transformation by Cdc25A.
Several recent studies have proposed that the planar cell polarity pathway (PCP) regulates cilia formation. Zebrafish embryos lacking the core PCP component Vangl2 do not have defects in ciliogenesis, but instead show impairment of primary cilia position and orientation.
