Skip to main content

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.

Volume 14 Issue 5, May 2012

Src controls tracheal tube morphogenesis in Drosophila.p518p526

Editorial

  • Substantial cuts in fiscal spending, triggered by the global economic crisis, highlight a pressing need to safeguard funding to ensure the future health of the scientific research enterprise.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

Top of page ⤴

Review Article

  • Cytokinesis is the process by which mitotic cells physically split in two following chromosome segregation. Dividing animal cells first ingress a cytokinetic furrow and then separate the plasma membrane by abscission. The general cytological events and several conserved molecular factors involved in cytokinesis have been known for many years. However, recent progress in microscopy, chemical genetics, biochemical reconstitution and biophysical methodology has tremendously increased our understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms. We discuss how recent insights have led to refined models of the distinct steps of animal cell cytokinesis, including anaphase spindle reorganization, division plane specification, actomyosin ring assembly and contraction, and abscission. We highlight how molecular signalling pathways coordinate the individual events to ensure faithful partitioning of the genome to emerging daughter cells.

    • Juan Pablo Fededa
    • Daniel W. Gerlich
    Review Article
Top of page ⤴

News & Views

  • The search for a homologous template is a fundamental, yet largely uncharacterized, reaction in DNA double-strand break repair. Two reports now demonstrate that broken chromosomes increase their movement and explore large volumes of nuclear space searching for a homologous template. Break mobility requires resection and recombination enzymes, as well as damage-checkpoint components.

    • Grzegorz Ira
    • Philip J. Hastings
    News & Views
  • The attachment of stem cells to specialized functional niches instructs stem cell maintenance, with loss of adhesion associated with differentiation driven by cell-intrinsic programs. Id transcription factors are now shown to link cell-intrinsic maintenance programs and extrinsic cues by promoting adhesion of neural stem cells to the niche.

    • Justin D. Lathia
    • Jeremy N. Rich
    News & Views
  • The membrane-curvature-inducing protein Fcho was proposed to be part of a ubiquitous nucleation mechanism for clathrin-coated pits. However, studies in developing zebrafish embryos now indicate a role for Fcho as a receptor-specific adaptor in bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signalling, rather than a global coated-pit nucleator.

    • Christien J. Merrifield
    News & Views
Top of page ⤴

Research Highlights

Top of page ⤴

Article

  • Transcription-factor-directed reprogramming of somatic cells is inefficient but can be enhanced by the addition of enzymes that modulate chromatin modifications. Zhang and colleagues report that the Kdm2b H3K36me2 demethylase promotes reprogramming through its enzymatic activity and independently of its role in senescence, by enhancing the transcription of genes known to be activated early during the process, including cadherin.

    • Gaoyang Liang
    • Jin He
    • Yi Zhang
    Article
  • Schweisguth and colleagues have uncovered a Notch-independent role for the E3 ubiquitin ligase Neuralized that entails disrupting existing epithelial polarity and cell junctions to allow cell movements that are critical during Drosophila development. They show that Neuralized’s effect on polarity is normally antagonized by Bearded, which is a known target of the Snail repressor, a transcription factor involved in polarity regulation at gastrulation. Targets for Snail that are relevant in this process have, until now, been elusive.

    • Soline Chanet
    • François Schweisguth
    Article
  • Iavarone, Lasorella and colleagues develop genetic mouse models to study the roles of inhibitor of DNA-binding (Id) proteins in neural stem-cell maintenance. They show that Id proteins promote neural stem-cell adhesion to their niche by driving the transcriptional repression of Rap1GAP, thereby maintaining the activity of the Rap1 GTPase, a known regulator of integrin adhesion.

    • Francesco Niola
    • Xudong Zhao
    • Anna Lasorella
    Article
  • Clathrin-mediated endocytosis requires the coordinated spatial and temporal recruitment of adaptor, sorting and cargo proteins. Traub and colleagues investigate this process during zebrafish development and report that the AP-2 adaptor protein complex has a key, early role in clathrin-coated bud formation. Fcho1/2, though necessary for proper development, seems to act downstream of AP-2.

    • P. K. Umasankar
    • Subramaniam Sanker
    • Linton M. Traub
    Article
  • Repair of double-strand breaks by homologous recombination is thought to involve the movement of damaged chromosomes to facilitate pairing of homologues. Gasser and colleagues have now followed the movement of damaged loci in haploid yeast using time-lapse microscopy, revealing the dynamics of damage-induced movement and the requirement for recombination proteins in this process.

    • Vincent Dion
    • Véronique Kalck
    • Susan M. Gasser
    Article
  • Repair of double-strand breaks (DSBs) by homologous recombination is thought to involve the movement of damaged chromosomes to facilitate pairing of homologues. Rothstein and colleagues have now followed the movement of damaged loci in diploid yeast by time-lapse microscopy, revealing the dynamics of damage-induced movement and the requirement for repair proteins in this process.

    • Judith Miné-Hattab
    • Rodney Rothstein
    Article
Top of page ⤴

Letter

  • The ATM motif was previously shown to phosphorylate the BH3-only BID protein, a pro-apoptotic member of the BCL2 family. Using transgenic mice expressing a phosphodefective BID, Gross and colleagues find that the ATM effect on BID prevents its translocation to the mitochondria, where the effects of BID on ROS would trigger haematopoietic stem cells to exit quiescence.

    • Maria Maryanovich
    • Galia Oberkovitz
    • Atan Gross
    Letter
  • The lipid content of the plasma membrane is dynamically regulated to maintain cellular homeostasis, but the molecular links between membrane stress and sphingolipid synthesis have remained elusive. Walther, Loewith and colleagues report that membrane stretching causes redistribution of Slm proteins, which then promote sphingolipid synthesis through activation of the TORC2–Ypk signalling pathway.

    • Doris Berchtold
    • Manuele Piccolis
    • Robbie Loewith
    Letter
  • The transcription factor SPEECHLESS (SPCH) is necessary for establishing the stomatal lineage in plants, but the signalling pathways that control this process are not fully understood. Russinova and colleagues report that brassinosteroid signalling regulates stomatal development by inhibiting BIN2-mediated phosphorylation of SPCH.

    • Gustavo E. Gudesblat
    • Joanna Schneider-Pizoń
    • Eugenia Russinova
    Letter
Top of page ⤴

Erratum

Top of page ⤴

Corrigendum

Top of page ⤴

Search

Quick links