This Consensus Statement addresses the definition, nomenclature and classification of long non-coding RNAs, and provides a shared viewpoint on their features and functions. The authors also discuss research challenges and provide recommendations to advance our understanding of long non-coding RNAs.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as important players in intercellular communication, carrying proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and various signalling molecules between cells. Unravelling how these different cargoes are sorted into EVs in a regulated and context-specific manner is essential to understanding the specificity of EV-mediated signalling.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Sarah Paramore (from the Devenport and Nelson labs) discusses the use of mouse strains carrying genomic alterations in PCP genes and how they can increase our understanding of mammalian planar cell polarity.

Two papers published in 1991 established a new class of human genetic disorders, caused by expansion of simple DNA repeats.

The first study to show, in C. elegans, that sensory neurons have a role in lifespan regulation.

Antennapedia proteins were among the first proteins found to be exchanged intercellularly. This discovery by Alain Prochiantz and colleagues has inspired researchers of various backgrounds.

Liang et al. show that mitochondria can be expelled from cells via extracellular vesicles as a route of quality control that is an alternative to lysosomal degradation.

Bulut-Karslıoğlu remembers the publication of two seminal papers that described bivalent chromatin and how this discovery continues to affect research to this day.