Research Highlights in 2015

This study shows that the transmembrane domain of VE-cadherin binds to VEGFR2 and VEGFR3, a new component of the junction mechanosensory complex.

p300 catalyses histone crotonylation, which activates transcription more efficiently than histone acetylation.

Two studies show that protein fusions of deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) with histone remodellers can be used to characterize enhancers, and alter epigenetic marks and gene expression.

This paper shows that sirtuin 7 (SIRT7) promotes the regenerative capacity of aged haematopoietic stem cells by driving a regulatory branch of the mitochondrial unfolded protein response.

This study shows that, during starvation, fatty acids are released from lipid droplets by lipolysis and taken up by fused mitochondria to support oxidative respiration.

Notum switches off WNT signalling by removing a palmitoleate moiety from WNT proteins that is essential for receptor binding.

In cells that use alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT), NR2C/F proteins mediate the insertion of telomeric DNA throughout the genome and hence genome instability.

Exon–intron circular RNAs are a new subclass of non-coding RNAs that interact specifically with the U1 snRNP to promote gene transcription incis.

A new study shows that the mitochondrial transcription elongation factor TEFM serves as a molecular switch between replication and transcription.

PRDM16 activates brown adipose-selective genes through direct interaction with the Mediator complex subunit MED1 at enhancer regions and the regulation of chromatin architecture.

DNA topoisomerase 1 mediates single-strand nicks to relieve the inhibitory effect of DNA supercoiling on enhancer-dependent transcription.

A new study shows that phosphorylation regulates the folding, and thus biological function, of the intrinsically disordered protein 4E-BP2.

Kapitein and colleagues have used an optically controlled system that couples organelles and motor proteins to study the dynamics and roles of organelle transport.

A robust method to induce primordial germ cells from human pluripotent stem cells has been developed, highlighting the importance of SOX17 in the specification of the human germline.

Two studies have determined the molecular mechanisms that underlie a specific clathrin-independent pathway for the internalization of activated surface receptors and bacterial toxins.

The RNA-binding protein Elav is recruited in the fruit fly to promoter regions, possibly by paused RNA polymerase II, to promote alternative polyadenylation.

Chromatin decondensation is sufficient to induce the relocation of loci from the periphery to the centre of nuclei.