Research Highlights in 2019

The tissue culture bottleneck for gene editing in plants can be overcome by modifying somatic cells in whole plants and inducing the formation of shoot meristems.

During spermiogenesis, piRNAs are the core of a complex that selects mRNAs for translation activation

Infection with RNA viruses of the Flaviviridae family leads to changes in the methylation of host mRNAs that are driven by induction of innate immunity and endoplasmic reticulum stress

The expression of endogenous genes is increased by their association with nuclear speckles.

Catalytically inactive caspase 8 can activate pyroptosis when apoptosis and necroptosis are blocked, a potential line of defence against viruses that inhibit cell death.

Cohesin is reported to form DNA loops in interphase chromatin by a mechanism of DNA loop extrusion.

The Integrator complex fine-tunes mRNA levels in response to stress by attenuating productive transcription elongation

Nutrient status is uncoupled from the control of autophagy during mitosis through a switch from mTORC1- to CDK1-mediated inhibition of autophagy regulators.

Exosomes are a route for expelling iron out of cells exposed to ferroptotic stimuli, thereby protecting them from ferroptotic cell death.

Compounds that tether toxic proteins with polyglutamine expansions to autophagosomes promote their autophagic clearance and might, in principle, be suitable for the treatment of associated neurodegenerative diseases.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the different RNA polymerases of eukaryotes with a collection of Reviews on transcription.

CRISPR–Cas9-based prime editing supports the correction of a wide range of mutations, including transversions and insertions and deletions.

Phase separation of nucleoporins supports nuclear pore complex assembly in fly embryos.

Mitochondrial DNA damage causes ageing by having a negative effect on nuclear DNA replication and genome integrity.

G-quadruplex-containing RNA binds PRC2, removes it from chromatin and activates gene expression.

Efficient mRNA trafficking is supported by tethering of RNA granules to motile lysosomes through ANXA11.

The same spliceosome complexes can define both introns and exons; exon definition can cause back-splicing across long exons.

A demonstration of a physiological role of amyloid aggregates in switching on enzymatic activity required for fly development.

Demonstration that active collective cell migration importantly contributes to the movement of intestinal epithelial cells along the villi.

Cytosine methylation (m⁵C) in mRNAs is important for their transport to distant tissues in plants.