News & Comment

Betti et al. show that plants can take up microRNAs generated by other plants, and that these exogenous miRNAs are active in silencing the expression of their target genes.

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their work on molecular basis of somatosensation.

Xie et al. show that the hair shaft regulates the size of the hair follicle stem cell niche and consequently its maintenance.

tiRNA-containing extracellular vesicles produced by osteoblasts in the bone marrow are taken up by granulocyte–monocyte progenitors, which promotes their proliferation, increasing host immunity.

An amino acid substitution found in a ribosomal protein in archaea can increase translation fidelity and lifespan in metazoans.

Xu et al. report engineering a compact version of Cas that can be useful for a broad range of genome engineering applications in mammalian cells.

Tau oligomers bind to m⁶A-modified RNA transcripts in the cytoplasm via the linker RNA-binding protein HNRNPA2B1; such complexes are found in individuals with Alzheimer disease and are part of a stress response that represses translation.

Base excision repair promotes transcriptional noise, which likely increases cell responsiveness to cell-type-specification cues.

Garabedian et al. developed designer biomolecular condensates serving as tools for flexible interrogation and temporal regulation of cell functions.

Suppressing ovulation protects against chromosomal abnormalities in ageing mouse oocytes, which can be partly explained by increasing REC8–cohesin retention on chromosomes.

RNA interference mediated by a Dicer isoform protects mammalian stem cells against RNA viruses.

The pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) involves mechanisms of liquid–liquid phase separation, which can be explored as targets for new antiviral therapeutics.

Apoptotic hair follicle stem cells contribute to tissue regeneration by producing WNT3, which promotes cell proliferation, enlarging the stem cell pool.

In response to replication stress, TOPBP1 is recruited by Treacle to nucleoli, where the two proteins facilitate the stress response and help maintain the transcription of rRNA genes.

Torrino et al. show that the stiffness of the extracellular matrix regulates microtubule posttranslational modification via glutamylation, which impacts microtubule dynamics and cell invasiveness.

Migrasomes function as a mitochondrial quality control mechanism in migrating cells, and affect neutrophil viability.

Nuclear condensates of m⁶A-methylated mRNAs with their ‘reader’ YTHDC1 prevent the degradation of acute myeloid leukaemia-promoting mRNAs by the exosome.

Dwivedi et al. now show that DNA replication stress is an important trigger for cell extrusion.

The histone reader PHF7 binds to cardiac super-enhancers and is a strong activator of the reprogramming of adult cardiac fibroblasts to induced cardiac-like myocytes.

The transcription factor p53 boosts the expression of a distinct subset of its target genes by enhancing their association with nuclear speckles.