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The ability of methylarginine sites to serve as binding motifs for Tudor proteins, and the functional significance of this, is now becoming clear. Tudor proteins are thought to interact with methylated PIWI proteins and regulate the PIWI-interacting RNA pathway in the germ line.
Haematopoietic stem cell function is tightly controlled to maintain haematopoietic homeostasis, in part by specialized cells and factors that constitute the haematopoietic 'niche'. Recent discoveries have engendered a new appreciation for the dynamic nature of the niche, identifying novel cellular and acellular niche components and uncovering fluctuations in their importance over time.
In the past 10 years, great progress has been made in the development of fluorescent proteins, including green fluorescent protein (GFP) and GFP-like proteins. Using these proteins together with a range of techniques has furthered our understanding of protein movement and protein–protein interactions.
Researchers from across the field consider the new concepts that have emerged during the past decade of molecular cell biology research, and the key challenges still to be met.
The phosphodiesterase autotaxin (ATX) produces the lipid mediator lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) to regulate diverse processes, including cell migration and proliferation. Studies of the structure of ATX may shed new light on how ATX recognizes its substrates and associates with the cell surface to promote specificity in LPA signalling.
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary since embryonic stem (ES) cells were first isolated from mouse blastocysts. In this Timeline, one of the scientists to isolate mouse ES cells in 1981 gives a personal account of the ideas that led to, and followed, this milestone.