Volume 12 Issue 4, April 2011

Telomere attrition leads to p53-mediated defects in mitochondria.

The GAL4–VP16 transcriptional activator stimulates transcription-coupled polyadenylation.

Highlights the benefits to be gained by panning the older literature for new ideas and methods.

Mutations in the body of tRNAs distort their structure to cause miscoding.

AMPK and calcineurin homologues increase longevity inC. elegansby antagonizing CRTC-1.

GSK3β regulates an ACF7–microtubule association during directed cell migration.

The ESCRT-III complex drives abscission by promoting the formation of helical filaments.

Shows that Cin8, a budding yeast Kinesin-5, is a bidirectional motor.

Shoot branching is regulated by three classes of plant hormones, auxins, strigolactones (or derivatives) and cytokinins. In the past decade, two models — the auxin transport canalization-based model and the second messenger model — have been formulated to explain the mechanisms of bud activation and shoot branching control.

Cilium assembly requires the coordination of motor-driven intraflagellar transport, membrane trafficking and import of cilium-specific proteins through a barrier at the ciliary transition zone. Recent findings provide insights into how cilia might assemble and disassemble in synchrony with the cell cycle and achieve a steady-state length.

The initiation of translation in eukaryotes can be impeded by secondary structures in the mRNA upstream of the initiation codon. There is increasing evidence that several helicases act in concert to overcome such structures and to promote processive movement of the 40S ribosome subunit.

The genome encodes thousands of small RNAs that interact with PIWI proteins; these PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) mediate silencing of transposable elements and thereby protect the genome. New insights are being gained into the formation and functions of piRNAs, and where they exert their action in the cell.

The p53 family of transcription factors have diverse roles during development and in cancer. However, there is increasing evidence that their ancestral function may have been to regulate unique aspects of maternal fertility.

Computational morphodynamics has provided great insights into the highly dynamic process of plant development. This is because it combines live imaging to observe development as it happens, image processing to extract data, and computational modelling to test hypotheses against quantitative information.