Volume 12 Issue 5, May 2011

Inactive Rhomboids limit EGFR signalling through crosstalk with protein quality control.

β-PIX enhances RAC1 activation and lamellipodial protrusion in focal adhesions.

FADD–caspase 8-mediated apoptosis inhibits necroptosis during development.

Initial prion conversion is fast and occurs at the plasma membrane.

mDIA3 regulates the attachment of microtubules to kinetochores during mitosis.

Non-canonical WNT signalling through frizzled 9 regulates bone formation.

Three classic papers helped reveal how the Spemann organizer builds the vertebrate body.

Cyclical recruitment of HDAC3 links the circadian clock to lipid metabolism.

Transcription termination is one of the least-understood processes in gene expression. However, recent studies have revealed common themes and principles between models of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) termination, including the poly(A)-dependent and Sen1-dependent pathways, and provided insight into the role of Pol II carboxy-terminal domain phosphorylation in this process.

In the ubiquitin network, a multitude of ubiquitin species is constantly decoded by ubiquitin-binding domains. To properly coordinate biological events, ubiquitylation depends on strict spatiotemporal regulation, which is achieved by compartmentalization, sequential series of ubiquitylation events and crosstalk with other post-translational modifications.

Cells exist within a three-dimensional microenvironment in which they are exposed to mechanical and physical cues. Disrupting these cues compromises tensional homeostasis, which suggests that there is complex interplay between the extracellular microenvironment and cellular function. As alterations in the extracellular matrix can sustain perturbed tensional homeostasis, it serves as a mechanically based memory-storage device.

Centromeric chromatin differs from bulk chromatin in many aspects, including a distinct organization and the presence of different histone variants. Studies have focused on elucidating the molecular and physical architecture of centromeric chromatin, as well as the properties that make it invaluable during chromosome segregation in mitosis.

In 1971, Günter Blobel and David Sabatini formulated the signal hypothesis, which proposed that proteins contain signal sequences that target them for secretion. Over the past 40 years this concept has expanded, and topogenic signals are now known to target proteins to many parts of the cell.