Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The kinetochore is a large complex of proteins that physically links centromeric DNA to microtubules. Recent research has identified the individual kinetochore building blocks and studied how they interact, allowing the development of a model of the overall architecture of the kinetochore.
Podosomes and invadopodia are actin-based dynamic protrusions of the plasma membrane of metazoan cells that represent sites of attachment to — and degradation of — the extracellular matrix. Progress has been made in our understanding of the regulation and function of these structures, and their role in human disease.
The APC/C (anaphase-promoting complex, also known as the cyclosome) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that ensures temporal order of the cell cycle by degrading different cell cycle regulators at specific time points. Recent studies have provided insights into how the APC/C recognizes its substrates and how it is itself regulated.
The regulation of apoptosis is essential for cell homeostasis and the survival of multicellular organisms, and excessive or diminished apopotosis can contribute to various diseases. The post-translational modification of apoptotic proteins by ubiquitylation is a key regulatory mechanism of cell death signalling cascades. Targeting apoptotic regulatory proteins in the ubiquitin proteasome system might afford clinical benefits.
Differentiated cells can become pluripotent through reprogramming by nuclear transfer, cell fusion and induced pluripotent stem cell technology. The characteristics of reprogramming by nuclear transfer and cell fusion suggest that they occur in a deterministic, rather than a stochastic, manner.
