Volume 14 Issue 12, December 2013

Asymmetric ciliary membrane inheritance leads to the asymmetric re-establishment of the cilium and ciliary signalling in daughter cells.

Mice lacking the mitochondrial calcium uniporter have an impaired ability for strenuous muscular work.

Nuclear shape is regulated by dppa2-mediated control of microtubule assembly.

HSC ageing in mice depends on a switch from canonical to non-canonical WNT signalling.

Shows how talin and Gα₁₃determine the direction of integrin signalling.

The sixtieth anniversary of the 'stem cell renewal theory' by Yves Clermont and Charles Philippe Leblond.

The ERF115 transcriptional activator is a rate-limiting factor of quiescent centre cell division.

Autophagosome biogenesis starts at the isolation membrane (also called the phagophore). Our understanding of the molecular processes that initiate the isolation membrane, the membrane sources from which this membrane originates and how it is expanded to the autophagosome membrane by autophagy-related (ATG) proteins and the vesicular trafficking machinery, is increasing.

Lipid droplets are intracellular organelles that store oil-based reserves of metabolic energy and components of membrane lipids. Basic biophysical principles of emulsions are important for lipid droplet biology, their formation, growth and shrinkage. Such mechanisms enable cells to use emulsified oil when required. The surfactant composition at the lipid droplet surface is crucial for homeostasis and protein targeting to their surfaces.

Chloroplasts are the ancestral members of the plastid organelle family. Their identity, division and biogenesis require the import of nucleus-encoded proteins and tight coordination between the organellar genetic system and the nucleocytosolic system. The ubiquitin–proteasome system also links plastid homeostasis and biogenesis to organismal development.

The control of peroxisome biogenesis by different mechanisms, includingde novogeneration or growth and fisson of existing peroxisomes, may be coordinated to control peroxisome size and number. Dissecting this process should aid our understanding of how peroxisome dynamics are regulated, with implications for peroxisome-related diseases.

The concept of allosteric interactions between topographically distinct sites, and the subsequent Monod-Wyman-Changeux model proposed in 1965 for the conformational change mediating them, arose around 50 years ago. Many classic regulatory proteins follow this model, which has been expanded and challenged over the years.