Volume 22 Issue 4, April 2021

Wu and Zamore discuss models of piRNA function and suggest experimental criteria to be followed in order to validate them.

Aberrant activation of the innate immunity enzyme cGAS during mitosis is suppressed by hyper-phosphorylation and by chromatin tethering.

Gadadhar et al. report that tubulin glycylation enables sustained motion of sperm by regulating the beating of sperm flagella.

Hoijman et al. show that in early vertebrate development, engulfment of apoptotic cells is mediated by epithelial cells covering the embryo, which use specialized protrusions to distribute apoptotic bodies and support their efficient clearance.

Cancer cells with supernumerary centrosomes have disrupted lysosomes, which enhances the secretion of exosomes that promote malignancy.

An Hendrix reminisces on the early work demonstrating the prevalence and heterogeneity of extracellular vesicles.

Tissue morphogenesis is instructed by the interplay of biochemical cues, mechanics and tissue geometry. Conceptually, these instructions can be deployed either deterministically, functioning as a pre-patterned programme for shape changes, or stochastically, whereby the shape emerges in a self-organized fashion. This Review discusses recent insights into how pre-patterned and stochastic tissue shaping are integrated during development.

Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death driven by iron-dependent phospholipid peroxidation. Since its formal identification in 2012, multiple studies have addressed molecular mechanisms, regulation and functions of ferroptosis, associating this cell death modality with various pathologies, but also proposing its roles in normal physiology and potential for therapeutic targeting.

Recently determined structures of the telomere maintenance protein complexes shelterin and CST shed new light on the regulation of telomere DNA replication and chromosome end-capping, and on how disease-causing mutations in their encoding genes may affect their functions.