Cell biology articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During mitosis, kinesin-5 motors are thought to crosslink microtubules in a muscle-like sliding filament mechanism. By combining electron microscopy with other structural tools, the authors reveal how four kinesin-5 polypeptides are organized into bipolar minifilaments.

    • Seyda Acar
    • , David B. Carlson
    •  & Jonathan M. Scholey

  • Article |

    Splicing factors, such as the protein SRSF3, regulate mRNA metabolism but are hard to study in vivobecause genetic kockouts are usually lethal. Here, Sen and colleagues create mice with a hepatocyte-specific knockout of Srsf3 and demonstrate its role in hepatocyte differentiation and liver function.

    • Supriya Sen
    • , Hassan Jumaa
    •  & Nicholas J. G. Webster

  • Article |

    The flow of calcium into the mitochondrial matrix is mediated by the mitochondrial calcium uniporter. Fieniet al. apply patch-clamp techniques to mitoplasts isolated from different mouse and Drosophilatissues and find that the mitochondrial calcium uniporter activity varies depending on the tissue studied.

    • Francesca Fieni
    • , Sung Bae Lee
    •  & Yuriy Kirichok

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Levels of extracellular calcium can increase at sites of infection and inflammation; however, the physiological significance of this has been unclear. This work shows that extracellular calcium acts as a danger signal, triggering the NLRP3 inflammasome via two G protein-coupled receptors.

    • Manuela Rossol
    • , Matthias Pierer
    •  & Ulf Wagner

  • Article |

    PAR-1 inDrosophilahas been identified as a key physiological tau kinase. Lee and colleagues perform genetic screens for regulators of PAR-1 and find that it is targeted for ubiquitination and degradation by the ubiquitin ligase complex SCF(Slimb), and that this pathway modulates synaptic morphology.

    • Seongsoo Lee
    • , Ji-Wu Wang
    •  & Bingwei Lu

  • Article |

    NFκB/p65 and PPARγ are both transcription factors that perform distinct but overlapping roles in cellular regulation. Hou et al. report that PPARγ acts as an E3 ubiquitin ligase and promotes Lys48-linked ubiquitination and degradation of p65, terminating NFκB-mediated inflammation and tumorigenesis.

    • Yongzhong Hou
    • , France Moreau
    •  & Kris Chadee

  • Article |

    Phylogenetic bat studies suggest that powered flight is evolutionarily conserved. Tokita et al.find that bat wing muscles are derived from multiple myogenic sources with different embryonic origins, and that spatiotemporal correlations exist between outgrowth of wing membranes and expansion of wing muscles.

    • Masayoshi Tokita
    • , Takaaki Abe
    •  & Kazuo Suzuki

  • Article |

    The mislocalization and downregulation of the proteins TDP-43 and ADAR2, respectively, are implicated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis pathology. Yamashita et al. find that downregulation of ADAR2 results in calcium-permeable AMPA receptor-mediated calpain activation and subsequent aberrant cleavage of TDP-43.

    • Takenari Yamashita
    • , Takuto Hideyama
    •  & Shin Kwak

  • Article |

    Osteoblasts and endothelial cells have important roles in bone regeneration. Kim and colleagues identify the protein DJ-1 as an angiogenic and osteogenic signalling molecule involved in the cross-talk between these cells and show that DJ-1 promotes bone regeneration and fracture healing in mice.

    • Jung-Min Kim
    • , Hong-In Shin
    •  & Pann-Ghill Suh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Proteins are integrated into cellular membranes either co-translationally through Sec/SRP or post-translationally by chaperones. These authors show that an integration-dedicated chaperone inE. coli, MPIase, is a glycolipid and facilitates protein insertion into the inner membrane of the bacterium.

    • Ken-ichi Nishiyama
    • , Masahide Maeda
    •  & Keiko Shimamoto

  • Article |

    RNA viruses are known to rapidly evolve new features through errors in replication and reshuffling of genomic segments. These authors report another strategy used by the measles virus to improve infectivity; the cooperation between wild-type and mutant fusion proteins in the same viral particle.

    • Yuta Shirogane
    • , Shumpei Watanabe
    •  & Yusuke Yanagi

  • Article |

    Dysfunctional or aggregated proteins in cells are degraded by autophagy. Wong et al.study aggregates of the protein synphilin-1 and show that ubiquitination alters their dynamic properties, which determines whether the aggregates are degraded via basal or inducible forms of autophagy.

    • Esther Wong
    • , Eloy Bejarano
    •  & Ana Maria Cuervo

  • Article |

    While human embryonic stem cells (ESC) hold great therapeutic promise, many aspects of their basic biology remain poorly understood. Conklin et al.show that too much or too little activation of RB family proteins is detrimental to human ESC populations and identify unique cell cycle regulatory networks in these cells.

    • Jamie F. Conklin
    • , Julie Baker
    •  & Julien Sage

  • Article |

    Cholesterol indirectly regulates intracellular signalling by modulating the physical properties of lipid membranes. Sheng et al.now show that many PDZ domains contain a functional cholesterol-binding motif, revealing that cholesterol can also control the localization and function of signalling proteins directly.

    • Ren Sheng
    • , Yong Chen
    •  & Wonhwa Cho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite the central importance of NADP+ in mitochondrial energy metabolism, no NAD kinase has been found in human mitochondria to synthesize NADP+. These authors show C5orf33, a protein specific to animals and protists, to be the missing NAD kinase and demonstrate its mitochondrial localization and activity.

    • Kazuto Ohashi
    • , Shigeyuki Kawai
    •  & Kousaku Murata

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of animal products as culture substrates for human embryonic stem cell and induced pluripotent stem cell culture raises numerous safety concerns in a therapeutic setting. Miyazaki et al.. show that minimal fragments of human laminins provide a more effective support for the culture of these cell types.

    • Takamichi Miyazaki
    • , Sugiko Futaki
    •  & Eihachiro Kawase

  • Article |

    PGC-1α regulates mitochondrial biogenesis and adaptive thermogenesis. Cheng and colleagues alter the expression of PGC-1α in primary neuronal cultures and in the adult mouse brain, and find that it regulates dendritic spine formation and maintenance by mediating the synaptogenic actions of BDNF and CREB.

    • Aiwu Cheng
    • , Ruiqian Wan
    •  & Mark P. Mattson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vascular endothelial-cadherin is a junctional protein implicated in the control of vascular permeability. Orsenigo et al.find that vascular endothelial-cadherin is phosphorylated in veins but not in arteries of mice, and that this sensitizes vessels to rapid changes in permeability in response to inflammatory mediators.

    • Fabrizio Orsenigo
    • , Costanza Giampietro
    •  & Elisabetta Dejana

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Autophagy is a cellular process that controls protein and organelle turnover. Jimenez-Sanchez and colleagues demonstrate in cultured mammalian cells and in fruit fly larvae that autophagy is regulated by Hedgehoc signalling, a pathway that is important for early embryonic development.

    • Maria Jimenez-Sanchez
    • , Fiona M. Menzies
    •  & David C. Rubinsztein

  • Article |

    Fluorescent proteins are widely used to image cellular structures. Here, Shemiakina and colleagues develop an enhanced version of a red fluorescent protein that is monomeric and less cytotoxic, thereby improving the quality of images that can be obtained in the red part of the visible spectrum.

    • I.I. Shemiakina
    • , G.V. Ermakova
    •  & D. Shcherbo

  • Article |

    The temporal opening and closing of cell–cell junctions at the blood–testis barrier allows the passage of immature germ cells during spermatogenesis. Su and colleagues identify a peptide fragment of the laminin-γ3 chain that disrupts the blood–testis barrier and reversibly impairs spermatogenesis in rats.

    • Linlin Su
    • , Dolores D. Mruk
    •  & C. Yan Cheng

  • Article |

    The ras family of oncogenes consists of H-ras, K-ras and N-ras, and usually only one of these genes is mutated in a given tumour type. In this study, K-ras is found to promote the activation of wild-type H-ras and N-ras in a manner dependent on the Ras guanine nucleotide exchange factor Son of sevenless.

    • Hao-Hsuan Jeng
    • , Laura J Taylor
    •  & Dafna Bar-Sagi

  • Article |

    The sulfation of protein tyrosine residues is a common post-translational modification in eukaryotes. Here, Han et al.show that the protein RaxST, produced by a plant bacterium, has tyrosine sulfotransferase activity, demonstrating for the first time tyrosine sulfation in prokaryotes.

    • Sang-Wook Han
    • , Sang-Won Lee
    •  & Pamela C. Ronald

  • Article |

    The mouse segmentation clock regulates the periodicity of somite formation. Okubo and colleagues investigate the mechanisms underlying the synchronization of the clock in embryonic chimaeras and find that the synchronization is regulated by the protein Lfng, which represses Notch signalling in neighbouring cells.

    • Yusuke Okubo
    • , Takeshi Sugawara
    •  & Yumiko Saga

  • Article |

    Interactions of cells with extracellular matrix are important in normal physiology and cancer metastasis. Here, an extracellular matrix molecule array is developed and used to show that conserved changes in adhesive properties are associated with metastasis, including binding to fibronectin in combination with galectin-3, galectin-8 or laminin.

    • Nathan E. Reticker-Flynn
    • , David F. Braga Malta
    •  & Sangeeta N. Bhatia

  • Article |

    Endothelial cells provide a vital barrier system to the passage of water and ions but not large plasma proteins. Using fluorescently labelled dextrans, the authors show that regions of high or low adherens junction density differentially restrict the passage of molecules up to 70 kDa in size.

    • Sadiqa K. Quadri
    • , Li Sun
    •  & Jahar Bhattacharya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current methods for detecting proliferation in live cells cannot distinguish between dividing cells and cells that are progressing through the cell cycle. Here, a method is described that detects anillin in the contractile ring and in the midbody of cells during M-phase, providing a more accurate detection of dividing cells.

    • Michael Hesse
    • , Alexandra Raulf
    •  & Bernd K. Fleischmann

  • Article |

    Vascular calcification is commonly associated with advanced stages of atherosclerosis. Woldtet al. show that the nuclear hormone receptor PPARγ in vascular smooth muscle cells protects mice from vascular calcification by inhibiting Wnt5a signalling triggered by activation of the cell-surface receptor LRP1.

    • Estelle Woldt
    • , Jérome Terrand
    •  & Philippe Boucher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Heart failure is often a consequence of pathological growth of cardiomyocytes or cardiac hypertrophy. Here Ucar and colleagues report that the microRNAs miR-132 and miR-212 promote cardiac hypertrophy and inhibit autophagy in cardiomyocytes by downregulating the transcription factor FoxO3.

    • Ahmet Ucar
    • , Shashi K. Gupta
    •  & Thomas Thum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Human embryonic stem cell cultures are morphologically heterogeneous. Here, differences in Wnt signalling are shown to contribute to this heterogeneity, cells containing high levels of Wnt form endodermal and cardiac cells, whereas cells with low Wnt form neuroectodermal cells, when differentiation is induced.

    • Timothy A. Blauwkamp
    • , Shelly Nigam
    •  & Roel Nusse

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cyclin B–Cdk1 is thought to be synonymous with the promoting factor that drives entry into M-phase of the cell cycle. Here, Greatwall kinase is shown to be required for the breakdown of the nuclear envelope and the assembly of the spindle on entry into M-phase, suggesting that it too is a part of the M-phase-promoting factor.

    • Masatoshi Hara
    • , Yusuke Abe
    •  & Takeo Kishimoto

  • Article |

    TGF-β signalling suppresses tumorigenesis in breast cancer cells but its effects on breast cancer initiating cells have not been reported. Using cells in culture, Brunaet al. show that TGF-β increases breast cancer initiating cell numbers in cells that have low levels of the tight junction protein claudin.

    • Alejandra Bruna
    • , Wendy Greenwood
    •  & Carlos Caldas

  • Article |

    Mechanosensitive channels are required to sense cell swelling in response to osmotic shock. Nakayamaet al.report that Msy1 and Msy2 are the fission yeast homologues of the bacterial mechanosensitive channel MscS, and are required for regulating intracellular calcium in response to cell swelling.

    • Yoshitaka Nakayama
    • , Kenjiro Yoshimura
    •  & Hidetoshi Iida

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The kinase PINK1 is mutated in Parkinson's disease and accumulates in defective mitochondria, where it recruits Parkin. Here, PINK1 is shown to be autophosphorylated and this is required for the localization of PINK1 to mitochondria with a reduced membrane potential, and for the recruitment of Parkin.

    • Kei Okatsu
    • , Toshihiko Oka
    •  & Noriyuki Matsuda

  • Article |

    The protein ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) detects DNA damage and can trigger cellular apoptosis, but how this process is regulated at the molecular level is unclear. Here, Chunget al. show that the transcription factor FOXO3 controls the formation of ATM-containing signalling complexes at sites of DNA damage that trigger apoptosis.

    • Young Min Chung
    • , See-Hyoung Park
    •  & Mickey C.-T. Hu

  • Article |

    Glycoprotein hormone receptors show negative cooperativity following a single molecule of agonist binding to each receptor dimer. Here, constitutively active receptors are shown to display less cooperative allosteric regulation, suggesting a direct relationship between conformational changes in the transmembrane domain and allosteric behaviour of the receptor dimers.

    • Maxime Zoenen
    • , Eneko Urizar
    •  & Sabine Costagliola

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fbw7 is a ubiquitin-ligase, which targets several oncoproteins for proteolysis, and is therefore important for the control and prevention of tumorigenesis. In this study, Arabi and colleagues carry out a proteomic screen of the targets of Fbw7, and identify Nuclear Factor of κ-B2 as a substrate.

    • Azadeh Arabi
    • , Karim Ullah
    •  & Olle Sangfelt

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Cell biology across other nature.com journals