Membrane trafficking articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Most excitatory synapses in the brain are found on dendritic spines, but the mechanisms underlying synapse formation are poorly understood. Niesmannet al. investigate the role of neurobeachin in synaptogenesis, and find that its deletion leads to fewer spinous synapses and altered postsynaptic currents.

    • Katharina Niesmann
    • , Dorothee Breuer
    •  & Markus Missler

  • Article |

    Parasites such as malaria elicit an immune response in their host, causing cytokine levels to increase. In this study, a parasite housekeeping gene, tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase, is shown to bind to host macrophages and, once inside the cells, enhance the levels of proinflammatory cytokines.

    • Tarun Kumar Bhatt
    • , Sameena Khan
    •  & Amit Sharma

  • Article |

    The Golgi membrane is fragmented during mitosis and is subsequently fused following cell division and this process is known to be controlled by ubiquitination. In this study, the ubiquitin ligase HACE1 is shown to be targeted to the Golgi membrane and is required for fusion after the completion of mitosis.

    • Danming Tang
    • , Yi Xiang
    •  & Yanzhuang Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cell-penetrating peptides can deliver molecular cargoes into living cells, and cross biological membranes by transduction—a non-endocytic mechanism. Here, the transduction efficiency of cyclic arginine-rich peptides is shown to be higher than that of more flexible linear peptides.

    • Gisela Lättig-Tünnemann
    • , Manuel Prinz
    •  & M. Cristina Cardoso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exosomes released from cells can transfer RNA to recipient cells. In this study, the authors demonstrate that microRNAs in exosomes from T cells can be transferred to antigen-presenting cells during immune synapsis, and that this can alter gene expression, suggesting a new form of cellular communication.

    • María Mittelbrunn
    • , Cristina Gutiérrez-Vázquez
    •  & Francisco Sánchez-Madrid

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor can result in its internalization and subsequent intracellular trafficking. In this study, the authors show that leucine-rich repeat kinase-1 can bind to the receptor and regulate its trafficking between different endosomal compartments.

    • Hiroshi Hanafusa
    • , Kouki Ishikawa
    •  & Kunihiro Matsumoto

  • Article |

    Little is known about the regulation of mitofusin proteins that are involved in the fusion of mitochondrial membranes. In this study, the authors report that a heterotrimeric G protein, Gβ-subunit 2, can interact with mitofusin 1, and is involved in the regulation of mitochondrial fusion.

    • Juan Zhang
    • , Weihua Liu
    •  & Quan Chen

  • Article |

    SNARE protein-mediated vesicle fusion is usually monitored by indirect lipid mixing. Diaoet al. have developed a FRET-based single-vesicle content mixing assay, which elucidates fusion pore formation, and shows that the yeast SNARE complex mediates pore expansion in the absence of accessory proteins.

    • Jiajie Diao
    • , Zengliu Su
    •  & Taekjip Ha

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Membrane trafficking across other nature.com journals