The HITS-CLIP sequencing method is used to demonstrate that cryptic exons can detect messenger RNA that contains nonsense mutations, and then cause this RNA to decay, which shows that these exons are involved in maintaining the electrical balance of neurons and, possibly, preventing epilepsy.
Alexandre Martinière, Aurélie Bak ... Martin Drucker
Cauliflower mosaic virus reacts immediately when aphids feed on the host plant, and this boosts its chances of being taken up and transmitted by the insects to a new plant.
The enzyme that collaborates with ubiquitin ligases to promote the release of defective polypeptides from stalled ribosomes in a process named ribosome-associated degradations has been identified as the ATPase Cdc48.
Verena Pawlak, David S Greenberg ... Jason ND Kerr
Changing the order in which presynaptic and postsynaptic cells are repeatedly activated can change what a mammalian visual cortex neuron communicates to downstream neurons.
Simulations and experiments on systems containing two different populations of microorganisms show that interactions that benefit at least one of the populations can lead to communities with stable compositions, and that strong cooperation between two populations can lead to communities in which both populations are mixed together.
A combination of single-molecule imaging and an in vitro model of the cell cortex has allowed the interactions between actin filaments and filaments made of myosin II to be studied in detail.
Novel imaging experiments suggest that fruit flies modify their neural circuitry for walking at slow, medium and fast speeds, and that proprioception is not essential for coordinated walking.
The ability of epithelial cells to distinguish between domains on opposing cell surfaces within a tissue, a property known as planar cell polarity, relies on proteins and protein complexes directing the traffic of signaling proteins to specific locations on the cell surface membrane.
A combination of cellular, biochemical, genetic and genomic techniques have revealed a new molecular player in the production of fat cells in mice, which could improve our understanding of obesity.
