Sigrid Nachtergaele, Daniel M Whalen ... Rajat Rohatgi
A cysteine-rich domain within the Smoothened receptor may represent a novel therapeutic target for cancers caused by abnormal functioning of the Hedgehog signaling pathway.
The simultaneous monitoring of transcription, translational control, protein production and proteolysis in the same system can improve our understanding of how cancer cells respond to chemotherapy.
Fluorescent derivatives of a bacteriophage protein that binds double-stranded ends can trap and label genome-destabilizing double-strand DNA breaks in bacterial and human cells, and illuminate the origins of spontaneous DNA breakage in both.
Jingtao Lilue, Urs Benedikt Müller ... Jonathan C Howard
Mechanisms that enable wild mice to survive infection with strains of the Toxoplasma gondii parasite virulent enough to kill laboratory mice offer an explanation for how these parasites have been able to persist in the mouse population.
Mice with a mutation that disrupts the release of growth hormone show greatly increased lifespan, which can be further increased by caloric restriction.
The structure of the recombination complex responsible for flagellar antigen switching in Salmonella enterica, and the mechanism that regulates the site-specific DNA inversion reaction, have been determined.
Vitor H Teixeira, Parthiban Nadarajan ... Sam M Janes
Cell replenishment within the airways is governed by the random division of a population of basal progenitor cells, in a process that is accelerated in smokers.
The Brahma chromatin remodelling complex interacts with the Hippo signalling pathway to regulate the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells in the Drosophila midgut.
Jessica L Metcalf, Laura Wegener Parfrey ... Rob Knight
High-throughput sequencing has been used to analyze the microbiome of mouse corpses over a period of 48 days, and to provide an accurate estimate of the time since death.
While intact mir-17-92 acts as a potent oncogene in a mouse model of Burkitt’s lymphoma, one of the six mir-17-92 components antagonizes its oncogenic cooperation with c-Myc by promoting c-Myc-induced apoptosis.
Evidence that C. elegans and mammals use homologous versions of the same protein (RIG-1) to activate antiviral defense mechanisms suggests that RIG-1 may have a conserved role in coupling virus recognition to virus destruction.
Franziska Bleichert, Maxim Balasov ... James M Berger
Electron microscopy uncovers the structure of the origin recognition complex (ORC) in metazoans, and reveals how mutations in the ORC6 subunit lead to Meier-Gorlin syndrome in humans.
High-resolution optical microscopy is used to reveal the organization of extracellular matrix proteins within the basement membrane of the blood filtration barrier in the kidney at the nanometer scale.
The crystal structures of the intracellular part of the plexin receptor in the active dimer form, and its complex with a key downstream signalling protein Rap, provide insights into how plexin initiates a signalling cascade involved in axon guidance.
Patrina A Pellett, Felix Dietrich ... Grégory Lavieu
Evidence that certain proteins can be transported between Golgi via structures that resemble COPI vesicles suggests that these vesicles could also be involved in the transport of proteins from the cis to the trans face of the Golgi.
Sean Michael Boyle, Shane McInally, Anandasankar Ray
A computational method that can screen thousands of chemicals and predict which odorants will interact with specific odorant receptors in flies may ultimately aid the development of more effective insect repellents.
During meiosis, budding yeast use a checkpoint involving the protein Mec1 to prevent the formation of double-strand breaks in DNA that has not completed replication.
