Articles in 2018

A plant complex comprising SUVH1, SUVH3, DNAJ1 and DNAJ2 counteracts DNA-methylation-mediated silencing of transposon-neighbouring genes.

Mitochondrial dynamics regulates stem cell expansion and differentiation.

The Hippo pathway effectors YAP and TAZ regulate normal and tumorigenic organ growth. Recent studies in vitro and in mouse models have shown that these two transcription co-activators can also promote tissue regeneration. This property could be exploited for regenerative medicine, as long as the therapeutic approaches can minimize the potential for cancer development.

STELLA protects the genome of mouse oocytes from de novo DNA methylation by the E3 ubiquitin ligase UHRF1 and the DNA methyltransferase DNMT1.

DNA N⁶-adenosine methylation is a transgenerational epigenetic modification that confers mitochondrial stress adaptation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

Lipid droplets are storage organelles that are important for the regulation of lipid and energy homeostasis, and that serve as buffers against lipotoxicity. Recent studies on the biology of lipid droplets have led to new discoveries about their biogenesis and the complexity of their interactions with other organelles at membrane contact sites.

David Barford discusses how the template model for MAD2 activation in the spindle assembly checkpoint represented a new concept for generating and propagating intracellular signals.

The RNA-binding protein TIS11B forms a membraneless organelle, the TIS granule, in an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) subdomain termed the TIS granule–ER (TIGER) domain, which facilitates 3ʹ UTR-mediated protein–protein interactions that regulate protein trafficking.

The first demonstration of a mechanism for active sorting of anterograde cargo in the Golgi via protein palmitoylation.

Our understanding of eukaryotic ribosome assembly has been boosted by recently published cryo-electron microscopy structures of yeast ribosome assembly intermediates. These studies highlight the roles of RNA compaction, checkpoints and proofreading mechanisms of pre-ribosomal particles in the nucleolus, nucleus and cytoplasm.

Non-histone-lysine acetylation affects protein functions by modulating protein stability, interactions, subcellular localization and enzymatic activity and through crosstalk with other post-translational modifications. Acetylation regulates many cellular processes, such as transcription, DNA repair, signal transduction, protein folding and autophagy.

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is crucial for embryogenesis, wound healing and cancer development, and confers greater resistance to cancer therapies. This Review discusses the mechanisms of EMT and its roles in normal and neoplastic tissues, the contribution of cell-intrinsic signals and the microenvironment to inducing EMT, and its effects on the immunobiology of carcinomas.

Excessive microtubule polyglutamylation has been linked to neurodegeneration.

Charles Darwin’s Pangenesis theory, which proposed an intercellular mechanism for the flow of hereditary information, is gaining new ground.

Epigenetic profiling of germline and zygotic genomes has revealed that a fraction of mammalian genomes do not undergo epigenetic reprogramming during early development, highlighting the importance of epigenetic inheritance in animals. Inheritance of histone modifications, tRNA fragments and microRNAs can affect gene regulation in the offspring; however, in mammals, epigenetic inheritance rarely operates beyond two generations.

Recent data indicate that various transcription factors and RNA polymerase II bind to mitotic chromatin and that thousands of genes remain transcriptionally active in mitosis, contradicting the view that mitotic cells are transcriptionally silenced. These mechanisms provide mitotic transcriptional memory, which allows re-establishment of cell-type-specific gene expression following division.

The activity of many cell type-specific enhancers is regulated by histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3), which acts in complex with various nuclear receptor co-repressors. HDAC3 is required for many aspects of mammalian development and physiology, including the metabolism of various organs, neuronal- and haematopoietic stem cell fate and function, lung and bone development and intestinal homeostasis.

Cyclic GMP–AMP synthase (cGAS) inhibits DNA damage repair in the nucleus and thereby promotes tumorigenesis.

Transcription elongation supported by the super elongation complex, and H3K9 methylation and gene repression by G9a mediate the oncogenic function of Myc.